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sme channels october 10 issue

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PLUS

At `25,000, HP ProLiant MicroServer is too Hot for SMBs /18 www.smechannels.com

india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 01

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ISSUE 08

INDEPTH

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OCTOBER 2010

/22

Server Virtualization is way forward for SMEs

|

RS. 25/-

TREND SETTER

/38

Cloud computing heralds its entry

GUEST TALK

/42

Social Media an effective marketing engine for SMEs

YOU BOARDED HAVE

INDIA BUS?

/30

The mission and vision of the country to be the super power by 2050 is well on its way. 1

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Desktop Starting @ ` 8,990/-

range

4 Bay NAS upto 8 TB TFT Monitor

2 Bay NAS upto 4 TB

S

Single Bay NAS upto 2 TB

Netbook (ZBook)

LS Industries Ltd

External Hard Disk Drive

Servers

High range server

Entry level server

Mid range server

PERIPHERAL RANGE 1 GB DDR2 / 2GB DDR2 / 2GB DDR3

Pen Drive 4 GB / 8 GB / 16 GB

DISTRIBUTION

HD Media Player + Recorder

Wizard Mother Board

NON IT BRAND

For dealership enquiries contact: ANKUR JAIN 9313036300, UDAY TUTEJA 9313368368, Email: ankurjain@lsilglobal.com, udaytuteja@lsilglobal.com

Toll Free No: 180 01 02 03 04 |

enquiry@lsilglobal.com I

Website: www.lsilglobal.com

BRANCHES CONTACT DETAILS: AHMEDABAD: Saurabh Shah 9375831339 DELHI: Ritesh Agarwal 9313593317 / INDORE: Gyaneshwar 93023 32631 /

NAGPUR: Nilesh Umale 9325001722, Bhushan9372333015 / PUNE: Atul Rane 9371768471 / BANGALORE: Harish 9343769411 / HUBLI: Sunil Kulkarni 9341042582 / CHENNAI: Pattabi Raman 9382638776 / COCHIN: Jermer Paiva 9388484972 / COIMBATORE: Jayapalan 9360533638 / HYDERABAD: Srinivas Vudanda 9392333600 / MADURAI: Krishnan Muthukumar 9345215393 / BHUBANESHWAR: Rupesh Kr Mohanty 9337508710 / PATNA: Alok Ranjan Prabhat 9308281887 / RANCHI: Satish Kumar Sahu 9334492201 / CHANDIGHARH: Kamal Saini 8054030017 / DEHRADUN: Manoj 9358133473 / GURGAON: Mohan 9313564935 / FARIDABAD: Jitender Chaudhary 9350541070 / GHAZIABAD: Sanjeev Sharma 9997394097 / JAIPUR: Kuldeep 9314606548 / JAMMU: Bharat 9419189811 / VARANASI: Ajay Singh 9839580018 / LUCKNOW: Ashish Saxena 9336931001 / LUDHIANA: Robin Hora 9356238177 / PARWANOO: Maninder 9316011357 / GUWAHATI: Dibakar Sharma 9864080542 / BHOPAL: Gyaneshwar 9302332631 / GOA: Ajay P Phadte 93712 99938 / MUMBAI: Viral Ghandhi 93248 95880 / KOLKATA: Snehangshu Dey 9330019353 / RAIPUR: Bhupesh Karnewar 9300618976

HEAD OFFICE ADDRESS: Plot No. 521, Udyog Vihar Ph-3, Gurgaon, Haryana-122016

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PLUS

Strontium awarded its SMS Star Contest Winners

/16 Turn to Page 19

www.smechannels.com

india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 01

|

ISSUE 08

|

OCTOBER 2010

GUEST IN TOWN

|

RS. 25/-

/45

NComputing: Making Computing Affordable with Full Functionality

SME CHAT

/40

Avaya: ‘Never say never’ …but at this Point Of Time, We Won’t Go Into the Home & Soho Market

PARTNER CORNER

/44

Eurotech: “We focus on Partner Retention”

MY EXPERIENCE EDITORIAL

IS PRIORITY OF PEOPLE CHANGING? SANJAY MOHAPATRA editor@smechannels.com

Sunday, being the week-end and the day of Dussehra celebration, I prefered to visit the nearby shopping mall over going to any Pandal to see the burning of Ravana’s effigy. The idea was to spend some time in checking out new collections of garments. My decision was instinctive though but it had very good impact on my mind. In the centre of the mall, under the dome, there was a huge podium with two-three booths surrounding it. There was an anchor talking to people and pretty hostesses are manning the booths. There must be 200-300 people surrounding the podium along with five – six shutterbug sinteracting with the anchor. Going closer to it I discovered that it was multiple Taiwan branded IT products showcased in the booths - some of which already available in markets like Nehru Place, Lamington road, etc., and some of them are not. But I have seen those in COMPUTEX. It was actually Taiwan Excellence campaign. And brands including ZyXel, Genius, D-Link, MSI, Asus, etc. were present there. Colourful and attractive booths had already created a good mindshare among the shoppers. They were also given these products as prizes It was a very good spectacle to see the interest of the people. Today shopping complexes are one of the largest footfall areas for the customers and if this kind of show takes place for 8 hours –from 12 am to 8 pm, it can easily influence 2000-5000 elite-class people in a single day. These people are not only the genuine buyers but also great influencer. These people normally swear by their belongings. If they take these brands even for free they would not hesitate to say goodies about that product. So it is a good vision to take the brands to the masses. I could not spend much time there as I had to cover the entire length and breadth of the gigantic shopping complex checking new arrival of garments and some household goods. But, trust me; I could not actually go to any garment shop properly. Actually these shops were not seen visited by many people though the shoppers were many in number that day like in every festival. To my surprise maximum of gathering was in the gadgets, gizmos and computers shops. People were evaluating various models of notebooks, mobile phones and digital cameras. In another corner was the demonstration of Dell Streak. Even that semi circular podium was also filled with people. I could visualize the changing mindset and priority of people. The results of commonwealth games have taken the country to a new high and the momentum will be seen in IT as well.

Microsoft LifeCam HD-5000 MICROSOFT TAKES desktop communication to a new level with its newly launched technology called TrueColour. Packed in LifeCam HD-5000, TruColour offers better video chat experience to its customers. Video chat is becoming popular day by day because of the simple reason that people want to reduce cost, reduce travel time and want to do it from the place where they are comfortable with. On the other hand, personal communication is completely moving towards video chat because of its live like experience. In this situation, TrueColor Technology offers a great advantage. Specially, if it comes from Microsoft it is surely dependable and rugged like its other product lines.

SPECIFICATIONS It offers 720p HD widescreen video and Auto Focus. It has a flexible attachment base that bends to fit on most surfaces. FINAL WORDING Microsoft LifeCam HD-5000 offers a lifelike experience even in the worst lighting. The camera automatically adjusts the picture quality to provide a more colourful video. OVERALL RATING

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contents

OCT VOLUME 01 ISSUE 08

2010

ER COV RY STO

india’s first IT magazine for sme business

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra Executive Editor: Smruti Chaudhury Copy Editor: Neil D’Souza Design and Development: Ravi Kumar Visualizer: Manas Ranjan Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Senior Manager: M Raj Executive- Marketing: Rajat Kumar Circulation and Printing: Panchanan Bhoi SALES CONTACTS Delhi 6/101, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016 Phone: 91-11-46151993 / 9313891660 E-mail: raj@smechannels.com Bangalore Subrat S 136/9, Ground Floor, Eden Crest Apartment Grape Garden, Ejipura Vivek Nagar PS Bengalore-560047 Phone: 9886107294 Mumbai Hemal Shah B/14, Neel Ashish 92, J.P.road, Andheri (West) Mumbai - 400058 Phone: 9819597604 Chennai Thaga Pandian No-27, Rajan Street, Kodambakam Chennai - 24 Phone: 044-43066990 Kolkata S Subhendu BC-286, Laxmi Apartment, Kestopur Kolkata-700101

Have you Boarded India Bus?

Phone: 9674804389

/30

The excitement and euphoria of Commonwealth Games 2010, Delhi, is not hidden from anyone in the world. It is a clear indication of the resurgent India and a completely new India. The mission and vision of the country to be the super power by 2050 is well on its way.

EDITORIAL OFFICE Delhi: 6/102, Kaushalya Park, New Delhi110016, Phone: 91-11-41055458 info@smechannels.com Bangalore 136/ 9, Ground Floor, Eden Crest Apartment, Grape Garden, Ejipura Vivek Nagar PS Bengalore-560047

INDEPTH

Virtualization  /22 Server Virtualization is way forward for SMEs

TREND SETTER Ramco  /38

news@smechannels.com

Cloud computing heralds its entry

Printed, Published and Owned by Sanjib Mohapatra Place of Publication: 6/101-102, Kaushalya

SME CHAT Avaya  /40 ‘Never say never’ …but at this Point Of Time, We Won’t Go Into the Home & Soho Market

PARTNER CORNER Eurotech  /44 “We focus on Partner Retention”

8

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Canon  /43

Park, Hauz Khas

The tango Continues

New Delhi-110016

Phone: 91-11-46151993 / 41055458 Printed at Karan Printers, F-29/2, 1st floor,

more inside Editorial ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Snippets~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Guest Talk~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Guest in Town~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Products~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-2, New Delhi 110020, India.

06 10 42 45 46

All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without the prior written permission from the publisher. Subscription: Rs.250 (12 issues) All payments favouring: Accent Info Media Pvt. Ltd.

SME CHANNELS OCTOBER 2010

10/20/2010 10:49:48 AM


S

LS Industries Ltd

Simply Affordable 15 ` ,99 0

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8,9 ` 90 /-*

Intel Dual Core Intel Dual Core E5500 2.8 Ghz Intel G31 Chipset 1GB RAM 500 GB HDD eSys Keyboard eSys Optical Scroll mouse eSys mATX Cabinet with PSU eSys 43.2cms (17) Square TFT 3 Years CIM Warranty

Intel Dual Core Atom

Display Options

Intel Dual Core Atom 1.6Ghz Intel Original 945GCL 1GB RAM 320 GB HDD eSys Kbd/eSys Optical Scroll Mouse Speaker 2.0 eSys Nettop cabinet with PSU 1 Year Warranty

15 ` ,99 0

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Atom

eSys 39.5cms (15.6) W TFT Monito @ 4590/*- + Tax eSys 43.2 cms (17) W TFT Monitor @ 5990/*- + Tax

Atom N270 1.6 Ghz/945GC 2 GB RAM/320 GB HDD CR/WiFi/WEB CAM/25.6 cms (10.1) Wide In–Built Speaker with MIC Genuine MS Vista Home Basic Genuine MS Works/6-Cell Li-ion Battery

eSys 47 cms (18.5) W TFT Monitor @ 5690/*- + Tax

* Price is valid if bought with display option

For Enquiry

For dealership enquiries contact: Rachna Singh 9312639774, Uday Tuteja 9313368368, Email: rachna@lsilglobal.com, udaytuteja@lsilglobal.com

Toll Free No: 180 01 02 03 04 |

enquiry@lsilglobal.com I

Website: www.lsilglobal.com

BRANCHES CONTACT DETAILS: AHMEDABAD: Saurabh Shah 9375831339 DELHI: Ritesh Agarwal 9313593317 / INDORE: Gyaneshwar 93023

32631 / NAGPUR: Nilesh Umale 9325001722, Bhushan9372333015 / PUNE: Atul Rane 9371768471 / BANGALORE: Harish 9343769411 / HUBLI: Sunil Kulkarni 9341042582 / CHENNAI: Pattabi Raman 9382638776 / COCHIN: Jermer Paiva 9388484972 / COIMBATORE: Jayapalan 9360533638 / HYDERABAD: Srinivas Vudanda 9392333600 / MADURAI: Krishnan Muthukumar 9345215393 / BHUBANESHWAR: Rupesh Kr Mohanty9337508710 / PATNA: Alok Ranjan Prabhat 9308281887 / RANCHI: Satish Kumar Sahu 9334492201 / CHANDIGHARH: Kamal Saini 8054030017 / DEHRADUN: Manoj 9358133473 / GURGAON: Mohan 9313564935 / FARIDABAD: Jitender Chaudhary 9350541070 / GHAZIABAD: Sanjeev Sharma 9997394097 / JAIPUR: Kuldeep 9314606548 / JAMMU: Bharat 9419189811 / VARANASI: Ajay Singh 9839580018 / LUCKNOW: Ashish Saxena 9336931001 / LUDHIANA: Robin Hora 9356238177 / PARWANOO: Maninder 9316011357 / GUWAHATI: Dibakar Sharma 9864080542 / BHOPAL: Gyaneshwar 9302332631 / GOA: Ajay P Phadte 93712 99938 / MUMBAI: Viral Ghandhi 93248 95880 / KOLKATA: Snehangshu Dey 9330019353 / RAIPUR: Bhupesh Karnewar 9300618976

* Terms & Conditions Apply

HEAD OFFICE ADDRESS: Plot No. 521, Udyog Vihar Ph-3, Gurgaon, Haryana-122016

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SNIPPETS PRODUCT | CHANNEL | TELECOM | DATA COM

for more log on to smechannels.com

HP PSG and TAIT Buried their Differences HP India and TAIT have renewed their relationship to work congenially for the growth of the industry. The official communications

from the company says that TAIT appreciates the present channel distribution policy of HP which is meant to increase the profitability

of the channel partners, increase the transparency of doing business and make the distribution partners accountable for growth and

development of the retail channel partners in the industry. TAIT has pursued similar objectives all along and welcome this intent. HP has assured all TAIT representatives that in the next expansion opportunity in Distribution partners which is planned for October 2010, HP will first consider the suggestions of TAIT for appointment of {TWO } new distribution partners planned, and these will be appointed from what has traditionally been called IT Channel, provided that they meet all evaluation criteria of selection. TAIT and HP recognize the fact that products in IT, Telecom and Consumer Electronics are converging and that there will be enough and more opportunities of growth for all channel partners in future. Even for the 1st Tier distribution both HP and TAIT have agreed to mutually find distribution partners again preferably from the traditional IT Channel for the new product lines and new categories that HP will be introducing and getting into in the months to come. HP is also very supportive of activities planned by TAIT for the growth of the channel partners business in the coming festival season and beyond and is very keen to support the same.

Netgear WGR 614 Bags Best Value Award NETGEAR receives Best Value Award for Netgear WGR 614 in the Router category. Netgear WGR614-N150 Wireless Router with the New Wireless-N technology delivers exceptional range and speed allowing users to share high-speed Internet Connection with built-in 4-ports switch. This router is equipped with better wireless performance for older and newer notebooks and provides better wireless coverage than older Wireless-G routers. Extra performance boost is experienced when connected to Wireless-N devices. Users can surf, email, stream music, play on-line games, and make internet phone calls with ease. Moreover the Push ‘N’ Connect can securely connect devices at the push of a button. Atul Jain, Country Manager, Netgear Technologies India and SAARC said, “It gives us immense pleasure to receive this prestigious award. This product was designed to provide high quality output to our users after understanding their need and demand.

10 SME CHANNELS OCTOBER 2010

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When Network Performance is Paramount

Copper and Fiber Cabling Solutions Belkin structured cabling solutions utilize quality components and advanced manufacturing techniques to ensure consistent, top-quality network performance. All Belkin cables are guaranteed to meet or exceed industry standards and come with a lifetime warranty. As a world leader in copper and fiber cabling for more than 25 years, the world’s leading organizations look to Belkin for product expertise, quality manufacturing, and first class service. Providing a comprehensive product offering in every major cable category, Belkin can be counted on, time and again, to deliver.

Never worry with Belkin’s

Features: • Compliant to EIA/TIA 568 B.2-1 & ISO/IEC 11801 standards • UL-certified CAT5e and CAT6 LAN cables • Meets all alien crosstalk reduction specifications

QUALITY

SERVICE

INNOVATION

Belkin products are designed, tested, and proven to perform in environments where reliability is critical.

Belkin responds quickly to every support call with expert assistance, answers to your questions, and solutions to your problems.

Belkin anticipates your needs, developing innovative products designed for your industry when you need them.

belkin.co.in For any queries, contact: North: Delhi - Mr. Sunil Kumar 9818362356 , Mr. Satish Bhardwaj 9910300545 | NCR, Uttaranchal & Western UP - Mr. Sunil Kumar 9818362356 | Jaipur - Mr. Amit Sogani 9166617666 | Punjab - Mr. Inderpal Singh 9779176760 | Chandigarh - Mr. Sandeep Gujral 9888495028 | Eastern Uttar Pradesh - Mr. Ashutosh Srivastava 9161622220 | West: Mumbai - Mr. Mahesh Jakhotiya 9833070504 | Pune - Mrs. Monica Sahni 9158999411 | Ahmedabad - Sheth Dhaval A. 9712975765 | Nagpur - Mr. Deepak Chourasia 9764880617 | South: Bengaluru - Ms. Sunitha Rao 9886745995, Mr. Udaya Moolya 7829908734, Mr.S.M.Ayub 9742778666 | Chennai - Mr. PS Prabu 9884703204 | Cochin - Mr. Siril Illikal 9846999840 | Vijayawada Mr.Aravind Raju.Dasari 9885675673 | Hyderabad - Mr.Kalyan Chakravarthy 9052103556 | Madurai - Mr. B.M.Sivakumar 9789498231 | East: Kolkata - Mr. Subhadip Das 9830182227 | Guwahati - Mr.Loknath Khanal 9864504816

© 2010 Belkin International, Inc. All rights reserved. Features and specifications are subject to change without notice. All trade names are registered trademarks of respective manufacturers listed.

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Iris Computers Ltd. Manoj More 9867136129

Vikas Pathak 9999560562

10/20/2010 8:34:21 AM


SNIPPETS

D-LINK LAUNCHES ‘D-LINK PREMIER LEAGUE II D-Link commences another season of its highly appreciated & widely popular channel incentive program titled ‘D-Link Premier League’. Following the phenomenal success of DPL last year & on popular demand from partners, D-Link now presents DPL II. But this time things just get BIGGER & BETTER for partners. As DPL II has been re-loaded with loads of exciting opportunities for SI’s / value added resellers and so partners can now look forward to scaling their profits like never before. Rajesh Sahore, Sales Head – India & SAARC, D-Link said, “October is the beginning of major festive season and most buying decisions are made during this period. Thus by launching DPL II we expect to help partners across the country to earn better margins & maximize their profit.” D-Link Premier League’ (DPL) II is an exclusive nation-wide sale promotional program divided into multiple slabs namely Kings, Royals, Knight, Riders and Charges that will provide better business opportunities for Channel Partners/SIs, etc. This season with DPL II the rewards also get BIGGER & BETTER as partners stand a chance to win a trip to Uzbekistan or get exciting gifts like Mobile phone, Digital camera etc. Highlighting the unique feature of this mega promotional campaign Mr. Sahore added, “DPL II has been designed in such a manner that the probability of partners wining a trip to foreign locale like Uzbekistan is much higher as compared to last season. Thus with DPL II we plan to reach out to more & more partners from smaller cities also”. Further, D-Link Premier League’ (DPL) II is valid for a period of 3months starting from 1st Oct to 31st December 2010. Channel partners can log on to http://dpartner.dlink-intl.com or SMS ‘D-LINK DPL’ to 56767.

SOCOMEC UPS India Launches Festive Scheme for Channel Partners SOCOMEC UPS India has launched its “Festive Bonanza” scheme for its Channel Partners. This scheme is designed to engage and motivate the Channel Partners with various rewards and recognitions. SOCOMEC floated two schemes for Channel Partners and one for its authorized distributor Redington India. The scheme is targeted specially the Resellers and SI’s in India who can win a trip to Thailand or Malaysia or win something more glorious by achieving the buying target set by SOCOMEC till the end of 2010. The distributor scheme is mainly focused to encourage introducing to new partners in their network. SOCOMEC product category list for the scheme include ITYS, NeTYS RT range from 1kVA to 11kVA and Masterys range from 10kVA to 60kVA. The offer is available in all the major cities of India and the schemes are effective from 1st Oct to 31st Dec 2010 and is open to all Channel partners can avail this offer by booking the above mentioned product category from the ND.

MY POINT

APC’s Inner Circle As part of its ongoing channel engagement initiatives, APC launches ‘Inner Circle’ – A privileged club that will recognize and reward loyal channel partners. The Inner Circle Channel Partner club has certified partners from 14 cities who proactively promote brand APC in the Residential Business Network as well as the Small, Medium and Large Enterprise segment. To recognize and reward their outstanding efforts, Inner Circle privileges include lead sharing, opportunity registration, advanced sales and technical training, extensive marketing support, co-funded promotional activities and opportunities for regular open dialogues with APC’s business heads.

Astaro Offers scheme Astaro launches a unique offer - ‘Invincible Security, Unbeatable Value’ for its customers across India during the festive season. Valid from 1st October to 31st December 2010, the customers will get AMA (Astaro Mail Archiving) free on purchase of ASG (Astaro Security Gateway) Hardware. Astaro Security Gateway (ASG) Hardware Appliances are purpose-built, high performance network security devices that integrate Astaro’s industry leading security applications with a hardened Operating System on optimized Intelcompatible server systems that cater to every business size.

LSI Offers Scheme

“I believe Oracle’s strategy of combining software with hardware will enable Oracle to beat IBM in both enterprise servers and storage,” MARK HURD

PRESIDENT, ORACLE

LS Industries, which is a company of eSys by virtue of its acquisition, is offering an attractive scheme for its channel partners. Available from October 1st till 26th, the scheme offers fabulous prizes on purchasing Wizard branded TFTs, PCs HDDs and Servers. There are various slabs in each category of products and achieving the slab the business partners have to purchase a numebr of products in each categories. When PC and TFT categories have four and three slabs respectively, HDDs’ and servers’ category has four slabs under two programmes i.e. silver club and gold club. As per the scheme of PCs, the partners can achieve prizes including Numeric UPS of 600 VA , to 4 gms gold coin, respectively for 3 to 15 units. Similarly, in TFT scheme, the prizes are from Numeric UPS of 600 VA to 32” LCD TV. Finally for HDDs and servers, the prize are 30 gm and 100 gm silver for 11 to 21 units.

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SNIPPETS

Symantec unveils Norton 360 Version 5.0 Beta available Norton 360 beta incorporates the powerful security protection found in Norton Internet Security 2011, including the latest generation of the Norton reputation-based security technology. Norton products leverage this to check specific attributes of downloaded files to identify and stop completely new malicious programs faster than ever, no matter which browser, instant messenger or file sharing program you use. Since its launch last year, more than one trillion file reputation ratings have been served by this powerful technology. Norton is so effective that in a thirdparty test by Dennis Labs, it ranked first in real world threat detection and was the only vendor to achieve a remarkable 100 percent protection score, marking its second year in a row to secure this distinction.

CYBEROAM REDEFINES WIRELESS SECURITY Cyberoam takes security to the next level by adding UTM capability to the wireless access points. Now the millions of SMBs and SOHO customers would not have to worry about security at their PC level as Cyberoam shows path with CR15wi, CR25wi and CR35wi models. These models which come with an in-built wireless access point featuring 802.11 n/b/g standards, MIMO technology and support for up to eight virtual access points. Further, as a key business benefit, Cyberoam’s wireless security appliances reduce the overall cost in managing WLAN environments for SMBs up to 50 users which involve Wi-Fi routers and firewalls. The appliances have been designed as a single point solution to replace them. But, there are challenges also for Cyberoam. They will have to understand the pain points of the customers from the service accountability perspective and bring in good service capability. As the Access point will be connected with the broadband, it is most likely that there will be shifting of responsibility from the access point vendor to the broadband service provider or vice versa when network will be down for whatsoever reason. So Cyberoam has to be very careful in its strategy now.

Kobian iXA 480U at `1980

Priced at `1980/- and 1 year warranty, Kobian Mercury IXA 480U, the wooden base high quality subwoofer offers wide range performance for exceptionally clear sound from the lowest to the highest tones. The high quality stylishly designed wooden base has a 5.25” long throw driver that delivers powerful performance which is well enjoyed by music, games and movie enthusiasts. The speaker delivers an output power of 10W RMS Power which ensures super sound with low distortion. The uniqueness of the system lies in the fact that it supports USB drive or SD card which is a rare treat for music lovers. The speaker renders crisp audio quality in powerful bass, and the exterior is attributed with a sleek black and silver design. The high performance dual cone drivers deliver balanced audio playback catering to all your entertainment needs. The small satellite footprint enables easy placement. It can effortlessly comply with desktop and TV for optimal performance. The two sleek satellite speakers deliver compact sound systems with elegant design.

RSA appoints M.Tech as channel partner RSA appoints M.Tech as its channel partner. This partnership will offer RSA greater market reach through M.Tech’s existing network of partners and strengthen RSA’s ability to bring its security solutions to new market segments. Headquartered in Singapore, M.Tech has a robust network of 25 offices in 10 countries. The company offers best-of-breed solutions for security management of the Internet, systems

and applications infrastructure and provides on-site sales, marketing and technical support to reseller partners. Amitabh Jacob, Channel Manager, India & SAARC, RSA, says, “M.Tech’s focus on offering a broad spectrum of integrated and interoperable end-to-end security solutions matches well with RSA’s philosophy of embedding security at the core of an enterprise. We believe that .M.Tech will help

us further extend our success in the Indian commercial segment, a market which offers high growth potential to the security industry.” Bhavin, M.Tech Solutions (India) Pvt. Ltd. said, “RSA is one of the premier provider of intelligent security solutions, which makes us happy to partner with the company. We will be supporting this partnership with dedicated sales and presales expertise.”

Belkin offers Magic Pot to its Channel Partners On the occasion of festive season, Belkin India rolls out a special offer for its channel partners known as ‘Magic Pot’. As per the scheme, the channel partners can get Sodexo Gift Passes upto `42,000, which can be redeemed for rewards of their choice. Valid from 1st October to 31st December 2010, the scheme encompasses the purchase value of the products ranging between `25,000 and `10,00,000 and Sodexo gift pass value awarded range from Rs.500 till Rs.28,000.

Transcend packs power in 2.5” SSDs Transcend brings major upgrade into its 2.5’’ solid state drives (SSD). The new SSDs boast transfer speeds reaching 260MB/s and storage capacities up to 512GB, offering performance-minded enthusiasts a perfect combination of speed, highcapacity storage and long-term reliability. For maximum compatibility with the latest versions of Windows and Linux, the new 2.5’’ SATA SSDs fully support the TRIM command, which is essential to maintain optimum write speeds, and also reduces long-term SSD wear. Featuring storage capacity up to 512GB, Transcend’s upgraded SSDs are large enough to store operating systems, applications and more.

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SNIPPETS

Kaspersky organized its first Partner Meet in New Delhi

STRONTIUM AWARDED ITS SMS STAR CONTEST WINNERS Strontium held the first phase draw for the winners of Strontium SMS Star Contest today. The number of entries submitted in the first month of the contest has been overwhelming and the management hopes that the lucky draw contest will get even better response in the next few months. In the Draw held in the presence of esteemed journalist community, Strontium gave away 1 Hero Honda CBZ, 1 Sony LCD, 1 Apple MacBook, 3 Apple IPods Nano, 5 Apple IPods Shuffle, 10 Micromax phones, 10 Ray Ban Aviator Sunglasses, 20Fastrack watches and 30 Strontium laptop bag packs. Hero Honda CBZ went to Jitendra Saran from Makrana, Rajasthan,while Mac Book went to Venugopal from Palakkad, Kerala and Yogesh Barua from Indore, MP won the Sony LCD. All winners have been already informed by phone. On this occasion, Mr. Ajay Kogta, Country Manager, India Sub-continent, Strontium Technology, said, “We would like to congratulate the winners of the first phase of Strontium SMS Star Contest. The campaign is still on and customers who buy Strontium USB drives have chance to enter the second phase of the lucky draw. Due to overwhelming response, the contest has been extended to 14th January 2011. The second draw will be held on 21stJanuary 2011. And we have added more gifts like Sony Play Station & Digital Cameras to the pool of prizes to be won in the second phase.”

Kaspersky Lab India along with its national distributor for its consumer products, Sakri IT organized a channel meet at Hotel InterContiental, Eros, Nehru Place. The event was attended by 200 channel partners from Delhi and NCR region. Speaking on the occasion, Suk Ling Gun, MD, Kaspersky Lab, South Asia, appreciated the efforts of the channel partners and advised them to work harder to take to company to No.1 position by 2012. Jagannath Patnaik, Director – Consumer Channel Sales, Kaspersky Lab, India also encouraged the partners for their hard work and reiterated the commitment to the channel partners. K. Ravilakshman, the CEO of Sakri IT Solutions was also present at the event. With the evening deepened, the get-together turned out to be an enthralling night as a group of professional dancers entertained the guests. One of its nine city channel meets, the Delhi Chapter of the event was seen with much fervor by the channel partners.

EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT

WORLDWIDE PC SHIPMENTS GREW 7.6 PERCENT IN Q3 2010 WORLDWIDE PC SHIPMENTS SURPASSED 88.3 MILLION UNITS IN Q3 OF 2010, ACCORDING TO PRELIMINARY RESULTS BY GARTNER, INC. HP REMAINED IN THE TOP WORLDWIDE POSITION WORLDWIDE PC VENDOR UNIT SHIPMENT ESTIMATES FOR 3Q10 (THOUSANDS OF UNITS)

-0.5%

HP

Acer

Dell Q3 2009

Lenovo

ASUS

Q3 2010

17.0% 4,695

4,793

3,911

22.5%

4,014

9,140

6,871

10,816

9.2% 9,908

11,527

11,726

15,431

15,513

33.0% -1.7%

Toshiba Growth

Others

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs. Source: Gartner (October 2010)

31,896

30,106

5.9%

HP appointed Leo Apotheker, former SAP CEO, as its new CEO and president. HP’s Board of Directors also elected Ray Lane, Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as non-executive chairman and the newest member of the Board. HCL Infosystems appoints Harsh Chitale as CEO. Harsh takes over from Ajai Chowdhry who will continue to be the Chairman. Vikram Talwar, Exl Service Holdings assumes a new role of non-executive Chairman of the Board of the Company. Brocade appoints K.P. Unnikrishnan as Director of Marketing for Asia Pacific Quest Software appoints Shailender Kumar as MD.

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SNIPPETS

NETAPP AND VMWARE ENABLE MIDSIZE ENTERPRISES NetApp and VMware have come out with a new storage solution for midsize enterprises that helps them consolidate and virtualize their Windows environments to deliver enterprise-class IT as a service. Customers can use the NetApp FAS family and VMware vSphere to deliver application-aware data protection and disaster recovery technologies that were previously limited to a handful of midsize customers, helping them achieve enterprise-class availability for their Windows environments. Customers can also use NetApp Virtual Storage Console and VMware vCenter Server to deliver integrated management for enhanced visibility, helping them respond faster to unplanned downtime and boost productivity. The solution helps midsize enterprises eliminate application, data, and infrastructure sprawl and increase software utilization by cutting the physical servers needed by 80% and slashing the amount of storage needed in half. Server resources are pooled, and storage consumption is minimized with technologies such as thin provisioning, FlexClone, primary storage deduplication, and space-efficient Snapshot backups.

DIGEST IBM ENABLES CANARA BANK IBM enables Canara Bank to implement Core Banking solutions connecting 3,057 locations. Canara Bank had engaged IBM from August 2005 to implement the comprehensive Centralized Banking solution constituting of a suite of 14 satellite applications centered around the Core Banking solution. As part of the engagement, IBM was responsible for designing, building, deployment, and support of the centralized Core Banking solution as well as that for the satellite applications.

RASHI COVERED HALF OF INDIA. Rashi Peripherals successfully completed the first leg of the ongoing event “Introductions from Rashi” in northern and western parts of the country. The western leg kick started at Rajkot followed by Indore, Raipur and ended

AT `25,000, HP PROLIANT MICROSERVER IS TOO HOT FOR SMBs

at Nagpur. The northern phase started off at

At `25,000, HP’s newly launched server for the SMEs, ProLiant MicroServer is surely a delight for the SMEs. Enabling the users to access, share and secure critical business information, this MicroServer is designed for companies with less than 10 employees and comes with a compact design and lower power consumption capability. MicroServer is designed to increase productivity and efficiency. “Traditionally, small businesses have relied on interconnected PCs to share files and resources. This may not help them keep pace in today’s competitive environment,” said Rajesh Dhar, Director, Industry Standard Servers, HP Enterprise Business, HP India. The server bundles a number of server-specific features into a microtower with dimensions of 10.5 by 10.2 by 8.3 inches. The server is about half the size of entry-level servers and small enough to fit on or under a desk. The MicroServer, powered by AMD’s Athlon Neo II N36L processor, will offer faster access to shared files, applications and flexible backup options, latest processors and chipsets. It also offers up to 8GB of DDR3 (double data rate 3) memory and Integrated 4 port SATA RAID. Supporting upto 15 users, the server comes with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation pack.

LOGITECH K200 KEYBOARD

Jaipur covering Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Chandigarh before ending at Ludhiana.

Priced at `595, the Logitech Keyboard K200 helps to access applications including play/pause, volume, the Internet, e-mail and more in just one touch. The keyboard has a thin profile that adds a sleek look to your desk while keeping your hands in a more comfortable, neutral position. The Logitech keyboard K200 can withstand 5 million keystrokes and its unique design lets the liquid drain out of the keyboard making it spill resistant.

ZYXEL GETS ACCOLADE ZyXEL has been recognized again as one of the twenty “Top Taiwan Global Brands 2010” with a brand value of US$159 million. The ranking and brand value have been validated by Interbrand, a worldwide well-known branding consultancy, by its well-established brand valuation methodology. Organized by TAITRA along with Ministry of

Cyberstar unveils BPE Switch 800VA

Economic Affairs of Taiwan government.

PROVET DEPLOYS SAGE POCKET Cyberstar launches BPE Switch 800VA, a fully digital UPS solution for use across both industrial and critical equipments in the Home, Enterprise, IT & ITES segments with enhanced data reliability and energy saving features. Compact, intelligent and stable, Switch 800VA’s microprocessor control guarantees high reliability and built-in start function enables the UPS to start without AC power. Featuring a green power function for energy saving, the UPS also ensures that the energy consumption is greatly reduced.

Switch 800VA has a preloaded feature that facilitates auto restart during AC recovery and operates within an input voltage range of 140-300V. Equipped with Boost and Buck AVR to stabilize input voltage, it also provides protection against power overload. Raj Rathi, MD, Cyberstar Infocom. said, “Switch 800VA is designed to meet the customer’s specific power requirements by carefully matching power supply/load combination for reliable systems operation.”

Provet Pharma has successfully deployed Sage Pocket to automate their Payroll and Income Tax functions. Payroll processing being an error prone activity, the finance and the administration team had challenges in computation of salaries including variable pay, errors relating to the full and final settlement or if an employee joined in mid-term. But with Sage Pocket, the team is able to accurately compute various components of the payroll function thus improving the overall operational efficiency.

18 SME CHANNELS OCTOBER 2010

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Strontium Technology India Pvt. Ltd

805,Madhuban Building,Building No-55,Nehru Place, New Delhi-110019 Phone No-+91 11 40568675 Sales Enquiry-indiasales@strontium.biz Technical Support-techsupport@strontium.biz Service Locations: http://www.strontium.biz/company/Smartlink.htm

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SNIPPETS

Cisco Expands Borderless Networks Portfolio Cisco unveils new products and services across all the functional elements of its Borderless Network Architecture — the switching, routing, security, and wireless portfolios. Notable additions include the highest-performing and high-density Catalyst switch, Adaptive Security Appliance firewall and compact ASR 1000 router in their classes; new entry-level 802.11n wireless access points for smaller businesses; and new and enhanced smart services offerings. Additionally, a new network service was announced to accelerate application performance physically and virtually (Application Velocity Network Service). The new products and professional and technical services Cisco announced today extend the Borderless Networks portfolio to address the growing need for high-performance, reliable and secure application delivery from a smaller number of consolidated data centers to a growing number of wired and wireless endpoints, while optimizing overall resource utilization and footprint.

HP Innovations in Supplies Offer Great Savings in Printing

ASUS ADDS FEMI SERIES GRAPHICS CARDS ENGTS450 DIRECTCU SERIES ASUS adds Fermi series of high-performance DirectX 11 graphics cards — the ENGTS450 DIRECTCU Series to its product portfolio. Powered by the NVIDIA GeForce GTS450 graphics processor, the ASUS-designed PCI Express 2.0 card is a gamers’ dream come true. ENGTS450 DirectCU performs 20% cooler and 35% quieter with DirectCU thermal technology and overclocks full throttle to 50% faster than reference via Voltage Tweak. The use of top quality components ensures that the ENGTS450 DirectCU Series stays stable during overclocking and durable for long-term use.

HP unveils key technology innovations in its broad supplies portfolio for printers that deliver greater energy savings, enhanced print quality and significant cost savings with the assurance of HP’s reliability. Third-party studies commissioned by HP confirmed that Original HP LaserJet print cartridges with energy efficient toner enable energy savings of up to 35% on every page. New HP ColorSphere Toner for the new HP Color LaserJet 4525 printer delivers 40% higher gloss and 158% wider color gamut. “Today, HP has unveiled its new supplies innovations to offer breakthrough performance, exceptional print quality and reduced environmental footprint. This will offer an unrivaled opportunity to our valuable customers to grow faster”, said Nitin Hiranandani, Director - Managed Enterprise Solutions, IPG, HP India.

Axis Launches a 3 Mega pixel Dome Camera

Abacus Unveils a new range of flash drives – THE IQ PRO

Strengthening its family of P33 series dome cameras, Axis Communications launches AXIS P3346 Network Cameras. It is easy to install and capable of remote zoom and focus and offers P-Iris control, HDTV 1080p and 3 megapixel resolution at 20fps. AXIS P33 Network Cameras, designed for efficient installation in both indoor and harsh outdoor environments, constitute the best choice for a wide range of demanding video applications. These fixed dome network cameras support multi-view streaming, allowing up to eight view areas cropped from the full view to be streamed simultaneously with high performance. By streaming the selected areas of interest only instead of the full view, the utilization of network bandwidth and storage is optimized. Each view can be digitally zoomed in, panned and tilted. Further, it offers great savings on installation and deployment cost.

Abacus Peripherals has launched a new range of flash drives- THE IQ PRO. Coming from a house that believes in offering quality products, the flash drive has been uniquely designed keeping in mind customer ease and satisfaction. The unique feature of the drive is that the USB connector is in sync with the cap. When the cap is rotated, the USB connector comes out and can be easily connected with the choice of your gadget. This makes THE IQ PRO flash drive is very reliable and safe from external damages. It not only looks good, but also carries with them the ABACUS brand of reliability and the assurance of a superior performance. The flash drive is available in a range of capacities right from 2 GB up to 64 GB and also in a wide variety of colours and backed by three-year warranty.

20 SME CHANNELS OCTOBER 2010

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IN DEPTH

VIRTUALIZATION

SERVER VIRTUALIZATION IS

THE WAY

FORW ARD FOR SMEs Gartner predicts by 2014 50% of Midsize Businesses (globally) will have virtualized 95% of their server infrastructure. Clearly the SME understands the merit of virtualization and therefore the growth of server market with virtualization engine is bound to happen. BY NEIL D’SOUZA & SMRUTI CHAUDHURY info@smechannels.com

22 SME CHANNELS OCTOBER 2010

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10/19/2010 9:15:11 PM


IN DEPTH

VIRTUALIZATION

T

he x86 server market is going to grow at 13% CAGR. Based on current buying trends and the continued advancement of technology, approximately 1.7 million small businesses will purchase their first server in the next five years, according to AMI Partners. Right server for the SMEs is quite a difficult code to crack because these entities have all the rights and requirement to have the best of breed technology to be competitive but they do not have investment power. Countering the growing cost of Real estate and power, server consolidates through blade servers and virtualization is happening, but what SMEs are doing? Are they going the same way or they will buy managed services or cloud services? For those SMEs who have already invested in the servers finding it difficult accommodating the growth with the existing infrastructure and they are evaluating various ways and means to make it happen but for those who want to invest on server technology finding it extremely tough to take a call on the same. Ajay Mittal, VP- General Business, Systems and Technology Group, IBM India/SA, says, “As organizations plan for future infrastructure requirements they are increasingly looking at consolidation and virtualization as one of the cornerstone technologies. We recommend that customers first use consolidation of their IT environments and gradually transitioning towards virtualization. This initial step brings down operating costs, conserves energy, and increases efficiency in getting the maximum from virtualization efforts.” It means Virtualization is best suited for companies that are looking more at Total Cost of Ownership rather than Total Cost of Acquisition. Satyen Vyas, Director, Advanced Systems Group, SMB, Dell India, echoes the same, “Virtualization is one of the key mainstream technologies being adopted by medium and large enterprises as they begin to look at optimal IT infrastructure to drive their business growth for the next economic cycle. As companies worked towards doing more with less, virtualization played an important role for increased utilization of resources, reduced space, power and cooling, reducing the TCO and increasing the ROI of servers, improving IT agility and reducing provisioning time.” To help SMEs understand if virtualization is right for them, Dell also provides a virtualization readiness assessment, where the company evaluates an existing IT environment and quantifies the ROI for implementing virtualization. It tells users what applications are ready for virtualization and which are not.

Today, if you look at the entire server market in India, it is pegged to be at 100,000 units a year and SME market is almost 25% of that. From the value perspective, it is expected to reach $551 million in 2010, registering a growth rate of 6 percent from 2009. As a major vendor, IBM delivers a complete line-up of new, innovative, “workload optimized” systems designed for massive scale to meet the demands of a smarter planet. Ajay maintains, “Our new line up of systems this year further asserts our leadership in business IT infrastructure: IBM is shifting the conversation from capacity, to capabilities; from general purpose to workload optimized; demonstrating that to win you need two things: (1) optimized integration at every level of the systems stack (chips, hardware, middleware) for the sea change in performance

run over 15,000 applications based on AIX, IBM i and Linux operating systems. PowerVM software is also optionally available on the four new Express models, allowing clients to consolidate multiple workloads on one or more servers. He says, “In addition our new eX5 systems and blades are perfect options for Mid-market clients. IBM BladeCenter HX5 is a scalable, high-performance blade server with unprecedented compute and memory performance, and flexibility ideal for compute and memory-intensive enterprise workloads.” As far as Dell is concerned they have recently launched the PowerEdge blade, rack-mount and tower servers updated with Intel’s new Xeon 5600 “Westmere-EP” series of processors. With these systems, customers can realize better overall system performance increases of up to 69 percent

“DELL HAS BEEN ABLE TO IMPROVE THE COST OF ITS PRODUCTS TO THE CUSTOMER THROUGH VARIOUS PROCESS INNOVATIONS MAKING IT AFFORDABLE FOR THE SME CUSTOMERS.” SATYEN VYAS, DIRECTOR, ADVANCED SYSTEMS GROUP, SMB, DELL INDIA clients need and (2) the industry expertise to optimize infrastructures for specific industry workloads. Deep integration for better performance is something we’ve done already that others are just now talking about; and the latter is something IBM has, they don’t.” From a mid-market standpoint, the recently launched new POWER7 systems are designed to manage the most demanding workloads and emerging applications. The four Express servers announced last week include – IBM Power 710, 720, 730 and 740 Express – offer mid-market clients the outstanding performance, energy efficiency and other benefits of POWER7 technology in compact rack-mount or tower packages. These high-density, cost efficient servers minimize complexity and provide the memory capacity, internal storage options, I/O expandability and RAS features needed for demanding workloads in today’s high-growth midsize business. These easy-toorder IBM Express models allow clients to choose the configuration that satisfies their requirements and receive half the processor core activations at no additional charge. The new Express servers

and energy efficiency improvements of up to 47 percent compared to Dell PowerEdge servers with Xeon 5500 processor technology. Dell had also rolled out new high-performance, high-density PowerEdge solutions. The energy efficient servers in Tower and Rack form factors for simple IT needs and the Blade servers for more complex and consolidated environments are promoted. Satyen maintains, “Technologies such as virtualization and storage consolidation offer clear benefits and will continue to drive the market. Dell solutions are geared to help businesses maximize their most important resources – people, time and money.” In terms of its differentiation from the competition, Dell is driving intelligence into its server platforms with the inclusion of Lifecycle Controller, the industry’s only embedded systems management, which provides IT administrators with the means to deploy and remediate servers quickly. Independent tests show that with Dell embedded management that the Dell PowerEdge R710 delivered up to 58 percent faster pre-OS

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IN DEPTH

VIRTUALIZATION

“HP PROLIANT MICROSERVER DELIVERS AFFORDABILITY, ENERGY AND SPACE-SAVING FEATURES. WITH MICROSOFT OPERATING SYSTEM AT ITS HEART, THE SERVER CONNECTS UP TO 15 USERS.” RAJESH DHAR, DIRECTOR, INDUSTRY STANDARD SERVERS, HP ENTERPRISE BUSINESS

deployment than competition. The latest release of the Dell Management Console includes a new power monitoring feature that provides greater awareness of server power consumption which can lead to lower energy use and cost savings. Dell Remote Support services with Proactive Systems Management enables customers to make actionable, proactive decisions about their IT environment. Automated Diagnostic Capabilities allow for faster resolution of hardware issues. This Software-as-a-Service offering comes at no additional cost to current Dell support customers. Dell Remote infrastructure Monitoring allows IT departments to monitor critical remote systems for hardware and software faults, performance degradation, missing patches and security vulnerabilities, and remotely remediate problems. Besides, Dell offers solutions that are standard and easy to deploy. The components and technologies used are widely accepted and easy to manage reducing the overall TCO over the lifecycle of the product. He adds, “Dell has been able to improve the cost of its products to the customer through various process innovations making it affordable for the SME customers.” The company ships Customized, Ready-toRun Systems directly from Dell Factory to the customer. Dell Custom Factory Integration services are designed to lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and eliminate installation hassles by delivering factory-customized systems that are ready to run in a given business environment, right out of the box. One can get Dell PowerEdge servers pre-configured at Dell factory with the hardware and software on which a given business relies on — even non-Dell standard hardware and proprietary software. Dell’s Asset Management Services can help

keep track of system locations, software licensing and policy compliance. The new kid on the block as far as server is concerned is Acer. They have very recently added server range. S Rajendran, CMO, Acer India Pvt. Ltd., says, “While the transition is slow, we see SMEs evaluating / experimenting on innovative modular server designs. For example, the Gemini range of servers from Acer is positioned between a rack and a blade offering. This will help ease

“WE RECOMMEND THAT CUSTOMERS FIRST USE CONSOLIDATION OF THEIR IT ENVIRONMENTS AND GRADUALLY TRANSITION TOWARDS VIRTUALIZATION.” AJAY MITTAL, VP- GENERAL BUSINESS, SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY GROUP, IBM INDIA/SA

their investments and meet their need. While a blade server can offer consolidation of upto 20 servers in a 7U enclosure, the modular servers can offer upto 4 servers in a 2U chassis.” Acer has unveiled a decent range of products for the SMEs in three categories including Tower (AT110 F1, AT310 F1, AT350 F1), Racks (AR160 F1, AR360 F1, AR380 F1) and Gemini (AW2000h populated with AW170h F1). Rajendran adds, “Our servers are significantly improved over the previous generations. Unlike many of the competition, all the advanced feature sets and improved energy efficient designs are offered as a standard package and not at incremental costs. Advanced out of band manageability features and necessary tools are available as default.” Surprising the market, HP has changed the strategy to tap the burgeoning SMB market. They have launched an affordable but full functionally server for the Micro and SMB market called HP Proliant MicroServer at Rs 25000 with one year warranty. By design, it is aptly positions to meet the needs of micro and small business segment in India. Rajesh Dhar, director, Industry Standard Servers, HP Enterprise Business, says, “HP ProLiant MicroServer delivers affordability, energy and space-saving features. With Microsoft operating system at its heart, the server connects up to 15 users.” He adds, “We see huge potential for servers and storage, which has not been addressed due to issues of addressability and affordability.” It seems HP has cracked the SME code of server selection with a very attractive price point. Rajesh adds, “Our price point will break the affordability barriers for the small business, as the product costs less than the cost of a PC. Leveraging over 20 years in server leadership and innovation, HP is introducing a no-compromise, compact server designed to fit into office environments with a versatile appearance and quiet operations.” HP Proliant allows faster access to shared files, applications and increased system performance with expandable, pluggable drives, flexible backup options, the latest processors and chipsets. It comes with security and control over access to confidential business information. The server also allows improved sharing of equipment, including fax machines, printers and applications and is energy efficient. It accommodates business growth with a modular 10-inch design that allows it to be positioned on the floor or desk. Having the capabilities, does not assuage the SMEs’ pang. There issue will also finance to acquire the technology. So vendors should look at

26 SME CHANNELS OCTOBER 2010

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Advts.indd 5

www.kaspersky.com/in

10/20/2010 8:33:17 AM


IN DEPTH

VIRTUALIZATION

this aspect before launching the products. Addressing this pain point, IBM has internally started a motion through its sister concern IBM Global Finance (IGF). The company arranges flexible payment terms for its clients and partners. Financing enables partners to sell more by making solutions more affordable and overcoming the clients’ cost and budget objections. In addition, the company also made a bold move with IBM’s Dynamic Infrastructure (DI) Initiative. This offers a point of view on how organizations of all sizes can create streamlined, selfmanaging infrastructures. Clients want their IT systems to be easier to manage, less expensive to operate, and more capable of adapting to emerging workloads. As a part of partner enablement on Dynamic Infrastructure we have identified 5 partners who we are working with on skilling and getting certified. Dell also has a finance team that helps ascertaining the feasible credit limits for the customers. For extended requirements, the company brings in finance companies to help fund the transaction at attractive interest rates. For sizing and designing a right technical solution, the company has specialist technical teams that work closely to understand the business needs of a given SME to extend an effective and

sustaining solution. In their go to market strategy, Partners play a key role. Acer addresses end customer needs through ‘Acer Select’ partners and midmarket SIs. As per Rajendran they understand the dynamics of this market well and are equipped to deal out attractive financing options. The advantage of the company is that they have had significant success with their desktop and notebook products and the company expects to replicate this for the servers too. Similarly, IBM has a strong engagement with the channel partners and SIs. Dell engages partners through its Partner Direct programmes in India. India has about 7.6 million small and medium businesses- PartnerDirect program and channel strategy ensures reach to SMBs in 200 cities across India. In addition, Dell has launched a dedicated online portal to help solution providers to partner with Dell and avail of partner benefits such as deal registration. Available in 19 languages worldwide, it is available in five languages in APJ including English. In the portal, there is a tab called Find a Partner, which allows end-users to locate Certified Partners – it’s an easy to use graphic search engine open publicly to Partners and End-users. Only certified partners are listed in the tool’s database.

Campaign Builder is for Certified Partners only and is a tool that allows partners to build their own customized co-branded collateral. Online Publisher, again only for certified partners only, allows Partners to display Dell products on their own website to help create a robust selling and marketing tool for their team and their customers. IBM with the help of the partners guide the clients in developing a detailed roadmap to move from where they are today to where they want to be in the future. They’re able to evaluate initiatives and projects in the context of the bigger picture—which includes critical components like Virtualization; Energy efficiency; Information infrastructure.

Finally… If one looks at market data, the rise in revenue growth is at a higher level vis-à-vis the rise in the number of units sold. This essentially means that even the SMEs are investing in more powerful servers, with virtualization capabilities, enhanced memory, etc. The mind set of packing in more servers to run different workloads is diminishing. So, clearly technology is dominating over the volume of the products against the assumption of SMEs does not require virtualization or consolidation technology.

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COVER STORY

INDIA VISION 2050

YOU

HAVE

BOARDED INDIA BUS? The excitement and euphoria of Commonwealth Games 2010, Delhi, is not hidden from anyone in the world. It is a clear indication of the resurgent India and a completely new India. The mission and vision of the country to be the super power by 2050 is well on its way. BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA sanjay@smechannels.com

T

he Goldman Sachs’ Economic Research Report on Global Economics had predicted 3 years back that India will emerge as the second largest economy, after China and ahead of the US by 2050. Two years back, John Hawksworth, HeadMacroeconomics for PWC had said that the global centre for economic gravity is already shifting to China, India along with other large emerging economies.” He had added “China

could overtake the US around 2025 to become the world’s largest economy and will continue to grow around 130 percent of the size of the US by 2050. India could grow to almost 90 percent of the size of the US by 2050.” He had also said that India may displace China gradually, if it can create the right political and economic preconditions for manufacturing investment. These pre-requisite conditions are already in place. Today at the binging of the Q3 2010, we are expecting our economy will grow

by 9.2 per cent this year and remain the same till 2020 and average 6% till 2050. As per Indian broking major, Edelweiss, Indian economy is expected to grow 4 times from the current size of US$1 trillion in the next ten years upto 2020. This would lead to a GDP of over US$ 4 trillion and per capita income rise from the current US$ 1,017 to US$ 3,213. Similarly, Goldman Sachs in 2003 had issued a statement saying Indian economy will be of US$27.5 trillion in 2050.

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INDIA VISION 2050

COVER STORY

INDIAN ECONOMY TO TOUCH US$27.5 TRILLION IN 2050

SME CHANNELS 31 OCTOBER 2010

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COVER STORY

INDIA VISION 2050

“‘BE GLOBAL, THINK LOCAL’ WILL BE THE EVOLVING MANTRA FOR MNCs EVEN AS OUR OWN LOCAL VENDORS MUST THINK GLOBALLY AND INTEGRATE WITH THE WORLD MAINSTREAM OPPORTUNITIES.” ASHWINI AGGARWAL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MAIT

They also predict that sectors like financial services, private domestic consumption and infrastructure will grow by four times during next 10 years. On the other hand, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, the former president of India has dreamt India to be the super power by 2020. A Committee constituted by Planning Commission on Vision 2020 for India in June 2000 under the chairmanship of Dr. S.P. Gupta, Member, Planning Commission says, SMEs are going to play a major role in taking the juggernaut to the next phase. They will be the largest employment generator in the country. Within the SMEs sectors like commercial agriculture, agro-industry and agri-business; forestation for pulp, fuel and power; retail and wholesale trade; tourism, housing and construction; IT and IT-enabled services; transport and communications; education, health and financial services will grow at a higher percentage, which will create a lot of employment. In this scenario, India will evolve as an information society and knowledge economy built on the backbone of ICT. So imagine if the economy will be so huge what will be the size of enterprises and what will be the size of the technology vendors in the ICT industry. The market will absorb multiple brands including the existing ones but they require mission and vision of 2020 and 2050. Many of the verticals including SME market is going to play a major role in gobbling the IT products and solutions in huge numbers. But, they should understand that India as a market is completely different from other markets in the world. So to cope with the growth of the country, do the vendors have vision? Do they understand the Indian market? Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice-President, Canon India, says, “India is highly growing emerging economy with sustainable growth rate in excess of 9%, this has created huge amount of attraction

for consumption. Secondly, the demographics of India are more tilted towards use which is creating higher demand for style as well as technology products. Thirdly, it is highly dispersed market and Tier II & Tier III towns are growing rapidly therefore penetration plays an integral part in smaller towns as a strategy now. Fourthly, word

“CANON’S LONG TERM GOAL SEEKS TO DEVELOP LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE CUSTOMERS TO KEEP THEM INFORMED ABOUT THEIR DECISIONS IN INVESTING IN THE RIGHT PRODUCT” ALOK BHARADWAJ, SENIOR VICEPRESIDENT, CANON INDIA

RECOMMENDATION l  Set a long term Vision for the market l  Understand Indian culture l  Strive hard to use various platforms to enable Channel partners l  Help them enhance their skills on creating an organization with processes l  Listening to its customers. l  Ensuring that the consumers get access to the products

of mouth plays a major role; whole value system of family knit culture is like people consult people before any purchase, that’s how this market is different from other markets.” Ravi Bharadwaj, General Manager, SMB, Dell India, says, “India is among the fastest growing markets for Dell. It is still an underpenetrated market and offers immense potential for future growth as compared to some of the relatively more saturated markets, especially with the coming of broadband.” This market does not fit one size to all. It means there are many India’s inside a single India thus have many markets different from one another. They do have typical buying behaviour. So again understanding of market is a paramount importance. Mohit Anand, Managing Director, India Sub continent, Belkin, says, “In a diverse and complex country like India, it’s difficult to impart generic conclusions that could be used by those wanting to do business here. Behavior, etiquette and approach are all modified depending on whom you are addressing and the context in which they are being addressed.” “Most multinationals that have built strong brands in the country have been guided by a simple mantra: ‘Think differently about your India strategy.’ Doing well in India depends on a willingness to think differently about all aspects of the business. Because the Indian market and consumer differ significantly from the rest of the world, the tried and tested approach of simply tweaking brand strategy at the regional and country levels is doomed to fail,” he added. Ashwini Aggarwal, Executive Director, MAIT, says, “Indian IT industry is entering its golden decade now. With 9.4 mln PCs as its opening annual demand, this decade will see a growth of at least 1.5 mln PCs annually on an extrapolated basis. However, extrapolation is going to be fallacious and will do injustice to the true opportunity

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COVER STORY

INDIA VISION 2050

“WITH ABOUT 23000 DELL TEAM MEMBERS ACROSS DIFFERENT BUSINESSES, INDIA IS THE ONLY COUNTRY OUTSIDE OF THE U.S. TO HAVE THE ENTIRE ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE REPLICATED IN THIS REGION” RAVI BHARADWAJ, GENERAL MANAGER, SMB, DELL INDIA of India. If we can do 10 mln handsets a month, we should actually see a dramatic explosion of the PC market in the next 5 years.” He adds, “The sheer demand opportunity will scale and deliver the biggest fruits to those vendors – MNC, local or otherwise, who chose to participate in this vision. The participation is much more than that of an affordable price point – it will involve creating supply chains and manufacturing eco systems that feed this latent demand as it explodes into a reality. ‘Be global, think local’ will be the evolving mantra for MNCs even as our own local vendors must think globally and integrate with the world mainstream opportunities.” As per Vakul Bhatnagar, COO, LS Industries, unlike developed markets, India is still in transit phase, where a lot of middle income group is becoming tech savvy. But being middle income group, assurance of rightful investment plays a prime role and for the personnel interaction is very important. There are brands which are quite successful in Indian market but some brands are not. What might be the reason? Sunil Kripalani, Vice President Global Sales & Marketing, eScan, says, “To ensure a brand’s success in the Indian market, it is most important to develop effective and innovative branding and product strategies. It is very important to adopt new perspectives, need to understand the market and end user requirements and a dedicated support / service capability.” Mohit opines, “Key aspects required for a successful business in India include: finding good partners who have knowledge of the local market and procedural issues; good planning; aggressive due diligence and follow up; and patience and commitment.” As per Rajan Sharma, GM, Sales, Gigabyte, the success in India lies in understanding Indian culture and channel partners, who represent your company in the local market and become a

face for your company. They are responsible and authorised to drive the local business. ‘Do not think that India customers want only price.’ Similarly, Vineet Sood, Head, Channels and Alliances, Symantec India, says, “Creating awareness through education especially amongst the SMB segment, Catering to the unique needs of the market due to the diversity and the uniqueness of the needs and having a strong distributor model with experts instead of salesman especially in the software products portfolio.” Ajay Kogta, Country Manager, India Subcontinent, Strontium Technology, says, “In order

“SMB SEGMENT IS ONE OF THE FASTEST GROWING SEGMENTS AND WE SEE TREMENDOUS INVESTMENT GOING INTO THIS MARKET.” VINEET SOOD, HEAD- CHANNELS AND ALLIANCES, SYMANTEC INDIA

to make a brand successful in India the company should adhere to fundamentals and work in the right direction. What we say and do should reflect with their offerings. If I buy a branded product from the market with a trust of good quality and in reality product is inferior, I will lose trust from that brand and in long run such brands cannot be successful.” Commitment to the market is the most important aspect of the industry. Ravi of Dell India, says, “Dell is proud to be present in the Indian market with a track record of significant positive growth quarter-on-quarter achieved in spite of the economic downturn. With about 23000 Dell team members across different businesses, India is the only country outside of the U.S. to have the entire organization structure replicated in this region Manufacturing hub, Tech Support and Customer Care, GFS, IT, Product Group, Sales & Marketing and Global Analytics. This provides huge cross functional lateral movement options for Dell team members. All of these combined with proximity to one of the fastest growing local consumer market have had a positive impact and reflects our commitment to the Indian market.” Alex Li of Lenovo India, says, “For Indian market, we have a clear roadmap, in the enterprise segment, we offer robust, high performance, futuristic PCs. The PC market in the enterprise segment is certainly growing tremendously as the organisations which earlier delayed plans to refresh their old computers are now being seen replacing them with newer ones.” He added, “We are banking on our ‘Get closer to customers’ strategy which is targeting specific customer needs through a winning product portfolio and our new FUN proposition for the young consumer markets to significantly increase our market share in the next 2-3 years. We have plans to penetrate deeper into tier 2 and tier 3 cities and expand our market share in India. We are targeting double digit market share in the next few quarters.” Alok of Canon India, says, “Canon’s long term commitment lies in aiming to capitalize on company’s high growth strategy in the economy to enhance brand awareness and win over more informed customers. Canon’s long term goal seeks to develop long-term relationships with the customers to keep them informed about their decisions in investing in the right product.” Sunil says, “We are committed to provide our customers comprehensive security solution in one package unlike others that provide different products for various internet borne threats. Our solutions are easily scalable from one user to multiuser to large networks without changing the product. We are dedicated Security solution pro-

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INDIA VISION 2050

“WE ARE BANKING ON OUR ‘GET CLOSER TO CUSTOMERS’ STRATEGY WHICH IS TARGETING SPECIFIC CUSTOMER NEEDS THROUGH A WINNING PRODUCT PORTFOLIO AND OUR NEW FUN PROPOSITION FOR THE YOUNG CONSUMER” ALEX LI, VP, HSB (HOME AND SMB), LENOVO INDIA

viders and our endeavour is to constantly develop new technologies that are highly beneficial to our end users in current times as well as cater to the next generation security threats.” Rajan says, “Our objective is to be part of the existing DIY segment and take customer satis-

“WE WILL CONTINUE TO PROVIDE LATEST TECHNOLOGY AT VERY AFFORDABLE, FRILL FREE PRICES. WE HAVE ALWAYS ACTUALLY DELIVERED PRICE POINTS THAT MOST OF THE COMPANY ONLY TALK ABOUT.” VAKUL BHATNAGAR, COO, LS INDUSTRIES

faction to next level. Be the leader in innovation and ensure long-term profitability of partners / distributors. Keep providing Price /Performance products to customers in India and be first among equals when it comes to brand re-call.” Vakul of LS Industries, says, “Our long term commitment to the market is that we will continue to provide latest technology at very affordable, frill free prices. We have always actually delivered price points that most of the company only talk about.” Albert Tung – Managing Director, ASUS India, says, “We are excited by the growth prospects of the Indian market and we will continue to provide top quality products in all segments to our consumers. Besides ASUS will continue to remain the frontrunner in launching innovative products and services that are specially designed for Indian consumers.” For Lenovo India is an important engine for growth and innovation. As there is a huge potential in the Tier-2-3-4 cities, Lenovo’s go-to-market strategy has also been streamlined to extend its reach to these areas and leverage its retail network

COVER STORY

more effectively in major cities and empower its business partners. Alex adds, “India has almost 30% of the total population falling in the youth segment and the growing trend that they are attracted to competitively-priced, trendily designed products and innovative marketing programs. This makes it an attractive target market for our consumer PC offerings. Lenovo will continue to build exceptionally engineered PCs. We have developed a robust and effective channel network as a result of implementing our ‘channel strategy’; this is helping us reach our consumers faster and better.” “Consumer & SMB segments will be the primary growth engines going forward. Our innovative and comprehensive product portfolio available across varied price bands will help us in meeting this demand,” he added. It is about commitment to the market and also committing to the entire chain of the go to market. For example these vendors or for that matter the entire vendor community depends upon the channel market to drive their market – be it for the large enterprises or for SMEs or for the vertical market. Channel constitutes an important angle to the success story of each company. Vineet of Symantec India says, “India’s SMBs are gradually recovering from the stagnation experienced during the economic downturn and are moving ahead, hiring new employees, opening new sites and gradually increasing spending on IT. The India SMBs though small in size is big in influence and post the 2nd stage of IT adoption have started to use the internet to extend market reach and build fruitful partnerships. The segment is one of the fastest growing segments and we see tremendous investment going into the SMB market, both through our own investment with our people, but also through new enablement programmes and activities for our distribution and reseller partners.”

“THE SUCCESS IN INDIA LIES IN UNDERSTANDING INDIAN CULTURE AND CHANNEL PARTNERS, WHO REPRESENT YOUR COMPANY IN THE LOCAL MARKET AND BECOME A FACE FOR YOUR COMPANY.” RAJAN SHARMA, GM, SALES, GIGABYTE

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COVER STORY

INDIA VISION 2050

Subhasish Gupta, Country Manager - India & SAARC, Allied Telesis, “We ensure healthy bottom lines for partners, build brand awareness through constant media programs and build a pull in the SMB space for partners to fulfil. We also have created RMA support centre and local technically qualified post sales support centre for addressing any post sales issues and customize regular hands-on training sessions for the partner community.” Their global leadership or management has been very supportive in treating India as an important market. This has resulted in seeing huge amount of growth with very high customer satisfaction in India in the past three years. Investing and building a very robust and scalable RMA Support centre in India is one example that has helped its business immensely. This clearly shows the kind of focus and commitment that Allied Telesis has in India. He added, Allied Telesis has always believed in working in specific areas of strengths and our investments, too, have been in these areas to ensure the right kind of brand value creation. While there is lot more to do, we believe that we have achieved certain level of respect in the past 3-4 years as a result of focused approach that we have taken in the market place. We want to further strengthen the same.” Similarly for Asus, its Country Product Managers based in India assists the global management in localizing the company policies for India and in many situations also take the initiatives to launch products and sustain services that will help consumers in India. For example anti-surge Motherboards were proposed specifically by Indian Marketing and Sales Component team which, on further review and consideration was developed in the R&D centres of ASUS. The company resolves to continue investing its resources and efforts in increasing its channel base and its partner base in all cities of India. Albert says, “Also, we will maintain focus on educating our partners about the benefits of ASUS products and thereby help them assist end customers in a better way. We do this through our channel seminars and technical training sessions, apart from the usual communication platform of sending mailers and sms.” As far as Gigabyte is concerned it is a 100% subsidiary in India. The company is independent in terms of operational authority & front-end jobs, but follow head quarter’s policy on worldwide process and systems which enables them to serve the customers better. Symantec’s vision for the current year is to offer predictable and profitable growth to all its channel partners. Symantec’s partner strategy focuses

“OUR COUNTRY PRODUCT MANAGERS BASED IN INDIA ASSISTS THE GLOBAL MANAGEMENT IN LOCALIZING THE COMPANY POLICIES FOR INDIA AND IN MANY SITUATIONS ALSO TAKE THE INITIATIVES TO LAUNCH PRODUCTS AND SUSTAIN SERVICES THAT WILL HELP CONSUMERS IN INDIA.” ALBERT TUNG, MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR ASUS INDIA on empowering partners in India and further, enabling them to become experts –either category wise or technology wise. Some of the training offered focuses on SMB specialization, endpoint management, data loss prevention, etc. Their expectation from the partners is to make

“IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ADOPT NEW PERSPECTIVES, NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE MARKET AND END USER REQUIREMENTS.” SUNIL KRIPALANI, VICE PRESIDENT GLOBAL SALES & MARKETING, ESCAN

the most of the various programs and opportunities that Symantec brings out for them at regular intervals. The Symantec enhanced Partner Program partners differentiate their business, maximize sales opportunities and accelerate profitability. This along with other focused programs like the Rebate programme; Opportunity Registration and Real Deal help them move up the value chain and ensures business continuity. Similarly, eScan’s commitment to the channels is to provide them products with technically advanced features. The company’s goal is to encompass a World-Class Information Security solution uniquely suited to help facilitate their engagement with eScan and assist them in securing their business opportunities. On the return the company expects focused approach and dedication towards its information security products and solutions from the partners. The company believes the partners also need to take proactive partnership for market penetration. Canon which vouches for the channel partners strives hard to use various platforms to enable Channel partners with an understanding of Canon’s practices across various functions of finance, HR, logistics, service etc. Alok adds, “We work with our partners to help them enhance their skills on creating an organization with processes and investment which concludes with a 3 year mid-term projection by each one of the partners on their Canon business.” Canon is committed to listening to its customers and partners and works closely with the channel through its teams to make sure the smooth implementation of our various channel schemes. Various initiatives undertaken by Canon are focused on ensuring that the con-

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INDIA VISION 2050

“WE HAVE HAD SOME BAD EXPERIENCE WITH SOME COMPANIES BASED IN ASIA PAC REGION WHOSE ONLY INTENTION WAS TO DUMP MATERIAL IN INDIA WITH NO LONG TERM PLANS TO GROW THE INDIAN BUSINESS.” RAJ RATHI, MD, CYBERSTAR

sumers get access to the products while making sure that our channel partners and resellers remain profitable. Belkin takes its Channel Partner relationships seriously and are committed to working with them to ensure they achieve success. By being 100% focused on the channel, our Channel Partners in turn act on our behalf, engaging customers and winning their business. Mohit adds, “We believe one of the most important elements of channel business is to provide a good level of profitability for your business as a reward for your commitment to Belkin. Hence we always keep in mind to reward our partners through various schemes and offers.” In return the company wants them to strongly promote the brand and enhance the overall Channel Partners are the backbone of any business. They do not allow over stocking because that leads to panic sales and ensures good margins for their good health. Gigabyte commits its partners an innovative and quality product basket, good supply chain, access to the service, healthy margin and a healthy channel structure. Strontium’s success lies in its commitment of its channel partners to the market. Ajay says, “We give special credit to our channel partners who have shown confidence and trust in our offering like product quality and after sales support and we have given special attention not to over commit in the market and deliver whatever we have committed.” He adds, “Unlike other market, in India channel partners plays an important role in success of any brand, this you can see some leading brand selling directly in these countries have opted channel route.” The company follows a transparent policy with the channel partners as they do not encourage competition within brand and expects the same

from their partners. From the partners’ point of view, Cyberstar is an emerging brand. It has created its reputation being a value added sales force or partner for the vendors. Leveraging its well-qualified team, technical capabilities, logistic services and customer relationships, it distributes the products in the most cost effective manner with pre & post sales support. The company carries a wide portfolio of

COVER STORY

brands including Creative, Alvarion, Belkin, Hitachi, HP Procurve, Lexmark, Lite-On, Panduit, BPE, Dell, Wipro, Donjin, Fujitsu, etc. Regarding the vision of the vendors, Raj Rathi, MD, Cyberstar says, “Our experiences with certain mainline brands have been very good. These brands have a long term vision for their business in India. However, we have also had some bad experience with some companies based in Asia PAC region whose only intention was to dump material in India with no long term plans to grow the Indian business.” He adds, “The basic difference between the brands is the long term vision to grow the Indian business, including their investment into the Indian market.” Rajesh Goenka, VP (Sales & Marketing) – Rashi Peripherals, maintains, “Different brands have different strategies of business. In IT primarily Taiwan, China, Japan & US are very active. American brands are very “brand cautious” and invest lots of money in marketing to build a brand reputation, whereas Taiwanese company focus on product quality and steady business. Japanese companies are almost consistent and robust with their strong focus on product and technology only. Fortunately in Rashi portfolio, we have a mix of all which help us to balance our offerings to our partners.” He adds, “All brands have long term commitment. As India is one of the fastest growing markets in the world, no brand can afford to ignore India.”

Finally…

“IN ORDER TO MAKE A BRAND SUCCESSFUL IN INDIA THE COMPANY SHOULD ADHERE TO FUNDAMENTALS AND WORK IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION” AJAY KOGTA, COUNTRY MANAGER, INDIA SUB-CONTINENT, STRONTIUM TECHNOLOGY

Without commitment to the market or without a vision for the market is completely goal less strike. I think the global vendors of world repute do their work with proper planning. Their engagement with channel and their hold on the user mind is pretty good. They try to fulfil the market demand but the market is so huge and demanding that there remains huge vacant space especially in the networking, component, portable storage and peripherals space, which the channel partners and the importers fulfil by bringing in lesser-known Taiwan, Chinese and Israel brands. But unfortunately many of these brands compare India market with that of Europe or US and expect high return. They do not try to invest in India in terms of marketing and support. So after a brief stint of operation in India, they pull out from the market exasperating the partners and the customers as they leave a decent range of products for support in its life time. This is not good for either the market or the brand. This is where they should develop vision for India and understand the growth path of the country.

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TREND SETTER

RAMCO

CLOUD

COMPUTING HERALDS ITS ENTRY BusinessWorld SME White Book 2010- 2011 says SaaS-based ERP market in India is going to touch about 7 million USD (2.2 % of the overall 310 million USD ERP market in India). BY NEIL D’SOUZA info@smechannels.com

A

lthough Gartner has placed private cloud computing at the Peak of Inflated Expectations in its 2010 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle report but technology vendors are not agreeing with them at least not Ramco the incumbent enterprise business solutions provider want to make it happen. Ramco has publicly heralded its thumping presence in the cloud computing with its second coming to the market. The whole endeavour of the company started from two years back when they had first launched the Ramco OnDemand ERP but it had not taken off due to the week market condition or some other issues. But as they entered 2010, the company had bagged a good number of customers. The company has brought back the offering in a new avatar having done some cardinal changes and called it Ramco OnDemand ERP (RODE) 2.0. This product comes with a lot of functionalities, features, and modules. Today they have 200 customers for their onDemand solution and for them it is an upgrade from the existing module which will be seamlessly available to all of them at no additional cost. Built on the powerful Ramco VirtualWorks platform, RODE 2.0 offers customers a rich user interface and a unique set of extension / customization capabilities. RODE 2.0 can successfully handle thousands’ of business transactions and complex functionalities such as MRP, across different indus-

tries simultaneously on a single instance of software. P R Venketrama Raja, Vice Chairman, Managing Director & CEO, Ramco Systems, “Ramco OnDemand ERP (RODE) 2.0 provides a large magnitude of cost savings to customers, by reducing the total cost of owning an ERP, for SMEs as well as large enterprises. Unlike conventional cloud applications that are based on “one size fits all” approach, RODE 2.0 enables customers to extend the ERP and customize reports on the cloud, to meet their unique requirements. RODE 2.0 developed using Ramco VirtualWorks offers complex and comprehensive ERP functionalities, with desk-top like rich user interface and high security on the cloud. The product is field proven with 200+ customers from varied industry verticals already using this product. Cloud as a platform is revolutionizing the way software applications are used by organizations for running their businesses, and Ramco will continue to invest in pioneering innovative adoption of such technologies which would bring significant business benefits to our customers.” As per him, RODE 2.0 is very simple to deploy and run and is completely modular, enabling customers to choose the functions they need, and pay only for what is used, on a subscription basis. It enables customers to go live in as early as 7 days, as against the months taken by traditional ERP, even as they enjoy the full business benefits of a comprehensive ERP solution.

RODE 2.0 has comprehensive ERP functionalities covering Process & Discrete Production, Cost Planning & Control, Human Capital Management, Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management, Financial Management, Maintenance Management, Service Management, Asset Management, and MIS Reports. Ramco’s Extension Development Kit (EDK) allows customer organizations to build their own unique set of extended functionalities (screens or modules) and integrate with the core ERP on the cloud. Customers can also create Portlets (web based portals) that contain dashboards and other analytical / graphical reports, to suit every individual organization’s needs. The Analytics tool can be used to conduct a simple yet comprehensive analysis of data and processes on a real-time basis, and thereby ease decision-making. This capability enables the user to access and transact using their mobile, for faster business response and quick decision-making. Firewall and other security mechanisms like SSL certificates are enabled in RODE’s multilayer architecture. RODE 2.0 has functionalities that will support the requirements of new industry verticals such as Trading, Auto & Auto component Manufacturers, Electronics & Engineering, Manufacturing Industries, Services, Leather, Power Generation, Food processing and Dairy.

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RAMCO

TREND SETTER

P R VENKETRAMA RAJA, VICE CHAIRMAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO, RAMCO SYSTEMS

SUKUMAR R, GENERAL MANAGER—SALES, RAMCO ONDEMAND ERP, RAMCO SYSTEMS

ANANTHASAYANAM N C, GENERAL MANAGER CORPORATE STRATEGIC ALLIANCES, RAMCO SYSTEMS

“WE ARE SEEING A TREMENDOUS INCREASE IN THE CUSTOMER INTEREST FOR CLOUDBASED ERP IN THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT. ”

“WITH RODE 2.0, THE VALUE ADDITIONS CAN BE EVEN BETTER FOR THE PARTNERS THAN BEFORE.”

“AS FAR AS ONDEMAND ERP IS CONCERNED, OUR MANDATE IS THAT EVERY ORDER THAT IS ROLLED OUT WILL BE THROUGH THE CHANNEL PARTNERS.”

Even though it is on demand solution and the delivery model is through Cloud, partners have a very strong role to play. Sukumar R, General Manager—Sales, Ramco OnDemand ERP, “As far as onDemand ERP is concerned, our mandate is that every order that is rolled out will be through the channel partners. We have been building capability of the partners around products in terms of knowing its USPs. We encourage our partner to be consultant for the customers.” Ananthasayanam N C, General Manager Corporate Strategic Alliances at Ramco Systems, says, “With RODE 2.0, the value additions can be even better for the partners than before. With EDK they can address the customers’ requirement and architect solution accordingly.” With a target of 280 customers by the end of this financial year, their eye is on 500 numbers by 2011. They have already proved customer base that are testimony to the cusses of the model. And their strategy is now cluster based. The company has already earned quite a good name for itself as a brand in enterprise business by an extensive marketing campaign as well. Sukumar adds, “We are looking forward to grow at 10-20% every quarter but the reality might be more than this.” Today the company has a very solid 50 partners, who are being trained and done a lot of holding. As per Sukumar, Ramco goes along with the partners till the first three order closes and till two

implementations happen. This means the vendor is with the partners till they feel comfortable dealing with the customers. It is to be known that the margin on the solution is around 25-30% and with the greed of the margin more partners will definitely jump to the bandwagon but Ramco is pretty straight in its strategy. They want to give the best to their existing partners and need commitment from the partners. They do not want to add any number if do not see any long term prospect in the partner. Ananthasayanam maintains, “To add the channel partner is secondary, first our objective is to ensure that the existing partners are productive through various empowerment programmes. So that the bandwidth is fully utilised after which we will only add strategic partners. We are eying at a phenomenal growth to our onDemand ERP, but it is not necessarily to add more partners because it is not easy to manage partners. So if one partner gives one lead may not become our partner. He has to have long term commitment and vision.” He added, “To empower them we offer tech strength. We have already done 10 city programme across the country. This is one way of empowering the partners. The other way is, we have on the field training by handling first few enquiries along with the channel partners so that they learn how to approach the customers. The third method is through partner portal. It is exclusive for the partners to transfer knowledge in

7

BIG ADVANTAGES OF RAMCO ONDEMAND ERP

1. Pay per use per month!

2. No wasteful IT infrastructure! 3. Reduced Operational Management Requirements! 4. Up & running in weeks! 5. Instant scaling up or down, without fear! 6. Access from anywhere, anytime! 7. Security as per highest norms!

terms of our products’ features and marketing collateral. This partner portal has also a lot of pricing and marketing information.”

Finally… When people were thinking that cloud computing is hype only, Ramco is changing the perception by bringing in products and capability for the customers and partners. It will definitely go as the beginning of a new trend.

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SME CHAT

JEREMY BUTT VP, WORLD CHANNELS, AVAYA

‘NEVER SAY NEVER’

…but at this Point Of Time, We Won’t Go Into the Home & Soho Market Three years back, Nortel tried to buy Avaya for 8 billion dollar plus but now we ended up buying Nortel in less than 1 billion dollar. The company has completed the acquisition but it will take at least 12-18 months for the company to complete the product integration. Second thing is that Avaya has snapped its ties from Avaya Global Connect, which is a good sign for other distributors. Recently, Jeremy Butt, VP, World Channels, Avaya. Excerpt.

Post Nortel acquisition how are you positioned in the market? We completed the acquisition of Nortel six months ago. It was a huge occasion for us. Now, we are working on smooth integration of both the companies’ supply chains. In the meantime, we are also focusing on distribution in India. We are working with Beetel Teletech and Redington as our national distributors. We have also introduced our global channel programme called Global Connect in India. From the perspective of capacity building, we are adding resources. Fourteen months ago, we had 3-4 people but today we have 100+ people. How have you managed to grow head count so quickly? Two things happened for us. By virtue of Nortel acquisition, we have added so many head counts. Secondly, we wanted to grow our channel base in India. For managing them we wanted manpower also. Was it predetermined to be dissociated from Avaya Global Connect (AGC Networks)? Post acquisition of Nortel, we wanted to have

definitely expansion of the channel and the introduction of new products to the existing channel. We did not have data products before but with acquisition of Nortel, we now have good range of data products. We will now make the partners aware that Avaya is very well into data business. So, they will be serious about data business. We will also appointing more resellers in this space, who will be provided with support and training.

several strategies running for us. Our business is purely channel centric. In order to do that, we need to have a multiple partners in several countries. As a vendor, we have to provide equal opportunities. Everything got to be transparent. In this scenario, it was difficult for other partners to believe that we can run the things transparently, even if we have majority share holding in AGC. So, it was very clear to the new management team at Avaya that we had to change the relationship with AGC Networks. Now, having come out of the contract with AGC, we have sent a clear signal that we are deadly serious about other partners in India though AGC will remain a very important partner for us and we will do everything we can to grow that account. We cannot back out from that relationship at all. It does not mean that we are not focused on other partners. It is transparent now. Otherwise, we always have acquisition that we have special treatment there because they are part of Avaya.

How many partner programmes you have at presence? We had 7 different partner programmes. But this year, we have launched a new partner programme called Avaya Connect in February and expect the partners to transition from old programmes to the new programme. In India, we do not feel much difficulty in executing this program as the number of partners here is less. Although it is a global programme, but 90% fits to the local requirement, 10% is customized by the regional leadership.

How do you feel after separation from AGC? We are in good shape now. We have met many partners who have welcomed this initiative. Our focus is on a couple of key areas. One of them is

How much time will you take to integrate the product lines? We have already published a roadmap of the Nortel and Avaya portfolio. It will be gradual process to complete the integration. We find

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SME CHAT

“HAVING COME OUT OF THE CONTRACT WITH AGC, WE HAVE SENT A CLEAR SIGNAL THAT WE ARE DEADLY SERIOUS ABOUT OTHER PARTNERS IN INDIA.”

some of our products are very good and some products of Nortel are also very good. The users of Nortel products should not be worried at least for next 12-18months. Even then, a lot of Nortel products will survive for ever though they will be merged into Avaya product basket but we will support Nortel legacy products for next 5-8 years. We do not offer dead ends to any product lines. What happens, when one company buys another company, if they don’t get the product road map correct, they create dead ends. The customers go to the end of the product lifecycle. That is where most of the product integrations go wrong. If you provide a path, where one product starts to merge into another product without losing the feature sets, that is where you give your costumers a path to upgrade. For example, Avaya

has an SME product and Nortel has an SME product, we will continue with Nortel products and we will merge the feature sets into the new platform within next 12 -18 months. How have you taken the partners into confidence? All the partners who we have been dealing within the past are registered with us now. All the partners of AGC have been aligned with either of the national distributors. We continue to work to make sure they understand our positioning. Nothing is changed for them. They can buy the same products from us. There are 150 partners registered under our Avaya Connect programme. Which are your focused market verticals?

Our focus will remain on the SMEs and enterprises space from both voice and video perspective. People are expecting a great video usage in future. Desktop video will continue to attract attention. More and more telephony capability for the mobile workers will be of interest of the industry. Great acceleration of remote conference calling and different mail messaging will happen. From the data perspective, we had weakness in the wireless product range but we have brought in a good wireless products range. What about home and SoHo market? ‘Never say never’, but at this point of time, we won’t go into the home market. We will probably use managed services from our partners for the single person enterprises or SoHo market. SME

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GUEST TALK

SOCIAL MEDIA – AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING ENGINE FOR SMBS Today, SMBs are acquiring more customers through active social media engagement, with creative and innovative campaigns.

ALEX LI is the Vice President, HSB (Home & SMB), Lenovo India

BRIEF PROFILE He is a veteran in Channel management and strategy implementation, with over 12 years of experience in Lenovo, China. In India, Alex is responsible for building a channel structure on the lines of the highly successful channel structure in China and implementing the overall business strategy for Transactional businesses in India. Alex joined Lenovo’s Development and Planning department in Beijing as senior marketing analyst in 1998. Since then, he has traversed a long journey garnering valuable experience and insights into Lenovo’s businesses in China and worldwide. EDUCATION Alex has done Mini EMBA and Master in Economics. He is also a Bachelor of Mechanical Electronics from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shanxi province, China.

IN TODAY’S DYNAMIC world, the uninhibited advent of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) in any country is a definite indicator of its economic development and prosperity. With the global economy charting an upward growth trajectory, SMBs are mushrooming at a surprisingly rapid pace. The key to sustain and enhance SMB growth is to foster a conducive environment for SMBs to thrive. The SMB market in India is diverse; with heightened competition a norm, it is fundamental for SMBs to engage in effective marketing to improve sales and build new business. As most SMBs are not armed with deep pockets, they normally avoid the traditional route of advertising owing to budgetary constraints; this is where social media has started to take over, presenting a great opportunity to actively engage with their current and potential customers. Social media mainly uses Internet and mobile-based tools for sharing information and networking with people across the globe and encompasses Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, ibibo and many more. One can also use websites to upload user generated videos and pictures to promote their products and services on the web. Users can select various other websites depending on their interests. Social media can help SMBs reach out to their target audience and create brand awareness and help measure and monitor their brand, services and products in a dynamic and interactive manner. For SMBs, there is a lot to gain – fresh business ideas from various discussion forums that discuss products and services in comparison to competitors, better connect and reach among the target audience, a cost effective way of marketing to name a few. Active engagement in discussion forums will empower SMBs to arrive at better decisions, help in gauging consumer receptivity towards certain products/services and accordingly fine tune the value proposition. The marvel of social media for SMBs is reflected in the sheer number of sales it drives and the kind of engagement it elicits. Today, SMBs are acquiring more customers through active social media engagement, with creative and innovative campaigns. Thousands

of vendors today use Facebook and Twitter, the most popular websites very effectively in running their everyday businesses. By increasingly promoting their products over these websites, they have a number of customers communicating with them through this medium. The quick resolution of consumer queries/complaints go a long way in influencing repeat purchase decisions; needless to say, spreading positive word-ofmouth will generate new leads and opportunities for consumer base expansion as well. Consumers today also read testimonials and reviews of others and this largely influences their buying decisions. Examples of SMBs who have benefited from social media are plenty; one example is the success case of one of our customers in New York City, who owns a mobile cup cake shop – he put in place an innovative social media strategy for his business and with each passing day, he is reaping rewards aplenty. He receives hundreds of tweets and Facebook messages to supply cup cakes in New York City and cheerfully shared with us how social media has completely changed his business and growth prospects for the better. His video on YouTube has received considerable hits as well. Other classic examples include cab owners doing bookings online, boutique restaurants taking orders online and bakers doing business through their social media presence. These are just a few examples. There are many more fledgling entrepreneurs out there using the social media space to increase their business. Not far is the day when social media engagement will become a prerequisite for SMBs. The ones who adapt to this trend and jump onto the social media bandwagon are bound to emerge more successful and profitable vis-à-vis those who hesitate. Having said this, it is imperative that the social media strategy and plan of execution be clearly thought through and is in sync with an SMB’s line of business. Lastly, an effective social media strategy for SMBs should bring in an element of FUN to sustain the audience’s interest and engagement.

42 SME CHANNELS OCTOBER 2010

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CANON

TREND SETTER

TANGO

THE

CONTINUES When the competitors were happy thinking they had done enough, Canon had sniffed the market gaps and woes of the partners and had changed their strategy very subtly and it had paid off. BY SMRUTI CHOUDHURY info@smechannels.com

C

anon India has turned out to be the rock star in printing and imaging industry by toppling the No.1 vendor from its long term supremacy. The company has come from behind and done it in style. From January 2010 to September 2010, Canon has grown 56%. The company is expecting to close the year with a turnover of 1260 core rupees from 840 crore in 2009. They have also forecasted that the company will touch $1billion by 2015 with a YoY growth of 30%. Of course the turnover and forecast is for entire Canon India but it is true that Canon printers are have a great contribution and share to the entire number. Clearly, the success of Canon printers is thriving on the success of its channel partners and its extensive reach in the country. Today, Canon printers are available in 415 towns in India but Tier-2 and tier-3 towns are responsible for 50% of company’s revenue and Canon is expecting it to grow to 70% soon. Canon has the widest range of products in the industry including single functional inkjet printers, inkjet AIOs, single functional laser printers to laser MFDs, and A3 MFDS. From the SME perspective, the company too has products in every category. By design Canon products have been

created to suit the need of the SMEs. But, there are various issues in SMEs in terms of their investment in printer technology which Canon is trying to address with a consistent approach. Puneet Datta, Assistant Director/Marketing, BIS Division, Canon India, says, “The first hindrance of the SMEs today is the acquisition cost of the infrastructure. But we have designed the product in such a way that the acquisition cost becomes less. What we have doing is that we have done away with the functionalities useful for the large enterprises from the printers but the core technology remains intact. For example, document management and integration have been taken off, which is not actually required for the SMEs, to make the printers affordable.” Another point of success in the SMEs is that the company has taken a consultative approach to the market, offering the customers tools to understand their printer requirements. Puneet adds, “The Best thing to assess the printing requirement is to keep a tab of how many pages coming to the organizations. The decision of acquiring the right printer based on the cartridge yield or toner yield does not help, because one does not know what matter people are printing and whether the consumables are genuine or not.”

He adds, “Secondly they should look at their growth and based on the assessment, they can take a consultancy from our website or from our people including our channel partners for buying the right printer.” Today, most of the SMEs are growing at a faster rate than earlier. In three years down the line, they might be reaching at the helm of being large enterprises. So, if an organization today is consuming 5k to 10k pages yield a month today and their growth is expected to touch 40% year on year, in next 3 years, the company will grow more than 100%. There will be adding of people and infrastructure. While making an investment in printing technology, they should look at this aspect. Canon consultants including its partners will suggest the right printer because if they are investing in Canon print architecture today they should expect it to last for next 3 years.

Finally… Canon has done everything good in the market to snatch the No.1 crown from the leader. It has happened because of the channel partners’ cooperation. The company has reciprocated to the demand of the partners and even created products on their feedback. In this journey Canon has been very agile and nimble in its Indian policy.

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PARTNER CORNER

ANUJ JAIN MANAGING DIRECTOR, EUROTECH TECHNOLOGIES

“WE FOCUS ON PARTNER RETENTION” Eurotech Technologies is a leading distributor of enterprise and small-business networking solutions that help organizations achieve their business and networking objectives. SME Channels spoke to Anuj Jain, Managing Director of the company to know more about their strategy. Excerpts Briefly tell us the present status of Eurotech in India? Eurotech Technologies is a market leader in enterprise solutions and networking products. A decade old company Eurotech offers a wide range of latest computer based products and services. This year Eurotech also announced and officially unveiled BestNet Brand in India. This new brand is intended to achieve a better and stronger reach to current and future customers, to embrace internal synergies and enhance mutual product offerings. BestNet is now a world-leading end-toend provider of Networking Products and offers the best mix of Data Networking and Communications product line that encompasses the active and passive list of offerings. The products under the BestNet brand would ensure strict compliance with industry standards in quality and reliability. Recognized for its ability to speed new products BestNet brand continues to enhance its Networking, RF, Audio / Video , Fibre & Copper Cables and Firewire product portfolios in order to provide customers and channel partners the ability to design, implement and support leading-edge technology solutions. From the head count perspective, the company has 50+ members strong team. How many places do you have direct presence in India? Apart from our Presence in New Delhi, Chennai,

Hyderabad and Bangalore, currently we have 4 channels in the Metros and we look forward to appoint 3 – 4 System Integrators, and resellers in all the B&C class cities. The company is on the lookout for channel partners who are aggressive with a sound technical background, as well as having a strong market presence in the up market cities in the country.

to the market capability, by better servicing the customers through our well-equipped resellers. A lot of the improvements in our GTM strategy is that we can begin to offer our customers a much broader value proposition. We will be introducing exciting channel campaigns and innovative marketing programs for the channel and SI community soon.

How do you position yourself in the competition? Our people centric approach towards our partners and resellers and a strong marketing team has helped us position our brand amongst our audience. Our team stays connected with our channels partners and customers throughout the sales cycle. We see huge potential in the tier II cities and we continue to focus on them along with our resellers. We also ensure that there is maximum opportunity created for a face-to-face interaction with partners & customers.

How do you empower them? In the current rapidly changing scenario and high consumer expectations as well as technology shifts, we ensure that every channel partner is updated. The partner’s in turn must keep themselves ready for this dynamic market changes and fine-tune their strategies accordingly. Our entire range of new Products and the Channel Programme represents a core component of our overall strategic investment in channel resources. Our Programme enables and support channel partners by providing access to key marketing and sales tools. The Eurotech’s Channel Programme is targeted towards long-term customer and partner retention. Through qualified business partner relationships, Eurotech customers can be confident and assured that their real needs are addressed today and tomorrow. Our partners are key to Eurotech’s business strategy and we look forward to maintaining a regular dialogue with them.

What is your channel strategy? We understand and respect our relationship with channel partners and offer necessary supportive measures. We feel a distributor is an extended marketing arm of a dealer and we try and ensure that more confidence is created within the channel community so that it brings credibility for us. We are looking at the Indian market for our go

44 SME CHANNELS OCTOBER 2010

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GUEST IN TOWN

MAKING COMPUTING AFFORDABLE WITH FULL FUNCTIONALITY India chapter for every company has become grand success and it is no exception to NComputing. Probably 2008-09 market slowdown has been a boon for many of the companies which are giving alternative to the traditional way of computing.

WITH THE phenomenal success of NComputing in the Indian market, it has brought the senior leadership of the company to visit the country and take necessary steps to ramp up their strategy. Jim McHugh, the Senior Vice President, Global Marketing, NComputing, who visited the country, appeared very elated about the way the company is faring. Enterprises India have understood the pain of their margin going down the drain through the existing fat computing platforms, which not only takes too much of space but also gobbles a lot of power. Along with that, managing and securing systems have become a costly affair for the enterprises. Therefore virtualization has taken a front sit now. Starting from virtualizing servers, it is now influencing PCs also and at the forefront of the technology is NComputing solutions. Working with its technology partners including Microsoft and Citrix, the company is resolved to change the way computing happens traditionally. Jim says, “NComputing’s mission is to enable the next billion people around the world to have access to computing at an affordable cost. The NComputing solution is based on a simple fact: today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of applications only use a small fraction of the computer’s capacity.” NComputing’s virtualization software and hardware tap this unused capacity so that it can be simultaneously shared by multiple users. The NComputing virtualization software is loaded onto a standard Windows or Linux PC. Each user’s monitor, keyboard, and mouse connect to the shared PC through a small and highly reliable NComputing access device. The device itself has no CPU, memory, or moving parts so it is easy to deploy and maintain. Over 2,50,000 NComputing systems have been deployed in India by 15,000

JIM MCHUGH

Senior Vice President, Global Marketing, NComputing

organizations to slash their computing costs as much as 70% and electric consumption by 90%. He adds, “India is clearly a huge market for NComputing because computer affordability is still a major issue for many schools, colleges, businesses, factories, call centers and large enterprises. For example, there are a million public schools in India, and the vast majority of them cannot afford to provide their students with a sufficient number of computers. Our solution enables a school to set up a 40 seat computer lab for less than the cost of 10 traditional PCs. We can offer similar savings for other sectors.” With its unique value proposition, NComputing has won a massive computerisation contract from the Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) alongside Wipro for deploying 31,000 virtual desktops in ESIC offices and clinics across the country. Similarly with Wipro, the company has bagged the order of setting up of a 60 seater computer lab at Barrister Ranjit Mohanty College in Orissa. NComputing partnered with Maharastra Knowledge Corporation (MKCL) to computerize 1000 learning centers. Similarly, NComputing aligned with LG Electronics for the L Series products category to be placed as SME solution of LG Electronics. NComputing completed the deployment of products in 5000 government schools in Andhra Pradesh. NComputing has also entered into a partnership with NIIT to enable schools to bring affordable computer education to their students. Jim maintains, “Often times, eco-friendly computing meant that the CIO had to pay a premium for the same functionality. In today’s economy, eco-friendly only makes sense if it is also bizfriendly. So we urge all CIOs to have that dual frame of reference in evaluating all new products.”

Clearly, all the state governments were increasing the budget for the computer education. Their aim is to give computer education from the school level itself. Importantly Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, were first in this list. Jim adds, “In India, our plan is to aggressively grow in the education and business sectors. We are seeing great success with school systems throughout India and in the business sector like manufacturing, healthcare, small/medium business, and call centres.” In terms of its go to market approach, Channel is the most central and important for NCompuing. The company has already signed up with Redington a few months back as its national distributor and are also working with some selective Value added resellers including Wipro, who are committed and understand the value proposition of NComputing products. The company also plans to work closely with OEM’s and will be engaging in joint marketing programs to have concentrated efforts across various industries and verticals. In terms of its vertical strategy, the company targets the Education sector, SMB’s, Healthcare, BPO’s, Manufacturing and Government, where the NComputing product is an ideal fit as it helps optimize and maximise the cost expenditure on their IT infrastructure. NComputing is clearly an advantage over the traditional desktop PCs from the power consumption perspective.

Finally… The CIOs have understood that in the cost/benefit analysis, NComputing solutions are much ahead of the traditional PCs. Therefore it is most likely that in comming times the adoption of the NComputing solutions will have a geat customer base than now.

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PRODUCT

REVIEW

PROTEGENT360

BU

BUY l

2010

l B EST

ST

ST B U

Y

BE

Y l BE

DIGISOL DG-FS1024D

Protegent360, a Complete Laptop Security solution from Unistal Systems, is part of its 2011 version of Protegent product suites. Protegent360’s five-tier protection includ

BY MANAS RANJAN info@smechannels.com

Laptop Tracker with Data Encryption, Antivirus Solution with Firewall, Activity Monitoring and Reporting, Port Locker and

IDEAL FOR SMALL workgroups and SoHo, Digisol DG-FS1024D is a 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet Desktop unmanaged switch designed to enhance network performance in a compact form factor. It is also rack-mountable using the kit provided along with the switch. The switch comes with 24 x 10/100 Mbps ports. The switch uses store and forward packet-switching technology which offers reliable data transfer. It has auto recognition of protocol, which offers flexibility to the users. Each port supports automatic MDI/MDI-X detection & auto crossover for uplink ports, which eliminates the need for cross over cables or dedicated uplink port. It has full duplex flow control. Any of the ports can be used as uplink ports. If the ports are short, no port will hang up and individual ports can work. With the backplane capacity of 3.2 Gbps, data transfer is at an average of 200Mbps per port at full-duplex mode allowing every node to perform at their maximum performance. The switch comes within a strong non breakable metal body and without an AC adaptor. The entire power unit is concealed within the chassis. Besides, the switch uses high quality glow Blue LEDs, which indicate link, act and power of the product. The product comes with very good packaging of recyclable cardboard box, on top of which contains the specification and part number. The company has also etched the hologram of the logo on the packaging in order to save it being duplicated. Further, as intiail offer the company offers patch cord free along with the switch.

FEATURES n 16 x 10/100 Mbps auto-sensing UTP

RJ- 45 Nway

Data Leakage Prevention and Data Backup Solution.

n CSMA/CD Protocol

As the Laptops are vulnerable to theft and

n 10BASE-T: UTP Cat. 3, 5 (100 m) and

missing, the new Tracker with Data Encryp-

100BASE-TX: UTP Cat. 5, 5e (100 m)

tion feature keeps you updated about the

Network Cables n Ethernet: 10 Mbps (Half-duplex), 20

location of laptop wherever it travels and it

Mbps (Full-duplex)

keeps your data completely secured. Bitde-

n Fast Ethernet: 100 Mbps (Half-duplex),

fender Total Security 2011 makes sure that

200 Mbps (Full-duplex)

your laptop is protected. Similarly, Activity

n Forwarding mode: Store-and-forward n Bandwidth: 3.2 Gbps

Monitoring and Reporting module helps you

n Buffer memory: 1.625Mbit

monitor each and every activity done on the

n MAC Address database: 4K

system. The Port Locker and Data Leakage

n Mean time between failures (MTBF):

Prevention module, block/unblock single/

59,334 Hrs n Link & activity indicators for each port

multiple drives/ports as per your need. Finally, the suite is loaded with an excellent

PRICE

backup module, which creates backup copies

`3890/-

and saves on your laptop, removable disks,

CONTACT DigiSol Sales Support Email: sales@ digilink.in Phone: -1800-209-3444 (Toll Free) &, 022-30616666 Website: www.digilink.in

n Cost: `2500 , Contact: Unistal Systems Pvt. Ltd, Phone: +91-1147666200, Toll Free: 1800-102-5400, Email: isales@unistal.com

etc.

OVERALL RATING

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PRODUCT

NEW ARRIVALS

DELL

DELL INSPIRON M501R TECH-COM

IDEAL FOR families and students, Dell Inspiron M501R offers easy access to the personal files, share photos and videos wirelessly and securely. It also offers smooth video playback with surround-sound and a built-in Webcam. Power by AMD Vision Ultimate technology, the notebooks comes with 15.6” screen size and available in four unique colourful finishes with chrome accents. Using Inspiron M501R, the users can create or edit HD movies, watch Blu-ray/HD DVDs, play 3D and online games, editing and mixing music, converting CDs to MP3, watch and record live TV on the PC, etc. Dell also builds in unique features and timesavers like the Dell Dock, which reduces time searching applications and files - photos, videos and most commonly used apps are placed right at the top of the screen. The notebook comes in two variants – either with AMD Phenom II Triple-Core Mobile Processor or AMD Phenom II Quad-Core Mobile Processor. 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 550v discrete graphics and Microsoft Windows 7 enhances the performance of the notebooks. Besides, it comes with Upto 4GB (2 X 2GB) 2 DIMM DDR3 1333Mhz and 500GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive, DataSafeOnline data backup & recovery software, DataSafeLocal and McAfee 15 Months subscription. n Price: `36,900 and `42,900 Contact: Dechama Uthappa, Dell India, Email: Dechama_Uthappa@dell.com, Phone: 1800- 425-4026 or 080-2506-8026

TECH-COM ‘MINI-GEM’ - SSD 600 USB TECH-COM SSD 600 USB portable speaker set is a truly attractive and value product for your home or your personal desktop. The most unique characteristic of this product is that it is ready to use and play at all times directly from any media - be it a SD /MMC card, USB device, your cell phone or your laptop. To make it convenient for the users, the pack comes with 3 varieties of jacks, to facilitate easier connectivity with the audio source. This mobile music unit comes with 2.1 powerful bass speakers. The built in FM radio and comes with a fully functional remote control for easy control. The SSD 600 USB comes with built-in rechargeable Li-ion battery and can provide upto 3 hours of non-stop music playback. It can be charged through the laptop / PC port as well as via adaptor. The box also includes two pieces of connectivity cables and a convenient carry bag. n Price: `1,299 Contact: Kaustuv Sircar, Tech-Com India, Email: media@techcomindia.com Phone: 01126428541 /161854445

D-LINK

D-LINK SMART SWITCH - DES-1210-28 RESPONSIVE TO THE evolving needs of SMBs, D-Link Web Smart Switch DES-1210-28 offers 24 Fast Ethernet 10/100 BASE-TX, 2 combo 1000 BASE-T/SFP, 2 1000 BASE-T ports. This Fast Ethernet Web Smart III Switch enables to construct a secure and productive network environment at an affordable price. Bridging the gap between unmanaged and managed switches, Web Smart Switch includes web management interface and SmartConsole. Web Smart Switch strengthens security through the use of access control lists (ACL), ensuring that sensitive network resources are restricted only to authorized users. The Switch detects and blocks intruders that attempt to sniff data or send fake ARP packets that could disrupt network traffic. The switch is also robust enough to screen rogue DHCP server packets to prevent unauthorized IP assignments. It streamlines bandwidth using Quality of Service (QoS) optimizations to shape and manage traffic. Asymmetric VLAN support allows these switches to direct unlike or unequal bandwidth across different VLANs. It feature a fan-less or smart fan design which reduces power consumption while allowing the switch to operate almost silently. Single LEDs per port provide status at a glance and help to save electricity. n Contact: Ms. Divya Shetty, Email: divya.shetty@dlink.co.in, Phone: +91-22-2659 5700

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RNI No.: DEL ENG / 2010 / 3192

Data of Posting: 19 & 20 of Every Month

Postal Reg. No.: DL-SW-1/4145/10-12

50

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