SME Channels February 13

PLUS

EMC Elevates VMAX Family with VMAX 10K

/08

india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 03 | ISSUE 12 | PAGES 56 | FEBRUARY 2013 | RS. 20/-

LEADERS’ CORNER

SME TREND

SECURITY CORNER

HP: Intent is to Empower Partners with Right Tools /26

IBM: Partners should understand the business /42

Bitdefender: Aims to be Among Top-3 in India /46

PRINTING THE INTELLIGENT WAY With the untapped opportunity in SMEs expected to reach 11 million by 2015, as per Zinnov, it is a sector hard to ignore. Hence this burgeoning SME market is giving a push to the printer market and forms an /32 important component in vendors GTM strategy.

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Easy installation

C

M

Y

TurboNAS

CM

TS-469L

MY

CY

CMY

K

The new era for home entertainment HappyGet

HD Station

Easily back up online videos to the Turbo NAS and play music playlists with the Chrome web browser.

Enjoy a Full HD movie experience on the big-screen TV via HDMI.

TV Station

Enjoy online TV watching, recording, and playback.

Copyright Š 2013 QNAP Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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PLUS

McAfee Ooutlines Strategy to Safegurd Business

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india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 03 | ISSUE 12 | PAGES 56 | FEBRUARY 2013 | RS. 20/-

PARTNERS’CORNER

/44

ComGuard: The Core Strength Lies in Training

SME CHAT

/37

Matrix: “We want to double our Revenue in India Market”

SME SOLUTION

/50

CRMnext: Maturity in Processes and Demanding Nature Drive SaaS

MY EXPERIENCE EDITORIAL

Q4 NERVOUSNESS… SANJAY MOHAPATRA editor@smechannels.com

LAST QUARTER of every year makes people nervous and relaxed as the Union Budget gets presented before the nation by the Finance Minister of the country. It not only gives a direction to the country’s growth but impacts the market soon. The investors as well as the customers get a clarity of the economic policy direction of the country. So from the market perspective it is a little relaxed as they consider the real business to begin after the budget announcement because it will influence their entire businesss strategy.

Like every year, there are great expectations from SME and IT industry for this year as well The industry as a whole is expecting that the national IT policy announced and approved last year should be aggressively worked upon. The fiscal benefits promised to the SMEs to be extended and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime to prevail soon. Similarly, the Govt. should reconsider tax provisions like AMT as it affects their commercial viability and discourages SMEs from going for capacity expansion.

If one looks at Indian policy it is very good but due to many political and social issues, the real development gets side-lined. Of course once the policy is passed on both the floors it is the departmental secretary’s job to implement and amend if any small changes required but the secretariat is distracted by the issues as he is attached to the minister .

One should realize that we have to work fast to achieve our national goal of helping the SMEs to come up to a level. The growth pattern of India of late has gone down because the SMEs or MSMEs are not improving their productivity. This is really astounding that MSMEs are the largest industrial sector, which employs 40 million workforce and their contribution to the economy is extremely strong.

There are infrastructures building up all around and the pace of these activities is fairly slow. For example the roads and building projects are happening in the country but at a very slow pace. The delay in project execution add to the increase in the expenses. So the budget has to look into the bottlenecks and bring out provision of tightening the policy framework. when we are talking about GDP improvement, we should give avenues to expand the business to address the emerging financial uncertainty, these are influenced by social and political insidents. The Union Budget and the Finance Minister has to look at improving the situation. So, Mr. Minister has to take recommendations from every quarter in order to bring out an extremely good budget.

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Epson Next Gen AIO Inkjet Printers EPSON’S NEXT generation AIO inkjet printers, Expression ME-101 AIO and Expression ME-301 AIO uses Epson DURABrite Ultra ink, which are engineered to save consumers’ desk space. The new printers are 15% smaller than their predecessor and are the smallest all-in-one desktop printers in the world. The new printers have a classleading maximum print resolution of 5760 X 1440 for extremely smooth gradations for both grayscale and colour documents and photos and a high print speed of 24 pages per minute (ppm) in mono printing and 13 ppm in colour printing under their ink saving draft mode. When Expression ME-101 uses a new set of highly affordable T1661 Series dyebased cartridges and the Expression ME-301 uses Epson DURABrite Ultra pigment inks that produce smudge and waterproof prints.

SPECIFICATIONS The printers feature 5760 X 1440 dpi with Variable-Sized Droplet Technology.

FINAL WORDING Priced at only Rs. 191 per black cartridge and Rs. 345 for each colour cartridge, it helps lower the cost of printing for users. These are extremely good for the SMEs. OVERALL RATING

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contents

FEB VOLUME 03 ISSUE 12

2013

ER COV RY STO

india’s first IT magazine for sme business

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra Assistant Editor: Karma Negi Reporters: Aparajita Choudhury Executive Editor: Smruti Chaudhury Copy Editor: Neil D’Souza Web Designer: Vijay Bakshi Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan Satya Sagar Sinha Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Senior Manager: M Raj Marketing Executive: Rajat Kumar Circulation and Printing: Panchanan Bhoi SALES CONTACTS Delhi 6/102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016 Phone: 91-11-41055458 / 9313891660 E-mail: raj@smechannels.com Bangalore Subrat S NO.661, 10th Main, 5th cross, 4th Block, Koramangala, Behind Old Maharaja, Bangalore-560034 Phone: 9886107294 E-mail:info@smechannels.com Mumbai Tahmeed Ansari 2, Ground Floor, Park Paradise, Kay-Bees CHS. Ltd.,Opp. Green Park, Oshiwara, Andheri (west), Mumbai - 400 053.

Ph. +91 22 26338546, Fax +91 22 26395581 Mobile: +91 9967 232424 E-mail: Info@smechannels.com Kolkata S Subhendu

Printing the Intelligent Way

BC-286, Laxmi Apartment, Kestopur Kolkata-700101

/32

With the untapped opportunity in SMEs expected to reach 11 million by 2015, as per Zinnov, it is a sector hard to ignore. Hence this burgeoning SME market is giving a push to the printer market and forms an important component in vendors GTM strategy. 2013.

SME CHAT Matrix Comsec /37

“We want to double our Revenue in India Market”

SME TREND IBM /42

Partners should understand the Business Sentiments

HP India /43 HP PPS Aims to Rejuvenates Partner Relationship

LEADERS’ CORNER HP India /26

Intent is to Empower Partners with Right Tools

PLUS

Phone: 9674804389 EDITORIAL OFFICE Delhi: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, New Delhi-110016, Phone: 91-11-41657670 / 46151993 editor@smechannels.com Bangalore 136/ 9, Ground Floor, Eden Crest Apartment, Grape Garden, Ejipura

FEATURE: Cloud Solution:

Vivek Nagar PS

By the Channel and Through the Channel /40

Bengalore-560047

more inside

edit@smechannels.com

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

Editorial~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 04

Park, Hauz Khas

Snippets~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 08

New Delhi-110016

Partner Corner~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 36, 39, 44 Case Study~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 38

Phone: 91-11-46151993 / 41055458 Printed at Karan Printers, F-29/2, 1st floor, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-2, New Delhi

Security Corner~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 46

110020, India.

SME Biz~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 48

All rights reserved. No part of this publica-

SME Solutions~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 50

tion can be reproduced without the prior

Products~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 52 Analyst view~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 54

written permission from the publisher.

Subscription: Rs.200 (12 issues) All payments favouring: Accent Info Media Pvt. Ltd.

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SNIPPETS PRODUCT | CHANNEL | CONSULTING | SERVICES

for more log on to smechannels.com

Lenovo Predicts Revival in Demand from SMBs in 2013 With a market share of 6.3% and ranking at No. 4, Lenovo maintains a bullish outlook on the SMB market. The company expects that 2013 will see a revival in the

demand for computing solutions from local small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country, as they look towards technology to enable them to drive further

growth. This will, fuel the demand for low-end PCs like AIOs and traditional desktops in 2013.

India will continue to remain one of the fastest growing PC

markets in the world and Lenovo believes that the future will be dominated by the presence of four screens (PC, Tablets, Smartphones, and Smart TVs). Growth in 2013 will be driven by the rapidly increasing demand for smartphones, tablets and other unique form factor computing devices like Ultra portables and Hybrids revealed the company.

Considering that the next wave of growth will arise from tier III-V cities, beyond the top 75 cities of the country, Lenovo hopes to add more stores by the end of this fiscal to drive further growth.

Amar Babu, MD, Lenovo India, said, “Incidentally, India was one of the first few markets, after China, where we made a successful foray into the smartphone category in November 2012 starting with South India and Gujarat, and we plan to make the range of smartphones available across the country. We will continue to invest in the India business, and I’m confident that we will sustain this momentum in the years to come.”

EMC Elevates VMAX Family with VMAX 10K EMC has announced that it has updated its flagship EMC VMAX Family to address the mission-critical applications in VMware virtualized environments for enterprises of all sizes. The EMC VMAX 10K is the highest-performing of its class in the industry and is up to 2X more powerful than its predecessor claimed the company.

The company further informed that these VMAX 10K technology enhancements make it easier for small to mid-size enterprises to enjoy the powerful capabilities of the VMAX family and it is for this reason that in the third quarter of 2012, 30% of VMAX 10K sales were customers new to the EMC VMAX Family. VMAX Family now includes integration with the VMware platform, VFCache, Windows 2012 and the ability to manage all major features of VMAX.

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SNIPPETS

Dell Becomes Victim of Market Slowdown Fake Cartridges Most ambitious and dynamic company of the 21st century – Dell finally became a victim of market slowdown and has been bought by its founder, chairman and chief executive Michael Dell in partnership with PE investment firm Silver Lake at $24.4 billion to become a privately held company.

The Dell Board of Directors acting on the recommendation of a special committee of independent directors unanimously approved a merger agreement under which Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners will acquire Dell and take the company private Dell stockholders will be paid $13.65 per share to leave the company on its own. That’s 25 per cent more than the stock’s price of $10.88 before word of the buyout talks trickled out three weeks ago. But it’s a steep markdown from the shares’ price of $24 six years ago when Michael Dell returned for a second go-round as CEO. Michael Dell, the company’s largest shareholder, is throwing in his 14 per cent stake and an undisclosed sliver of his $16 billion fortune to help finance the sale to a group led by the investment firm Silver Lake.

TP-LINK Showcases SOHO and Mobile Networking Soln at CES TP-LINK has launched a comprehensive family of wireless small office, home and mobile connectivity products at CES which is designed to strengthen the company’s leadership in WLAN and Broadband CPE devices.

The products displayed at CES encompass Dual Band Gigabit Router, Pocket Routers, Powerline Adapters, Wireless Range Extenders and Inspired Designs Highlight New Lines.TP-LINK’s 802.11ac AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (TL-WDR7500) provides 1750Mbps wireless speeds (3 times faster than 802.11n), simultaneous dual band, Gigabit ports, and dual USB sharing ports.

FusionStor Charts Aggressive Plans for India Market US based company in servers, storage and switches FusionStor Technologies, in a bid to expand its presence in the country, plans to appoint Value Added Partners through various programs which will provide specific group of highly qualified channel partners to maintain its leadership in the IP storage networking solution market.

As part of its expansion plans for India market it has appointed Amod Phadke as the new chief executive officer (CEO). It has also appointed three distributors in India: Global Infonet Distribution Pvt. Ltd. as a National Distributor for storage range of products, and regional distributors in the western region like Mega Networks Ltd. for servers in the enterprise vertical and network Techlab for the Channel, SI and Enterprise Vertical.

The company provides solutions in external storage area networks (SAN), Ethernet-based iSCSI SAN (IP SAN), network attached storage (NAS) and the software that extends storage functionality with value.

FusionStor also plans to appoint Value Added Partners through various programs to strengthen presence India.

MY POINT

“The popularity and increased adoption of cloud-based security services, albeit at different degrees, will influence the shape of future security marketplaces.”

RUGGERO CONTU RESEARCH DIRECTOR, GARTNER

Dealers Arrested Aimed at curbing the sale of non-genuine Epson Ink cartridges, police recently raided the premises of a dealer with two large consumable shops in the Fort area of Mumbai. The two shops Mital and Gami’s were raided on 10th January evening announced the company in an official statement.

The dealer was arrested along with an employee of his and charged under the prevailing laws of the land with counterfeiting and violating intellectual property rights and subsequently remanded to judicial custody. 6000 refilled cartridges were seized and the refilling unit was shuttered.

Panduit Launches Enhanced Website Panduit Corp. has launched its new website, www.panduit.com. The improved scope and quality of the new website are evident in features such as enhanced search and navigation capabilities that allow users to quickly and easily access information about Panduit solutions, products and services, announced the company’s press release.

The new website offers quick and easy access to essential technical information on Panduit solutions, including products, services and software.

“The new Panduit.com complements our other online platforms, which include social channels, multimedia, mobile apps, and video offerings,” said Andrew Caveney, Senior VP (Global Marketing), Panduit.

Antec Appoints Vtronix Infocom as RD Antec has appointed Vtronix Infocom as its authorized regional distributor for North and East India. Vtronix Infocom will distribute the entire range of Antec PSUs, cabinets and accessories product portfolio.

The company’s press release said that Vtronix Infocom has strong channel presence in A, B, C and D cities of both North and East region and would take care of educating the channel partners on Antec line of products, increasing the brand visibility and also providing logistical and administrative support for Antec in these regions.

Kevan Li, Head (Sales & Operations), Antec India, said, “We are glad with the collaboration and an opportunity for both the companies.”

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SNIPPETS

Symantec Announces System Recovery 2013 Symantec Corp has announced Symantec System Recovery 2013, providing organizations with comprehensive system protection with platform support for Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and vSphere 5.1.

Symantec System Recovery 2013 delivers backup and disaster recovery for servers, desktops, laptops, and virtual machines that enable businesses to recover from downtime or disasters in minutes. It also provides cross-platform Physical-to-Virtual (P2V), Virtual-to-Virtual (V2V), and Virtual to-Physical (V2P) recoveries.

Kate Lewis, Product manager (Information Management Group), Symantec, said, “In today’s world, the need to ensure constant access to key applications is paramount. Symantec System Recovery 2013 provides SMBs with affordable application availability by simplifying recovery of both physical and virtual platforms.”

WD EXPANDS SMB PRODUCT PORTFOLIO WITH ARKEIA WD, a Western Digital company, has expanded its product portfolio addressing small- and mediumsized businesses with the addition of network backup software and appliances from Arkeia Software, Inc., a privately-held data protection company based in Carlsbad, Calif., recently acquired by WD. “Arkeia’s products expand WD’s growing product portfolio of solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses,” said Jim Welsh, Executive VP and GM of WD’s Branded and CE products. “Our easy-toJim Welsh, Executive VP and manage small storage server, WD Sentinel DX4000, GM of WD’s Branded and CE provides backup and storage centralization products capabilities for small businesses and workgroups, while Arkeia’s network backup software provides a more feature-rich data-protection solution for larger SMB customers.”

Arkeia’s software, appliances and virtual appliances back up data to disk, tape and cloud storage. The acquisition was completed through a merger transaction, encompassing all of the employees, technology and products of Arkeia. Arkeia will be integrated into WD’s Branded Products SMB unit and the products initially will retain the Arkeia name.

SAS Leads in Big Data Predictive Analytics SAS, provider of business analytics software and services, has been titled as a leader in big data analytics in a recent report by Forrester Research titled ‘The Forrester Wave: Big Data Predictive Analytics Solutions, Q1 2013.’ Forrester’s report confirmed SAS as one of the leaders that provides customized platform for big data analysis and predictive analytics to diverse industry segments.

The report says that among the 10 vendors evaluated, SAS is “an analytics powerhouse” and, along with another vendor, an “unshakable leader” in the analysis of big data predictive analytics solutions.

The ratings were based on three categories and SAS scored highest among all vendors in each: current offerings, strategy, and market presence.

Forrester evaluated 26 SAS products in its study, demonstrating the breadth of the SAS analytics portfolio.

VMC Technologies Scouts for Channel Partners Bangalore based VMC Technologies, a provider of virtual PBX ecosystem, is on the lookout to grow its channel partners across the country from the present five to 100. Currently VMC has five channel partners in Bangalore, MP, UP and Delhi.

It has also announced the launch of a mobile application, which will give the important information about returning customers to the executives. “This will enable business executives to have an informed conversation with the client. VMC is ramping up the sales and increasing the number of channel partners in 2013,” stated Sundeep Misra, MD, VMC Technologies.

Russia’s Dr.WEB to Address India’s Security Challenges Netflix Technologies, appointed exclusive national distributor of Dr.WEB, has launched the IT-security solutions of Dr.WEB, Russian developer of information security software. The product range will target to address the security challenges at home & corporate networks, file servers, e-mail traffic, mobile devices and internet gateways.

Dr. WEB also provides full protection to smart phones and tablets running on Windows, Symbian and Androids platforms.

Digisol Launches Green 3G Broadband Router Digisol has introduced 300Mbps Wireless Green 3G Broadband Router DG-BR4313NG which provide wireless data transmission rate up to 300Mbps and support WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia) technology.

DG-BR4313NG is compatible with HSPA/ EVDO USB modems and it features WLAN securities, Integrated Anti-DOS firewall, SMTP alert for WAN Failover and supports DDNS and IGMP. 3G router also supports 64/128 bit WEP encryption and WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup).

Belkin Acquires Linksys Business Belkin has entered into an agreement to acquire Cisco’s Home Networking Business Unit, including its proven products, technology, well-known Linksys brand and talented employees.

Belkin intends to maintain the Linksys brand and will offer support for Linksys products as part of this transaction. All valid warranties will be honored by Belkin for current and future Linksys products. After the transaction closes, Belkin will account for approximately 30 percent of the U.S. retail home and small business networking market.

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Over 60 years of experience Advts.indd 1

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SNIPPETS

McAfee Outlines Strategy to Safeguard Business

TREND MICRO ANNOUNCES CHANNEL SCHEMES

McAfee has announced its strategy for building upon Security Connected, the framework in which security products and services work together to safeguard businesses with better protection. McAfee will expand its portfolio through acquisitions, development projects and partnerships to deliver integrated solutions and comprehensive protection across mobile devices, endpoints, servers, and network through an extensible framework.

The company informed that McAfee Security Connected brings network and endpoint together through an extensible framework, centralized management and integrated with global threat intelligence delivers unprecedented visibility across all threat vectors. Michael Fey, CTO, McAfee, said, “Security is now a boardroom level discussion. The stakes are high, and businesses require a new model that gives them a comprehensive picture of their entire IT infrastructure. The industry has been built on a historical thought process that will not support the demands of the future.”

Trend Micro has announced schemes for Channel Partners through which the partners can earn more on the basis of accruing points on buying and selling of Titanium Antivirus Products. The scheme encompasses different format for SIs, partners, resellers and sales persons.

The company further informed that Titanium Security Suite is an all-in-one security solution which automatically stops threats before they reach users’ computer. It uses less than half the disk space and memory of competRajat Sahu, PMM (Consumer ing security products. It efficiently monitors and limits India & SAARC), Trend Micro kid’s online activity and access to inappropriate content.

All the critical information like credit card numbers and passwords are kept private and protects users from dangerous links posted on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Titanium security can be extended to smartphones and tablets including AndroidTM devices.

Rajat Sahu, PMM (Consumer - India & SAARC), Trend Micro, said, “Trend Micro focuses significantly on its channel ecosystem as they play a crucial role in making our products and solutions widely available. It is our regular practice to announce various schemes and promotional activities to help partners earn higher rewards. The newly introduced schemes for this year offer numerous prizes on the basis of buying and selling of Titanium products. This is part of our ‘channel empowerment program’ to enable our channel partners to sell Titanium and worry free range of solutions more easily and profitably.”

EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT

SAMSUNG TOPPLES APPLE AS TOP GLOBAL SEMICONDUCTOR CUSTOMER SAMSUNG AND APPLE TOGETHER CONSUMED $45.3 BILLION OF SEMICONDUCTORS IN 2012, AN INCREASE OF $7.9 BILLION FROM 2011.

-42.6%

-4.3%

Others

Nokia

Cisco

-0.8%

LG

-6.7%

0.3% Lenovo

Toshiba

1.9% Sony

Dell

Source: Gartner (January 2013)

-17.1%

-12.7%

-13.4%

13.6% Apple

HP

28.9% Samsung

TOP 10 SEMICONDUCTOR DESIGN TOTAL AVAILABLE MARKET (TAM) BY COMPANY, WORLDWIDE 2012, PRELIMINARY (BILLIONS OF DOLLARS)

Canon India promoted Alok Bharadwaj to the post of executive vice president of its India operations effective January 2013.

Asus has appointed Peter Chang as the Country Manager for India. Earlier he was the regional head for South Asia.

Brocade has appointed Johnson Chiu as the Channel director for Asia Pacific (APAC) to focus on growing revenues through the channel and building strong and established channel business in the region.

Avaya has announced two enhancements to its Asia Pacific Leadership Team. Ray Teske will assume leadership of a Service Provider and Global Alliances business across the Asia Pacific geography and Lee Chong-Win is the new managing director Avaya ASEAN.

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SNIPPETS

SAP Expands Partner Edge Program

DIGEST

SAP AG has launched SAP Partner Edge program where more than 500 partners of SuccessFactors will be transitioned into the program in 2013 announced the company. SAP PartnerEdge has been designed for partners that resell, build or provide implementation services for SAP solutions across the SAP portfolio.

The company informed that by enabling existing SAP PartnerEdge members to resell, service and build solutions on top of SAP Cloud, these partners now have the opportunity to tackle the fast-growing cloud market and offer best-of-breed cloud solutions and suites to their installed base customers and prospects. SAP also supports partners’ economic models, enablingrtners that sell cloud solutions to boost profitability.

Mercedes Ellison, VP (Global Cloud Ecosystem & Channels), SuccessFactors, said, “This program will provide SuccessFactors partners with additional tools and resources to support the hyper-growth we’ve been experiencing with cloud.”

STRONTIUM UNVEILS GOLD PLATED USB DRIVES Singapore based Strontium Technology launched premium solid metal USB drives called Ammo. The new Ammo USB Flash Drive with a shiny metallic lustre is available in gold and silver colour finish. The gold finish drive is actually plated with real 24 carat gold giving it a rich appearance.

Strontium’s new Ammo USB 2.0 Gold plated Flash drive is available from 16 GB to 64 GB capacity and the Silver finish is available with five different memory storage capacities ranging from 4GB to 64GB.

SILICON POWER SLIM S50 SSD

FORTINET MAKES ADDITION TO NGFW PERFORMANCE AND SECURITY Fortinet has added to its next-generation firewall (NGFW) appliance family Fort iGATE-3600C which the company says offers large enterprises and MSSPs the most advanced network security appliance in the industry.

The FortiGate-3600C runs FortiOS 5, and includes next-generation firewall capabilities that feature more control with network, user and device defined policy; integrated security with firewall, IPS, application control and VPN functionality with advanced behavior inspection for improved advanced threat detection.“Large enterprise customers that require granular visibility into and control over thousands of applications, users and devices operating across their network infrastructure will find the FortiGate-3600C an ideal solution,” said Patrick Bedwell, VP (Products), Fortinet.

neoteric spreads Awareness of Intel Products neoteric infomatique limited conducted Xplore & Evolve and Xperience Live events for Intel in Coimbatore and Surat on the 21st of December and 28th of December, 2012, respectively and Xperience Live was conducted from the 26th - 29th December 2012 at IT Street in Bangalore.

The objective of the Xplore & Evolve events was to generate awareness for Intel’s products amongst the partner community. neoteric’s expert pre-sales team helped the channel partners in discussing the future needs of their businesses and how these could be addressed by Intel’s products. The Xperience Live event in Bangalore further promoted Intel’s 2nd Gen Intel Core processor and the 3rd Gen Intel Core processor products amongst consumers. These events are a part of neoteric’s go-to-market strategy with which it enables vendors and channel partners to work towards better business understanding and growth.

Netgear Eyes 40% Growth in FY2013 In a bid to drive a stronger partner strategy, Netgear is committed to expand its product portfolio with the prime focus towards SMBs in India. Netgear has redefined its identity this year with a restructured logo. With its redefined look it is on its way to inculcate new business strategy announced the company’s press release.

The Company further said that it has been following its SMART IT vision which envisages a reliable, affordable and simple range of products covering the entire infrastructure needs of small and medium businesses, encompassing switching, storage, wireless and security solutions and it foresees huge growth in this field. The company is also eyeing 40% growth in FY2013 and the total addressable market in the SMB space is estimated to be close to $100 million in 2013.

Silicon Power unveiled a new addition of its Slim series 7mm 2.5” SSD. The Slim S50 features the latest controller technology to provide a brand new experience in excellent performance and cost effectiveness for computer enthusiasts.

The new Slim S50 provides remarkable performance with the SATA III 6Gbps interface.

It weighs 63 grams with a 7mm thickness. The S50 SSD is available in 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB, and is backed by a three year warranty.

BPE APPOINTS IRIS AS ND BPE has appointed Iris Computer as its national distributor. With this appointment BPE aims to boost its penetration into IT system integrator channels’ various power requirements.

Rupesh Kumar Sr GM, said, “Iris has a wide network, with 33 branches, and many SIs are already aligned with them.”

BPE’s AGM Vishal also informed the launch of two partner specific program, BPPC (Best Power Corporate Partner) and BPPV (Best Power Volume Partner) program. “These are uniquely designed to attract Channels, where BPE will focus on partners’ maximum investment and committed mutual business revenue and 7% assured margin.”

CORSAIR UNVEILS NATIVE USB 3.0 FLASH DRIVES Corsair has announced the Flash Voyager GT Turbo flash drives, the world’s fastest native USB 3.0 flash drives claimed the company. It is available in 128GB, 64GB, and 32GB capacities.

The Flash Voyager GT Turbo USB 3.0 flash drives deliver read speeds of up to 260 MB/s and writes speeds of up to 235 MB/s, 1.7times faster than other native USB 3.0 flash drives. The drives connect with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, and work with Microsoft Window, Mac OS X, and Linux with no additional software required.

INSPAN INTRODUCES 7.2 MBPS DONGLES FROM MERCURY Inspan Infotech has launched 7.2Mbps dongle with voice feature - M720V and without voice feature - M730D from Mercury. These dongles are compatible with OS Windows 2000/XP/ Vista/, Windows 7/Windows CE, Linux and Mac OS X 10.4.9. Sudhir S, Managing Director, Inspan Infotech, said, “Mercury M720V and M730D dongles are feature rich and are independent of the telecom providers, one can use a 3G enabled sim from any telecom provider and these dongles gives customers instant connection.”

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SNIPPETS

Cyberoam Secures Virtual Data Centers Cyberoam has launched virtual Unified Threat Management appliances, adding to its existing range of hardware UTM appliances. With this launch, Cyberoam will enable organizations to take control of its security infrastructure.

Cyberoam virtual UTM offers MSSPs a complete control of their security infrastructure with its support for multiple virtualization platforms like VMWare and Hyper-V. With the launch of virtual UTM for comprehensive network security in virtualized environments, MSSPs can now offer a total virtual security solution to customers with virtual Cyberoam Central Console for centralized security management, and Cyberoam iView software for logging and reporting.

Cyberoam virtual UTM appliances secure “Office-in-a-Box” and BYOD networks that need to support multiple devices across a range of operating systems and geographies, brought in by employees to access the network resources.

Cyberoam virtual UTMs secure virtual data centers that are constantly under pressure for generating more computing power out of existing server infrastructure claimed the company.

ZyXEL’s SBG3300 Receives VPNC Certification

NEC INDIA PARTNERS VAULTIZE FOR CLOUD NEC India has entered into a strategic alliance with Vaultize – an enterprise cloud backup and sharing solution provider, to jointly go to market with Vaultize’s enterprise cloud backup, sharing and mobility platform through NEC’s cloud aggregator platform. This will enable both companies to further penetrate the market and offer a bouquet of services to enterprises.

NEC has built a global carrier grade Cloud Aggregation Platform to enable telcos and service providers offer cloud services to small and medium enterprises. Vaultize’s file sharing and backup cloud service will integrate into this aggregation platform, thus providing enterprise users with an added service that they need.

Cloud is a global initiative for NEC, and India is one of the focus countries for NEC’s cloud business.

Commenting on the alliance, Angira Agrawal, Associate VP (Cloud Business), NEC India, said, “Companies are now empowered with a broad range of choices, and are able to rapidly choose the best options that meet their business needs. With this alliance, we hope to grow our customer base and empower them with greater choices.”

Anand Kekre, CEO and Co-founder, Vaultize, said, “Availability of Vaultize on NEC’s Cloud Aggregation Platform will give us a good opportunity to serve a wider customer base. Built from the ground up with enterprise level security and control, Vaultize is poised to capitalize on the multi-billion dollar market at the intersection of cloud computing, mobility and consumerization of IT. And, this partnership will be a key driver.”

Vaultize’s at-source encryption together with de-duplication helps enterprises adopt cloud based backup and file sharing by eliminating concerns about security, data privacy and compliance.

ZyXEL Communications has received the certification of the two-level VPNC (Virtual Private Network Consortium) interoperability for the newly developed SBG3300 Wireless Business Gateway.

The certified VPN interoperability and performance-driven functionalities assure intra-system security and authentication as well as optimal wireless networking efficiency. Small business owners can be relieved from security concerns as SBG3300 actively guards VPN connections between offices and teleworkers announced the company’s press release.

The SBG3300 is a Wireless N and VDSL2 dual-function WAN security gateway designed to help small businesses to quickly setup a powerful wireless network with robust security for remote and guest access.

ComGuard, WinMagic Conclude Customer Meet on Data Encryption

Emkor Launches Partner Network Program

ComGuard Networks and WinMagic Inc., a Canada-based data security firm jointly organized end-customer events on data encryption in Delhi & Bangalore respectively. The meet in Delhi was held on January 15th, followed by Bangalore meet organized on January 17th, 2013.

The main aim behind organising this seminar was to provide customers a platform to exchange knowledge, interact and develop a better understanding about significance of encryption.

Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO, ComGuard Networks (Spectrum Group), said, “India has got a good IT market. We have 30-50 partners in India and would like to add channel partners and products, majorly from software, hardware and security space and hospitality areas.”

Emkor, a global business services company, has launched Emkor Partner Network program to empower its channel partners.

Vikram Dham, CEO & Co Founder, Emkor Solutions, said, “The Emkor Partner Network program will help enable partners to bring valuable, highperformance cloud-ready solutions to market. Channel partners drive our sales but there are some tier II and III channel partners who lack business skills, so as to empower them we have initiated this program.”

“Our target market is SMBs (companies between 100 and 2000 crores) in India as they contribute 40-50 % of the business and they demand everything in a cost effective manner, moreover most of the margins also come from SMBs.”

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SNIPPETS

Legitimate Destinations Top in Security Threats Cisco has released findings from two global studies that provide a vivid picture of the rising security challenges that businesses, IT departments and individuals face, particularly as employees become more mobile in blending work and personal lifestyles throughout their waking hours.

Despite popular assumptions that security risks increase as a person’s online activity becomes shadier, findings from Cisco’s 2013 Annual Security Report (ASR) reveal that the highest concentration of online security threats do not target pornography, pharmaceutical or gambling sites as much as they do legitimate destinations visited by mass audiences.

In fact, Cisco found that online shopping sites are 21 times as likely, and search engines are 27 times as likely, to deliver malicious content than a counterfeit software site.

EMERSON BAGS CIO CHOICE 2013 Emerson Network Power received the CIO CHOICE 2013 honors in the ‘Data Center (UPS),’ ‘Data Center (Cooling),’ ‘Power Distribution’ and ‘Infrastructure Appliances’ categories at an event held in Mumbai on 11th January.

Emerson Network Power was the leading brand nominated by Indian CIOs for the recognitions, reinforcing its position as the top choice for critical Sunil Khanna, President & MD, infrastructure solutions.

Emerson Network Power in India.

“The recognition from CIO CHOICE is a testament of the distinctive capability of Emerson Network Power’s solutions to adapt to a dynamic business environment while delivering the efficiency levels mandated by our customers,” said Sunil Khanna, President & MD, Emerson Network Power in India.

“Companies of all sizes are displaying increased interest in real-time management and optimization of their critical IT infrastructure, and we are equipped to comprehensively address the situation with industry leading solutions.”

The Centre Of Recognition & Excellence – CIO CHOICE 2013 recognized the Liebert CRV, Liebert NXr, Liebert MPH/MPX, and Avocent Universal Management Gateway as world-class solutions in the Data Center (Cooling), Data Center (UPS), Power Distribution, and Infrastructure Appliances categories respectively.

Sanovi Appoints RAH as National Disty Provider of disaster recovery management (DRM) software, Sanovi Technologies has announced RAH InfoTech as its national distributor for India and SAARC. With this alliance, RAH InfoTech will now be authorized to distribute the entire range of DRM solutions.

Ashis Guha, President (Global Sales), Sanovi, said, “With RAH InfoTech’s extensive network, credentials and industry experience, we would look to significantly expand our coverage of the market to enhance Sanovi’s leadership in the DRM space by providing the best in class solutions for effective DR management through RAH to their extended partner network as well as customers.”

D-Link India Hits New High D-Link (India) Limited has reported that its net sales grew at 68.75% for 9 months ended 2012-13 at Rs. 253.99 Cr in comparison to Rs. 150.51 Cr during the same period for 2011-12 and the net Sales for Q3, 2012-13 was at Rs. 90.25 Cr with 48.15% growth in comparison to last year’s Rs. 60.92 Cr. Moreover the company registered 108.5% rise in Net profit for 9 months ended 2012-13 at Rs.8.44 Cr against Rs. 4.04 Cr during the same period for 2011-12 and net profit for Q3, 2012-13 stood at Rs. 3.56 Cr as against Rs. 1.28 Cr during the same period for 2011-12.

Tushar Sighat, CEO, D-Link (India) Limited, said, “We have successfully managed to deliver consistent growth quarter over quarter even under volatile market situation. Our strategy & committed focus enabled us to record relentless growth along with improved revenue productivity.”

Quick Heal Initiates Four-month Long Contest Quick Heal Technologies has launched a four-month long Super Bonanza Contest beginning January, 2013. The contest will continue till April 30, 2012.

The Quick Heal products that will be part of the contest include Quick Heal Antivirus Pro 2013, Quick Heal Internet Security 2013, Quick Heal Total Security 2013 and Quick Heal Mobile Security for Android & Blackberry.

Abhijit Jorvekar, VP (Sales and Marketing), said, “The objective of the contest is not only aimed at further popularizing Quick Heal products among Indian customers but also to make users aware of our latest products and their benefits.”

*astTECS To target SMBs with Franchisees *astTECS is on an aggressive drive to extend its reach and coverage of the IP PBX market by licensing Franchise outlets across the country.

This expansion programme is focussed on creating a wealth of opportunity for Voice & Data resellers and SMBs apart from qualified entrepreneurs who want to leverage the revolutionary Asterisk based Open Source Telephony Products & rapidly growing IP PBX market and move into the fast-growing world of telecom technology solution. *astTECS initiative is aimed at targeting the SMB with scalable IP PBX solutions.

Quantum Claims 4x Faster Deduplication Appliance Quantum has announced the new DXi6800 Series deduplication appliance, which it claims combines industry-leading performance, scalability and efficiency with unique “pay-asyou-grow” extensibility to deliver better overall value than the leading competitor. The DXi6800’s patented inline deduplication technology, high performance file system software, and intelligent metadata management deliver up to 16 TB/hour performance, four times that of the market leader.

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SNIPPETS

iValue InfoSolutions To Expand A10’s India Business iValue InfoSolutions has been appointed as a national VAD for the entire range of A10 Network’s networking and security solutions. A10 is in application networking, helping organizations of all sizes to accelerate, optimize and secure their applications.

The company’s press release said that A10’s flagship AX Series are Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) that allow customers to deliver a positive end user experience for applications, respond to business needs quickly and ensure efficient data center operations and iValue InfoSolutions, with its focus in the Data, Network and Application management areas, offers pre-sales, sales, post sales, technical and warranty spare support for its partners and customers.

Sunil Pillai, Co-founder & MD, iValue InfoSolutions, said, “We see huge demand for Application Delivery, performance and security across all customer sizes and segments. I look forward to working with select partners closely along with the A10 team to maximize compelling business opportunities through this partnership.”

QNAP’s Launches TS-1270U-RP

TRANSCEND EYES TOP TWO POSITIONS Manufacturer of storage and multimedia products Transcend is looking at a growth of 20%-30% across all its products in 2013 informed Transcend’s regional head of South Asia Gordon Wu. “We want to be at the top two positions in India,” he added.

With its focus more on the metros Transcend plans to open 150 shops in tie-up with channel partners this year. “We want to increase our brand Gordon Wu, Regional Head, South awareness and will roll out these shops in partnership Asia, Transcend. with our channel partners in metros like Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, and Hyderabad and later in Class B and C cities. This year the focus will be more on metros.”

Wu is optimistic about its ‘Online business’, and says that online channel will grow faster this year. Last year Transcend did a lot of industrial corporate business expansion and this year too has some new product line in the offing.

Talking about plans for this year Wu said, “This year we will focus on enhancing our partnership and second participate more in local tradeshow and third will be on setting shops as said earlier. We will also focus on the online business and corporate industrial project. And of course there will be more products launch.”

“We won’t add any distributor this year. But will become stronger from service and bottom line point of view. We want to supply more product line to the local channel partners, distributors and also come here frequently.”

QNAP has launched TS-1270U-RP, which serves as both IP-SAN (iSCSI) and NAS, and can be easily utilized in different business and enterprise applications such as backup center, disaster recovery, file sharing, virtualization, and video editing storage.

The company’s press release announced that QNAP TS-1270U-RP offers a variety of security options such as encrypted access, IP filtering, policy-based automatic IP blocking, and more. In addition, full control of the NAS is offered down to the user and folder access rights to determine who can access the NAS and what can or cannot be accessed.

Zebronics Unveils New Cabinets with 3D Front Panel

ESET Identifies Malicious Content on Social Networks

Top Notch Infotronix, under the brand ‘Zebronics’, has launched a latest range of desktop PC cabinets. The five new models, with features like classy 3D front panel and glossy finish, add to Zebronics’ extensive lineup of cabinets.

The new range comprises of five models – Arena, Army, Escape, Race and Shark – incorporating 3D front panels that impart a continuously varying, elegant look announced the company’s press release. The Arena model carries the image of a machine gun, Army hold that of a soldiers while the Escape has the image of a sports car unchaining itself. Shark and Race models carry images of ocean and sports bike respectively.

ESET has released beta version of ESET Social Media Scanner that protects users in social media. This scanner monitors new social media content and is designed to protect users from malicious content distributed through social networks.

ESET social media scanner works by monitoring user’s personal social media accounts. When malicious code is discovered by the ESET social media scanner, user is alerted by a message from the scanner or by email.

Additionally, the ESET Social Media Scanner can be configured to call out malicious content by automatically posting a comment that warns user and his friend list to avoid media that has been found to contain malicious code.

The company informed that the ESET Social Media Scanner is also available on the Facebook App Center and the ESET Facebook Fan Page.

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LEADERS’CORNER

HP INDIA

INTENT IS TO EMPOWER PARTNERS WITH RIGHT TOOLS As market dynamics change, vendors are trying to be one-stop solution providers to garner larger revenue from customers but it all depends on how versatile the portfolio and how aggressive the go-to-market strategy.

BY: APARAJITA CHOUDHURY aparajita@smechannels.com

2

012 has been marked as a very disappointing year for business as all the vendors and channel partners went through a very difficult phase; but hope floats that 2013 will prove to be a better year. Hence vendors like HP are moving forward with some new strategies like realizing the market opportunities, creating avenues in demand generation among customers by telling them what they are missing in terms of IT requirements, and in this situation they expect the channel partners to look forward to enablement and restructuring their organizations and to face the opportunities and challenges.

Talking more about the strategy, Pradeep Khemani, Country Head (Channel and SMBs SalesEnterprise Group), HP India, says, “HP offers solutions, products and infrastructure and guides partners to wrap the solutions, services with the infrastructure to define customers’ allegiance and gain more of their mind share. Solutions which we emphasize today are very important piece but many of the partners have adopted those in bits and pieces.”

He adds that together with the partners HP has helped in spotting opportunities in the market and aligned them with changing IT market.

Cloud computing is something which is changing rules of the market and he says that’s where the partners need to look at while they move forward with their overall strategy in terms of enablement and design of their organization. HP says it is doing a lot with partners around cloud, which holds great opportunity for them. Many of the partners look at cloud as threat but the partners who have clear understanding of services and IT opportunity are aligned with cloud with a very strong business plan and is working closely towards that.

PRADEEP KHEMANI, COUNTRY HEAD (CHANNEL AND SMBS SALES ENTERPRISE GROUP) HP INDIA

“GONE ARE THE DAYS WHEN PARTNERS WAITED TO CATER TO CUSTOMER S’ NEEDS, NOW THEY HAVE TO CREATE THAT NEED.”

Khemani rates Solutions as another key area.

But as virtualization and consolidation will be looked upon by most of the customers to cut cost and have better RoI Partners are best poised to look at these solutions and take it to the customers. And HP says it has all the requisite products and solutions that goes into it.

But the question remains how the partners wrap around solutions and services with these infrastructure products, to garner more market and customers’ mind share. Khemani considers this as a very important part because he says a lot of partners run shy of using software as an opportunity to go to the customers in terms of giving them a lot more value for the entire infrastructure they have deployed. “It is not just about selling to the customer needs. Gone are the days when partners waited to cater to the customers’ needs, now they have to create that need.”

But it is also true that most partners are getting to understand the customers’ need.And this shift Khemani says will be a differentiator for the partners in 2013.

Apart from the focus on channel partners as a key to their go-to-market strategy, there is a lot happening this year at the partner programme level too. HP’s channel partners drive 80% of its business. Across the product portfolio of servers, storage, networking, services and software, the company has focussed programmes. And says every partner of HP has the ability to get into it as these are accessible to them. Especially on services and software, the programmes are created keeping in mind profitability for the partners depending on their focus.

These programmes, the company says, are very dynamic and keeps on changing as and when product launches happen. For example, the company has beefed up its entire 3PAR portfolio,

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HP INDIA

which is going to address the mid-markets’ needs.

Then there are programmes to enable partners on this technology to help them sell to the market.

There is also a launch around Integrity server portfolio, which is getting into the mid-market space and customers’ needs too are emerging. HP also sees opportunity in ISS business (Intel server business), and there is good traction in Gen8 server ranges. Even in the PPS portfolio there are plenty of launches.

Speaking on the product ranges of HP, Khemani explains, “HP is basically a one-stop-shop having plethora of products and solutions for any customer needs. It is one company, which provides end-to-end portfolio – just unparalleled in the market, which is wrapped around with services and software for last plenty of years. For a partner it is a great value that he can offer from HP.” Most of the channel partners don’t want to be tied to a particular brand and want to be liberated. On this Khemani remarks that HP never delves deep into what the partners are selling under services. But the company expects that the partners sell as much as HP branded services. Not all the partners are adept to sell HP services but

HP guides them by taking them to the market and doing core selling. He adds, “They control most of the customers. We expect them to take our services organisation, and wrap HP services around the HP products they sell. And most of the partners are doing that very successfully.”

But there are partners who independently sell a lot of HP services; and the customers are happy about the complementary arrangement of HP and the partners.

HP says its partners are ready to address the upcoming markets and are ready with solutions and have aligned them with ISVs to customize their solutions to the respected market. As per Khemani in the BFSI space, cooperative banks are picking up, where a lot of partners are aligned with it. Also verticals like Govt, IT and ITeS, and SMB market are growing fast. HP has solutions to address these market space and partners are taking these solutions along with the aligned ISVs. Specifically in SMB space, HP has enabled a bunch of SIs to get together and create a cloud company ‘All Time IT’.

Speaking on SMBs, Khemani says, “Primarily SMBs are opportunity today. New opportunities

LEADERS’ CORNER

and new customers are coming up in this space.

This market is spread across various verticals, which are coming up and we expect our partners to lead that space and we are putting a lot of effort and money to make sure that we grow there.”

HP further believes that working on one specific vertical may not give channel partners a long term view of how they can scale up and grow in the market. So the company plans to add more verticals and add more solutions, align them with ISVs so that they can help partners to become successful.

Finally…

Having experienced lot of ups and downs in 2012, HP will go ahead according to the nature of the market and moreover the company sees lots of traction and opportunities in the market place. Additionally, a bunch of customers are looking at investing in IT infrastructure and at various ways and means of adopting IT for better results. “We will see a better year for sure and we are working with the partner’s very closely to put plans that look at strong year on year growth compared to 2012,” concludes Khemani.

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SME CHANNELS 27 FEBRUARY 2013

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COVER STORY

PRINTING SOLUTIONS

PRINTING THE INTELLIGENT WAY With the untapped opportunity in SMEs expected to reach 11 million by 2015, as per Zinnov, it is a sector hard to ignore. Hence this burgeoning SME market is giving a push to the printer market and forms an important component in vendors GTM strategy.

BY KARMA NEGI

karma@smechannels.com

H

eard of Johann Gutenberg?

No? Well let me jog your memory. He was the Chap who invented the eponymous Gutenberg Printing Press way back in 1493. And today’s printing industry owes a lot to this guy whose revolutionary invention greatly increased the speed at which books were printed.

From those days the printing industry has undergone a sea change and today while sitting at one place we can give printouts at the other corner of the world. The market is receptive to the powerful trends of Cloud and Mobility; managed print services and multi-functional devices are attracting the SMEs; SMEs are also getting more inclined towards the laser printers;

and cloud printing and 3D printing are trying to make their mark.

Market research firm Gartner reports that unit shipments of inkjet and page printers, copiers, and MFPs in India declined 4.7 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2012, dropping to 760,778 units. The growing proliferation of electronic media, such as smartphones and tablets, as a means of communication has certainly contributed the slow consumer spending on printing and copying machines announced the research firm.

India’s printer market has also witnessed the entry of new players. Chinese printer brand Pantum made its entry into India last year, with ambitious plans to be among the top five laser printer brands in the country by 2015.

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COVER STORY

BY 2015, MANAGED PRINT WILL GROW INTO A $40.5 BILLION MARKET OPPORTUNITY: IDC

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PRINTING SOLUTIONS

Last year, the market also saw the departure of some brands like Lexmark from the shrinking inkjet printer market. According to market watcher IDC, spending on inkjets fell by 13 percent in the second quarter of 2012, as firms clamp down on their printing costs, forcing Lexmark into the move. The company plans to concentrate on its higher margin multifunction and laser printer products, as well as its managed print operations.

Even Kodak announced its departure from the consumer inkjet printer business, focusing on supplying ink for the installed base.

The printer market can be segmented into inkjet, dot-matrix, laser printers. Then there is also the lesser known point-of-sale printers mostly used at the retail shops. And as enterprises and small businesses look at curbing printing costs, has given rise to multi-functional devices (MFD) and managed print service (MPS).

MPS in SMEs Some printer vendors are singing paeans about MPS and why not. Gartner predicts that “MPS is accelerating growth to the point that more than 50% of large organizations worldwide will employ MPS by 2015.” By 2015, IDC says, managed print will grow into a $40.5 billion market opportunity.

Earlier big enterprises like BFSI, pharmaceuticals, IT and ITeS were the adopters of MPS because of their huge printing demands. But lately SMEs too are getting inclined towards this segment as it realizes its cost benefits.

MPS allows organizations to integrate imaging and printing into their overall IT infrastructure strategies (particularly in the case of cloud adoption). In Managed Print Services, there exists a model that allows business organizations to achieve the dual objectives of shifting their imaging and printing fleet infrastructure to an opex model, and at the same time reduce their document output costs.

“SMEs especially medium enterprises, with more than 300-400 employees, are getting inclined towards MPS because they have realized how printing plays an important role in any organisation. They have realized that this is something where they need better control and better efficiency. If you look at the overall printing infrastructure a company spends almost 1% of their total revenue on printing,” informs Bhaskar Joshi, Senior Marketing Manager (Office Imaging Solutions), Canon India.

SMEs need cost effective products and services which are available at low upfront investment.

Today they are interested in reducing costs, increasing efficiencies and making their business

“SMES ARE GETTING INCLINED TOWARDS MPS BECAUSE THEY HAVE REALIZED HOW PRINTING PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN ANY ORGANISATION.” BHASKAR JOSHI, SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER (OFFICE IMAGING SOLUTIONS), CANON INDIA

information secure.

“Choosing MPS brings many new opportunities to the SMEs, including taking control of the internal imaging and printing network, focus on the core business, and managing costs,” states Nitin Hiranandani, Director (Printing Systems), PPS, HP India.

While Joshi opines that MPS in enterprises has matured but SMEs have still a long way to go because of their misconceptions and lack of clarity on MPS. Joshi says,”Some think MPS is only an operating cost model, while for other it is a software solution. “Overall MPS is all about bringing the printing efficiently in an organisation, and completely outsourcing your printing job to an expert,” he stresses.

While HP says that in developing economies like India, MPS market is fast maturing. Apart from the enterprise space (comprising mainly of global enterprises and large national enterprises), there is still an untapped MPS-SME market in India, which is very large.

To deal with this problem Canon with aspi-

“THE SME SEGMENT IS GROWING AT A RAPID PACE FUELLING DEMAND FOR ALLIN-ONE AND MFD DEVICES, NETWORKED AND WIRELESS PRINTERS.” NITIN HIRANANDANI, DIRECTOR (PRINTING SYSTEMS), PPS, HP INDIA

rations to move in SMEs with MPS, is doing programs and internal events and educating the customers about everything that comes under MPS and the overall benefits it brings in.

Similarly, HP says it’s committed to educating SMEs on the advantages of MPS. “Through all our marketing and channel focused initiatives we constantly communicate to SMEs and mid-market about the manifold advantages of MPS and how businesses can save cost and increase efficiency by adapting to them,” says Hiranandani.

Through its SMB Printing solutions and services like PMPS (Partner Managed Print Services), HP is helping SME customers reduce printing costs, manage workflows and create additional value for their customers.

MFPs MFPs combine the capabilities of four devices: printer, copier, scanner and fax into a single piece of equipment. This not only saves space but also time, reduces waste as it uses one set of consum-

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PRINTING SOLUTIONS

COVER STORY

Earlier big enterprises like BFSI, pharmaceuticals, IT and ITeS were the adopters of MPS because of their huge printing demands. But lately SMBs too are getting inclined towards this segment as it realizes its cost benefits.

“3D PRINTERS WILL ALSO ENJOY SUCCESS IN SEVERAL NICHE AREAS SUCH AS THE “DO IT YOURSELF” HOME HOBBYIST MARKET, JEWELLERY, FOOTWEAR, ARCHITECTURE ETC.”

“THERE IS ABOUT 3-4% SHRINKAGE IN THE MARKET. EARLIER THE INKJET PRINTERS WERE USED IN THE OFFICES AND BUT NOW THAT SPACE HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY LASER.”

AJAY MADAN, PRODUCT HEAD (DOCUMENT PRODUCTS), PANASONIC INDIA.

RAJEEV TEWARI, DIRECTOR (CSP GROUP), CANON INDIA.

able supplies for all their output options.

Hence the market is also steadily migrating towards MFPs instead of standalone printers, in both homes and offices.

“MFP’s are a great value proposition for small businesses which are in a growth mode. They offer savings in terms of duplex printing (printing on both sides of paper), efficiency improvement (network printing), advanced scanning and email capabilities as well as colour capability. We believe this growth trend will continue going forward,” states Hiranandani.

Multifunction printers come in two flavours, he says, Inkjet based multi-function printers, which are finding extensive use in homes and small business/offices and the laser based MFP’s, are witnessing high adoption rate in SME and large businesses.

“MFPs are fast emerging as an answer to the growing printing needs and low-cost budgets especially for the SME segment,” says Ajay Madan, Product Head (Document Products), Panasonic India. “More and more small and

mid-sized businesses are now looking for customized solutions that will allow them to optimally exploit their printing and imaging infrastructure; for this, they will partner with printing solutions partners.”

Inkjet vs. Laser Is the inkjet market dying a slow death? Is it losing out to laser? According to research company InfoTrends despite recent advances in office inkjet technology, laser devices continue to dominate office environments worldwide. It estimates that approximately 73% of print devices in the office in 2011 were laser-based (globally) compared to 27% for inkjets.

As per IDC, the Indian laser printer market is estimated to be about 1.7 million units currently and is pegged to grow to 2 million units by 2015.

“As far as inkjet is concerned the market is shrinking. There is about 3-4% shrinkage in the market,” agrees Rajeev Tewari, Director (CSP Group), Canon India. “Earlier the inkjet printers

were used in the offices and but now that space has been taken over by laser hence there is a little bit of shrinkage in that area.”

Even the SMEs are preferring laser over inkjet and Canon has also witnessed its SMEs moving out from inkjet to laser. However, it has plans to bring them back into the inkjet fold with more ink efficient printers.

However, as per IDC despite a contraction of 15 percent year-over-year, inkjet remains the dominant technology with 16.7 million units shipped in third-quarter 2012, and a 61 percent share of the total hardcopy market in thirdquarter 2012.

Talking about the advantage of inkjet HP says that businesses looking for a smart, fast and affordable printing solution today have a great choice in choosing an inkjet printer that perfectly matches their needs. “The acquisition cost of a business inkjet printer is lower than a color laser printer; and above all, modern business inkjets support printing management software and solutions that make them a great candidate for acquisition even in the larger enterprises,” says Hiranandani.

However, he adds, that they have witnessed heavy traction for color lasers from verticals like travel and tourism, education, retail and advertising and marketing.

On a more optimistic note after witnessing a good last year in the inkjet market, this year Canon is looking at approx 25% growth in inkjet.

And even Epson bets on the Inkjet market.

Dot-Matrix Requiem for Dot matrix has been written over the years but still it refuses to die. However it’s a diminishing market. The dip in the desktop PCs,

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COVER STORY

PRINTING SOLUTIONS

and the surge in laptops and tablets are impacting this market.

Epson puts the size of the Dot matrix market at Rs. 300 crore and says will increase the market share by 10-15%. “All the major metros are stagnant and the new purchases are happening only in the upcountry markets. Hence we want to cover more areas especially in the upcountry markets as this is where the products are going,” says Ramesh V, Sr. Business Manager (SIDM, Sales & Marketing), Epson India.

“We feel the conversion to laser/inkjet/ Thermal technologies have not stunted the growth of DMPs in SME segment,” states Jose Antony, Country Manager (Channel Sales), TVS Electronics.

The only verticals which still show traction towards it are BFSI, government (state and central), retail, logistics, couriers, manufacturing companies informs Antony.

Giving the rationale behind the diminishing dot matrix market Tewari attributes it to the increasing usage of laser and inkjet printers in offices. “The utility of the product started reducing because of the speed, and second because of the noise it makes.”

POS It is difficult to ascertain the size of this market due to the lack of any syndicated data or research done on this segment. This segment does not boasts of many well-known brands and is highly unorganised. However, Retail majorly drives this segment.

“It is very difficult to mention the size of the market because unlike other printers like Laser or Dot Matrix, there are only few key players here. In the POS printer market there are brands like Epson, Star, Citizen and the unbranded one comes from China,” says Prabagaran S, Senior Business Manager (Laser & SD, Sales & Marketing), Epson India.

POS printers contributes significantly to TVSE’s revenue and says estimates for POS Printers in India are about 70K units, with the retail growth automation which is growing more than 25% and automation transactions getting mandatory.

“POS printer market is showing an upward trend with automation of billing increasing to provide better and quick service to customers,” says Antony.

Epson has four different types of technology available for POS printers: One is Dot Matrix technology, second is Thermal technology, third is Hybrid technology and the fourth one is Impact printers. “From last year to this year we have grown around 33% and we are aiming at another 30% growth,” informs Ramesh V.

“WE FEEL THE CONVERSION TO LASER/INKJET/ THERMAL TECHNOLOGIES HAVE NOT STUNTED THE GROWTH OF DMPS IN SMB SEGMENT.” JOSE ANTONY, COUNTRY MANAGER (CHANNEL SALES), TVS ELECTRONICS

But this market is highly unorganised. “There are both grey and locally branded products in the market which is hampering the branded products price preposition and value for money to the customer,” laments Antony. “With the available sources, we estimate the market is growing at 25% and TVS-E market share is expected to be 35%.”

Small Cities Lead the Way The printing demand is no longer confined to metro and key cities; there is a surge in demand from smaller cities too.

Canon’s business mostly came from metro cities and that too from government segment.

But lately it is witnessing a change in tide towards with an increase in non-governmental sale and that too in B and C class towns. “Non-govt. sales mean that it’s the SMEs who are buying these high-end machines from us. And their normal growth overall is around 20-25% in Canon India per se for my division; but if I look for the SMEs the growth might be 40% in B and C class towns

“ALL THE MAJOR METROS ARE STAGNANT AND THE NEW PURCHASES ARE HAPPENING ONLY IN THE UPCOUNTRY MARKETS.” RAMESH V, SENIOR BUSINESS MANAGER (SIDM, SALES & MARKETING), EPSON INDIA.

and in commercial non-govt. sales it is almost 40-45%,” points out Joshi.

As per Hiranandani the huge growth and adoption of consumer PC in homes creates huge opportunity. This is not only visible in major metro cities, the PC penetration in class B, C and D cities is significantly increasing thus driving the printer market opportunity. “The SME segment is growing at a rapid pace fuelling demand for all in one and MFD devices, networked and wireless printers.”

As part of its strategy for Dot Matrix TVS-E plans to reach to all touch points in India and slowly shift the market to automation in the deeper pockets. “We will also focus on creating a solution for rural automation and use our devices as the main fulcrum for rural automation in the given ecosystem in the rural markets. There is increasing demand in cooperative banks in upcountry pockets and would thus try and leverage to increase our share in this segment,” shares Antony.

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PRINTING SOLUTIONS

“IT IS VERY DIFFICULT TO MENTION THE SIZE OF THE MARKET BECAUSE UNLIKE THE OTHER PRINTERS LIKE LASER OR DOT MATRIX, THERE ARE ONLY FEW KEY PLAYERS HERE.” PRABAGARAN S, SENIOR BUSINESS MANAGER (LASER & SD, SALES & MARKETING), EPSON INDIA.

Finally...

With budget crunches people and businesses are on the lookout for more cost effective devices, that are capable of performing multiple tasks are gaining traction in the market. Hence there has been a palpable shift from a single device to MFP and managed print services at lesser the cost, speed and space.

Dot matrix market is almost written away with, and Inkjet too has not performed that well but vendors are not shying away from this market and expectations are still high with the increasing adoption of inkjet multifunction devices, cloud printing etc.

Though there have been new entrants in the market but well established players like Canon see no threat. In fact, even Panasonic sees scope for new entrants as it says the India market not yet saturated and hence the opportunity is enormous and offers enough space to accommodate new players as well.

COVER STORY

CLOUD PRINTING

We have become a spoilt lot. Our need to be connected anytime, anywhere has extended even to printers. And even this market is not untouched by the ubiquitous Cloud. Director of CSP Group Canon Rajeev Tewari explains that Cloud Printing has nothing to do with the printers but are basically software enablers.

“Cloud print enables one to print over the web from anywhere, including your phone, to any printer,” this is how Google defines the term Cloud Printing. The eponymous Google Cloud Print is one such service in this direction.

Bhaskar Joshi, Senior Marketing Manager (Office Imaging Solutions), Canon India, says, “Cloud Printing is the in thing right now but still large enterprises have refrained from adopting it due to security and other reasons. What is happening is people or companies are not going for social clouds rather they are preferring their own secured clouds and SMEs are somewhat keener to venture into the shared clouds. SMEs are looking for this kind of cloud. Canon is also trying to bring this enterprise level software solution put it in the cloud and this can be shared by various SMEs.” Panasonic India is confident that Cloud Printing will be a tool for technocrats and will speed up the communication through smart handheld gadgets.

HP declares that the interest in HP ePrint-enabled and web-connected printers has been extremely high and are very pleased with the response from both consumers as well as businesses.

“Globally over 10 million users were using web-connected printers in 2011; we expect the number to grow to 50 million by the end of this year,” notes Nitin Hiranandani, Director (Printing Systems), PPS, HP India.

3D PRINTING

The 3D printing process involves using special prin theads that transform computer-aided designs into real objects by adding layer on tiny layer of material to create objects.

Panasonic says that 3D printers will likely become a viable segment in several markets and the industrial manufacturing market with growth rates of greater than 100 percent versus 2011.

“3D printers will also enjoy success in several niche areas such as the “do it yourself” home hobbyist market, jewellery, footwear, architecture, industrial design, engineering and construction. There is also significant interest in the application of 3D printing in the biomedical sector,” informs Ajay Madan, Product Head (Document Products), Panasonic India.

Rajeev Tewari, Director, CSP Group Canon explains two ways to look at 3D printing. In the first kind of 3D Printing the ink used is actually a kind of clay and is essentially used for computer aided manufacturing and computer aided designing. “Haven’t seen many such printers in India, maybe only one or two such models,” says Tewari.

In the second kind printing happens on plain paper and as per the line marks, cuts in those prints, you fold as per the instructions and can create an image.

However, there seems to be trouble brewing in this market if one were to go by the latest report

by Reuters. “Shares of companies that sell 3D printers fell after Citron Research said they were vastly overvalued and that the technology, highlighted this week by U.S. President Barack Obama, has been hyped,” states Reuters in a news report.

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PARTNERS’CORNER

ADVANCE MARKETING

RAJENDRA RAHURIKAR, DIRECTOR, ADVANCE MARKETING, BHOPAL

WANT TO OFFER SOLUTIONS NOT PRODUCTS Starting its PBX business with Matrix way back in 1992, Advance Marketing plans to venture into the security range of Matrix products this year.

S

tarting the business in 1992 with an investment of a meagre Rs. 10,000, today Advance Marketing boasts of a dedicated workforce of 50 staff in sales and service. As on date the group turnover of Advance Marketing is more than Rs 4 crore and tries to maintain at-least 20% growth each year.

“We are as old as Matrix. We started our PBX business with Matrix in 1992. Since then we have been successful in running this business and have grown together with Matrix. We are proud to say that currently in Bhopal region we have a strong presence in all verticals from private to government, giving a tough competition to our MNC competitors,” says Rajendra Rahurikar, Director, Advance Marketing, Bhopal.

Rahurikar says their core strength lies in adapting to new technologies and serving them to end-customers. He attributes the adoption of the philosophy to transfer the technology to partners and from them to customers to Matrix.

He lists all major hotels, hospitals, print media, banks in Bhopal as its major customers and claims to have captured more than 60% market share in this vertical. Though its key business strength lies in telecom but has ventured into fitness equipments too.

Speaking on the telecom market in India Rahurikar says, “We have experienced our own share of ups and downs in telecom sector but after year 2000 we have observed an exponential growth in this sector. Still a lot of business is expected in coming years as all sectors like financial, banking, industrial, corporates, educational etc. and as the business is shifting from urban to rural more business opportunities is expected from these areas.”

On solutions and products front, from traditional telephone to IP-telephone, Advance serves all its product range to the PBX clients. The company further says that the entry of IP-Telephone in India has reduced the communication cost of buyers at the right time; and with Matrix’s entry in this market and timely educating of its partners, has also made them capable to serve any type of customer requirements from IP to traditional telephony.

However he feels that still a lot has to be done in this sector and once the IP telephone is opened by the Ministry of Telecom a new era of IP business will start in this sector. “Already Matrix is one of the major players of IP/GSM and gateways in Indian market, serving quality products to customers,” he says.

Heaping praise on Matrix Rahurikar says that what differentiates Matrix from the lot is its substance in the form of technology, depth, genuineness and going beyond the mere outer façade and offer more values in all the areas. Matrix’s positioning is based on offering more of these true inherent values which customers expect from infrastructure solutions.

Answering the query on what Matrix needs to do to improve its market share he says, “We don’t feel apt in justifying our inputs to this question because we are 100% confident that Matrix is always trying to do its best in R&D for innovative products, customer support, quality, and presenting big challenges to MNC players in domestic as well as in the international market.”

Finally...

This year Advance Marketing plans to venture into the security range of Matrix products. And as a partner it is ready to edify the advantages of IP and GSM products to its new and existing customers, so that it will not only help them meet the communication requirements but also reduce their operational cost, as Rahurika says “we are more interested in offering solutions rather than selling products.” SME

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SME CHAT

SAJEEV NAIR, MANAGER (PRODUCT MANAGEMENT), MATRIX COMSEC

“WE WANT TO DOUBLE OUR REVENUE IN INDIA MARKET” With 2012 being a flat year, it is expected that 2013 will be better. Matrix Comsec wants to augment the revenue two fold in India. SME Channels spoke to Sajeev Nair, Manager (Product Management), Matrix Comsec, to know more about the expansion plans and product innovation. Excerpts.

What is Matrix’s market presence and product innovation?

We were TDM telecom channel and from there we are moving towards unified communication, all our systems and solution are now based on internet platform. We have lots of products in the pipeline to be launched in 2013. We are also increasing our presence in India especially in the IT integrators market as we feel the right channel for us are coming here, and in terms of revenue we want to double our revenue in India.

In global market 2012 was a reasonably good year for us and for 2013, we are aggressively planning to tap many new markets. We have also started a program to collaborate with other manufacturers, service providers, and solution providers to enhance our product range.

The market is not so bullish from the telephony perspective, what is your strategy?

It is true that the market is not growing as expected and in my opinion it is because of economic slowdown. But there is a sizeable market for technology players. Matrix is a very small company and for us there is lot of scope to grow.

And for us SMEs are our target market.

Any innovations you are bringing in this year?

When it comes to innovative solutions, we are introducing a new concept - Office in a Box. Here, for small offices, all the requirements of voice communication and data communication will be available in one single box. If you look at the small office space, you need a PBX, an ethernet router and you need an internet access device, Wi-Fi access device, and secure routing. So we have a product in the market and has within PBX both conventional TDM extensions and IP extension, it also has built in 100 mbps Ethernet switch.

For internet connectivity, it has wired internet connectivity, wireless internet connection facility with popular 3G dongle, and 3G SIM card. It also provides failure mechanism. So overall it is a complete solution for SOHO where one device can serve all the purpose of a small business - be it data or voice.

Do you have any product in the security space?

We have recently launched our digital video recorders, and access control is already there in the market. In access control we have introduced the new product called Palm Vein reader where your palm vein can be read, so in high-end security area, one of the full proof mechanisms is palm.

In video segment we have already launched our digital video recorders. In 2013, we will

launch our network based video recorder (NVR), in addition to that we also have a high definition video recorders in the pipeline. We may also launch fire alarm solutions in the market.

Are all these products marketed through channel?

Matrix is a channel driven company and we ought to sell through our channel partners as we have a very strong network of 400 channel partners and now our effort is to increase these numbers in different segment. We are now focussed on creating channel networking in networking space, traditional surveillance and access control space.

We will also start sales support initiatives where the sales support staff will be available to solve any kind of customer queries or design solutions for the customers, so that it will also be easier for the channel partners to make a sale.

How many partners you plan to add?

Already we have around 400 channel partners and in the next coming year we want to add 100 more.

What kind of target do youwant to achieve this year?

We want to double our revenue in India.

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CASE STUDY

TALLY

LARGEST RETAIL CHAIN IN KOLKATA BANKS UPON TALLY.ERP9

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aipur Electronics is an old and trusted retail chain for Consumer Electronics & Home Appliances in Kolkata. Started in the year 1983, the company has grown to be Rs. 87 crore entity today. The name of the chain comes from Killa Raipur of Punjab, from where the company’s founder and chairman Mr Karnail Singh Raipur hails. Spread across 15,000 sq. ft. of floor area, its retail stores are located all over the city in Bhowanipore and Tollygunge in South Kolkata and Shyambazar and Girish Park in North Kolkata.

Like every organization, Raipur Electronics was also using manual process for its accounts, inventory and other store documentation. As the company grew bigger from its lone store at Bhowanipore in South Kolkata, it turned the company into private limited entity and brought in professionals to manage the stores. This also brought in complexity in their operations and accounting.

A retail chain normally involves rigorous activity of normal book keeping of sales and purchase, inventory, back-end coordination and MIS across the stores.

It was really a hectic task for the company to collaborate data of all of their stores on a real-time basis to activate their plan of action.

Hence in 1998, the company implemented computers in all of its stores and at the same time also implemented Tally accounting software. However, with the passing of days, the complexity of business enhanced and the issues on manageability started mounting.

Mr. Rajinder Singh Raipur, Director, Raipur Electronics Pvt. Ltd., says, “Our biggest problem was synchronization of data across all the branches and to make it a consolidated one to create some plans. We were not able to even maintain inventory and statutory

MR. RAJINDER RAIPUR DIRECTOR, RAIPUR ELECTRONICS PVT. LTD.

“We found Tally very strong in accounting and inventory reporting. Plus it had a feature - VAT reportsas VAT was introduced in the state. So we decided to go for Tally.

ERP 9.”

CONTACT Tally Solutions AMR Tech Park II, No. 23 & 24, Hongasandra, Hosur Main Road, Bangalore – 560 068.

India.Tel +91 80 66282559; Fax +91 80 30228775; www. tallysolutions.com

BENEFITS

l Sales operation has

become very fast l Customer does not

have to wait for too long for the bill l Inventory is updated immediately. l Tracks goods’ delivery status immediately l Brings control over all stores from one single location

reports. So we looked for an enterprise solution and a local partner who could implement and support us. But none of the brand we evaluated satisfied us and hence finally we turn ed to Tally in 2011.”

He adds, “During 2011, we called up Tally and they suggested some Tally partners’ names. We contacted Circuit World and they gave us an evaluation copy of Tally.ERP 9. We found this product very strong in accounting and inventory reporting. It had a feature - VAT reports- as West Bengal Govt. had introduced VAT system in the state. So we decided to go for Tally.ERP 9. with the help of the tool provided in Tally.ERP 9.

We started with utilizing functionalities like sales vouchers creation, point of sale system, synchronization between all stores, etc.”

It took a month’s time to implement the enterprise solution and five months to correct the data as per Tally’s technical requirement. He adds, “We exported all the item masters from Tally into MS Excel Sheet. The spellings of the items were corrected. Their UOM, Parents,

Cost, MRP, Opening Stock location wise, and then we uploaded the same back in Tally.ERP 9.”

Mr. Rajinder adds, “Tally integration partner - Circuit World has been a great help to us while implementing and migrating the data – although we have not yet completely customized some of the modules as of yet.”

Mr. Prakash Goswami, Partner, Circuit World, says, “Raipur Electronics had lot of issues; but we created requisite solution by customizing Tally.ERP 9. But still some modules like exact stock value module and exchange goods module are yet to be implemented. We are working on this and will be resolved soon.”

Today, the company’s sales operation has become very fast, customer does not have to wait for the bill, inventory gets updated immediately, tracks goods’ delivery status immediately, etc. It also brings control of all the stores from one single location.

With the resolution of problems within the company, Raipur Electronics management is very happy today.

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PARTNER’S CORNER

TALLY HAS HELPED US TO EARN RESPECTABLE POSITIONS MR. PRAKASH GOSWAMI, PARTNER, CIRCUIT WORLD

“THE VERSATILE CAPABILITY OF TALLY HAS ENABLED US TO SERVICE CLIENTS ACROSS ALL MAJOR CITIES IN INDIA AND BANGLADESH.”

A

fter doing jobs in various companies for a decent period of time when in the year 2000 Mr. Prakash Goswami and Mr Pankaj Baid, his friend and partner in Circuit World, decided to quit and do something on their own, they turned to software development under the name of Circuit World.

That time India was going through a very good phase and hence for the next five years they developed various applications for various small companies but due to the sudden market slump –dot.com bust -their business did not perform as expected in 2005 one of their clients advised them to implement Tally, and they supplied three Tally Multiuser licenses to the client, which was used in their new Tata Motor Car Dealership firm. This marked a turnaround in fortune for Mr. Prakash Goswami and his partner Mr. Pankaj Baid.

Mr. Prakash Goswami, says, “The versatile capability of Tally has enabled us to service clients across all major cities in India and Bangladesh.

We are able to provide complete solution to our clients in the areas of sales, support, training, implementation, consultation and customization.

Tally has given us unlimited opportunity.”

He adds, “Introduction of Tally in our business has made us change the way we used to approach our clients. Our capability and efficiency have been multiplied by Tally.”

Today, Circuit World has a team of 17 personnel, who are well versed in Tally technologies.

The company is specialized in developing business applications for start-up companies to large corporates. Circuit World has developed a large number of ready- to- use modules for a cross section of clients.

Mr. Prakash adds, “You get a product from us, which is tested over time. You can concentrate on sales without worrying about the back end. Using code-reusability, we bring down the turn-around time. Plus, we consult and support our clients in order to increasing their revenue.”

Tally has empowered Circuit World to be specialized on many vertical market segments including consumer electronic stores, foreign liquor shops, transport agencies, car sales agencies, etc. The company has customized Tally.ERP 9 for these verticals.

For example, the problems faced by a retail store include: multi VAT billing, numerous ledgers, short- time credit, multi-mode of payment, tracking of delivery after sales, stock query of branch, price control, etc., but Circuit World has created application based on Tally.ERP 9 to do away with all these issues. This has helped both the retailer and its customers. Since the back end time consumption is small, the shoppers are able to get a wonderful shopping experience. Currently the module is successfully running in more than 20 stores across Kolkata.

Similarly, the solution for Foreign Liquor Stores is able to eliminate the challenges of layman data

entry operators, minimal key board use, sale bill in two seconds, etc. The solution also addresses the excise reporting of inventory in terms of brands or categories or even bottle size. This solution has helped save time and increased manpower efficiency by 90%.

The solutions developed by the company based on Tally.ERP 9 are functionally innovative, plus smooth and easy in deployment.

In fact, Tally gave them the opportunity to access a wide scale of customers, which otherwise would have been difficult for them to cater to, which in turn has helped them to earn respectable positions in finance and dignity.

Finally…

Giving credit to Tally for their success, Mr. Prakash says, “Our goal is to achieve a turnover of Rs.1crore+ in next three years and to grow into a major IT solution provider. In the coming years, we are looking forward to increasing our sales by three fold and double the manpower size. In all this, these, Tally will be our guiding force.”

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FEATURE

CLOUD SOLUTION

CLOUD SOLUTION

BY THE CHANNEL AND THROUGH THE CHANNEL Thinking out-of-the-box is surely what it takes to take advantage of market opportunity. Partners who push their thinking can change the business proposition for them, and this what AllTimeIT is all about.

BY APARAJITA CHOUDHURY aprajita@smechannels.com

A

ccording to a recent report by AMI-partners, in emerging markets, such as China, India, Brazil and Russia, SME Cloud services’ spending and investments through service providers will increase nearly six times from US $111 million in 2011 to US $615 million by 2015. This represents a four-year annual growth rate of 54%. Additionally, close to 35 million SMEs in India contribute about 45% of the industrial output, 40% of exports and employ 42 million people, according to the SME Chamber of India Web site.

Adoption of Cloud Computing among SMEs will see an aggressive boost over the next few years because it allows SMEs to shrink the large invest-

ment by offering IT infrastructure and software tools at a per user basis. Therefore, the RoI is more visible in Cloud Computing than having everything in place under one’s pay rolls.

In this backdrop, the large ISPs and service providers are likely to play a major role, and also throws up opportunities for the IT integrators – especially the mid-tier partners – to top up their revenue apart from their traditional source. But a challenge remains; they lack the geographic reach and money power to set up infrastructure and reach out to the customers pan India. But the recent initiative by 15 channel partners, who are mid-tier SIs in the country, is a great path finder.

Encouraged by HP including companies like Ashtech, C.I. Infotech, Dixit Infotech, Dotcad,

Future biz, Orbit, Orient, PC Solutions, Precision, Progression, SK International, Sara Infoway, Shro Systems, Valuepoint and Vintech came together and created AllTimeIT. The mission of the company is to be among the top three ‘Cloud Services Providers’ with most secured and user friendly business applications over cloud platform, using path breaking technologies, in most flexible, cost effective and environment friendly work culture.

These companies with average 20 years of work experience in IT SI space also have a rich background in handling SMEs. The company identifies and delivers SMEs with focussed solutions on the Cloud. On the other hand, SMEs can leverage on these cloud services to increase speed and agility of their business as most of the customers are exploring ways of leveraging cloud benefits.

As each of the partners are well aware of the trends in this organization they could have easily addressed the issues or opportunities on their own level but despite that they came together to create a conglomerate.

The question that comes to mind is as all of these players come with different mind-sets and practices, so why this arrangement? Devendra Taneja, Chairman & Director, AllTimeIT, says, “The challenge is if we do it by ourselves we would

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CLOUD SOLUTION

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF HP AND YOUR OBJECTIVE IN HELPING ALLTIMEIT? The HP CloudAgile Partner Program certifies AllTimeIT as a CloudSystem hoster in India to deliver IaaS services to customers. It also offers AllTimeIT new opportunities to accelerate and extend its market reach, delivering services faster with low capital investment.

The HP solution enables complete automation thereby helping AllTimeIT deliver outstanding experiences to its customers with reduced time to market.

The flexible payment model, fast technology implementation, geographical reach and need-specific serviceability will make EFFICLOUD a credible business solution for SMEs and help them achieve global competitiveness.

WHAT FUTURE DO YOU SEE FOR THIS COMPANY? Earlier, partners were concerned about losing out on the cloud business to large service providers in the marketplace. AllTimeIT, a first of its kind association of SIs in India and probably in Asia Pacific, will be the local ‘face to name’ of Cloud for SME’s. Rich background of these SIs in handling SME’s has come handy to identify and deliver SME focussed solutions on the Cloud.

surely reach a saturation point - either in terms of geographic boundaries or some logistics and resource constrain. We also realized that if we worked together it would be like one plus one being eleven rather than two; this was our collective strength. We are lot more than individuals and that is how this initiative came in place.”

Cloud Computing is fairly a large market and will reach $16.7 billion in revenue by 2013, according to a news report from the 451 Market Monitor. So in this large market, AllTimeIT expects to play a critical role and offer different flavours and different suites of services which will trigger an increase in customers’ acceptance and adoption of cloud. The company’s objective in the long run is to offer Software as a Service (SaaS) and short term Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Back up as a Service (BaaS).

Taneja maintains, “We offer IaaS, which is the compute, storage and BaaS. The next phase would be Platform as a Service (PaaS) and other software solutions as a service and that is how we are expanding our catalogue of offerings. These products have already been launched, and customers are onboard, and we are now looking at more channel partners to take it to the market.”

Channel partners are the foremost strength of AllTimeIT because it gives them a competitive edge, as it says, “it is by the channel, of the channel and through the channel.” This is the key differentiator, where the end-customer will also feel a difference in this mechanism. Besides, the channel partners will be able to go the same customers or the same areas to offer more and more services.

With the Beta Services being launched, the company presents the most competitive offerings in the market for the end-customers. In addition, the company allows channel partners to experience a new cycle of return which is totally different from what they had earlier. “The channel partner’s sensitivity to the end-customer will be experienced very soon and will be the key differentiator in the whole game,” avers Taneja.

Besides, AllTimeIT considers HP as their preferred vendor to create value proposition among end-customers and stake holder as HP plays a very crucial role in helping them to reach endcustomers in a very short period. Having worked with almost every partner, the company realized that HP is the one which offers the full suite of products not available with any other OEM vendor.

V Ramachandran, Country Manager (Converged Infrastructure and Cloud Solutions),

FEATURE

Cloud Systems, HP India, says, “The HP CloudAgile Partner Program certifies AllTimeIT as a CloudSystem hoster in India to deliver IaaS services to customers. It also offers AllTimeIT new opportunities to accelerate and extend its market reach, delivering services faster with low capital investment.The HP solution enables complete automation thereby helping AllTimeIT deliver outstanding experiences to its customers with reduced time to marke.”

EFFICLOUD AllTimeIT launched ‘EFFICLOUD’, a pay-peruse cloud model that delivers reliable and resilient cloud services tailored to meet small and medium enterprise needs. The services include Virtual Private Server, Backup as a Service, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Portal as a Service and SaaS offerings in areas such as ERP, hospitality, retail and education.

Further, EFFICLOUD is built on the HP CloudSystem Matrix and delivers IaaS, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and SaaS targeted at performance-focused and cost-sensitive SME customers. EFFICLOUD is optimized by the HP Server Automation and HP Operations Orchestrator software suites, which allows AllTimeIT to offer enhanced customer experiences at a lower cost of operation to enterprises through task automation.

“The flexible payment model, fast technology implementation, geographical reach and needspecific serviceability will make EFFICLOUD a credible business solution for SMEs and help them achieve global competitiveness,” concludes Ramachandran.

Balu Doraisamy, Mentor, AllTimeIT Solutions, says, “With EFFICLOUD and an existing high touch-customer base of the consortium partners, spanning from education, mid-market to govt. and corporate, AllTimeIT is positioned to be the obvious choice for businesses for their cloud strategy.”

Finally…

As compared to enterprise market, implementation of cloud computing in SME market will grow faster because it creates lots of business opportunities. Secondly, being a price-sensitive market it normally doesn’t carry a lot of legacy application infrastructure. Hence the opportunities are there along with lot of challenges too. No doubt, it is an out of box initiative but it needs to be seen how AllTimeIT takes advantage of the situation.

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SME TREND

IBM

PARTNERS SHOULD UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS SENTIMENTS The Enterprises these days, be it BFSI, service industry, manufacturing, hospitality, etc., are finding it good to engage the employees in a real time collaboration mechanism.

BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA sanjay@smechannels.com

O

rganizations–SMEs or large enterprises– are realizing the need for providing platform to help in collaborating among the employees and reacting to any incidental issues or imminent crisis. It not only helps them in gaining competitive advantages in services to the customers but also in enhancing their personal capability and scope of growth.

So far, the most dominating collaboration and communication tools for the employees have been email and messaging. Though these mechanisms solve most of the communication issues but they take time. For example, within an organization, if a junior officer wants to know about any policy or any changes in rules or wants to take any feedback, he sends the mail and waits for the responses, but if he is given a platform where he posts his queries or ideas and gets the reaction on real-time basis, this could really avert crisis and improve the level of engagement and efficiency.

In this situation IBM Social Business software can help address the issue.

Michael Garbett, Director, Worldwide Sales, Collaboration and Lotus Software, IBM, says, “Social Business software will not only help in marketing and sales but also in services and product designing. Sitting within the corporate firewalls, Social Business software enables its employees to collaborate with each other on a real time basis. It not only reduces the time to go to market but also the way the industry reacts to the crisis.”

Garbett says, “This is used very heavily around the world and is very strategic for us. At the same time it offers unified communication and collaboration capabilities - perhaps our fastest growing

category in enterprise-grade software.”

Social business also connects to the social media to create market intelligence.

Secondly, it is easy to integrate and use, and within a few months the customers can learn how to use it. So the market opportunity is also high in global and Indian market. According to Forrester, the market opportunity will be $6 billion in 2016, compared from $600 million last year.

IBM looks at the market for two reasons. The first is utilising collaboration tools and applications to create a smarter work force and the second reason enhancing customers’ experience.

It is about delighting the customers driving loyalty in sales through the use of portal and social capabilities.

Garbett adds, “We use analytics within the corporate firewall for social business to drive a smarter workforce. Also analytics is used to create an exceptional customers’ experience by listening to social sites and reacting quickly.”

Given the nature of its utility, Social Business Software is a very big play for the channel partners. Therefore IBM is looking at software resellers with integration and servicing capabilities to deal in this product and focus on ISVs, SIs and telcos. The end-customers can be Govt. PSUs, enterprises, BFSI, retail, hospitality, healthcare and the SME market.

Garbett adds, “This channel is more profitable in business than any other brand within IBM software group. It is the life line of IBM’s collaboration solutions. We are aggressively pursuing and expanding our channel ecosystem worldwide and also in India.”

IBM has a variety of programmes that allow business partners to become active in Social Busi-

MICHAEL GARBETT, DIRECTOR, WORLDWIDE SALES, COLLABORATION AND LOTUS SOFTWARE, IBM

“We use analytics within the corporate firewall for social business to drive a smarter workforce. ” ness category. A part of the programme is Social Business authorization. Here the business partners has to pass a sales and technical test, upon which they are entitled to become authorised resell and integration partner. This certification also offers a very aggressive margin structure .

The second programme is industry authorizations. If a business partner specializes in any vertical industry i.e. government, healthcare or banking, etc. he gets industry authorization certification. This allows him to get another layer of margin on top of the normal margin.

Garbett says, “We are aggressively driving our initiative in India. We package the product along with live demo, ROI calculator, and consultative methodologies for the partners.”

Finally…

As per IDC, IBM is No.1 in market share. 60 percent of the Fortune 100 companies are using this softwre from IBM. Today, in India the CEOs and CIOs are also showing keen interest in the social business as compared to past years. So it is a good opportunity for the partners.

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SME TREND

HP PPS AIMS TO REJUVENATES PARTNER RELATIONSHIP Post merger of HP’s PSG and IPG group into PPS, the new division has came out with a road show to reinvigorate the channel partner ecosystem

BY KARMA NEGI

karma@smechannels.com

I

nnovations have been a significant part of HP’ success as it continues to bring evolutions in printing space. HP acquired 53.1% market share in Q3, 2012 as per data from International Data Corporation (IDC).

Today, HP has an industry leading range of business inkjets in its Ink Advantage and Office jet portfolio. The company claims that modern inkjet printers match a laser printer in printing speeds and sharp printing quality.

Late last year, HP embarked on Channel Odyssey, a six-city roadshow across the Asia-Pacific, impacting 1,000 partners, in its bid to re-invigorate the channel partner ecosystem and reinforce its commitment to the channel.

“The HP Channel Odyssey roadshow was primarily intended to communicate and reinforce our commitment to channel partners. Through Channel Odyssey, we aim to rejuvenate our important channel partner relationships and strengthen the channel by delivering innovation that matters to our partners so that they sell more and sell better,” says Rajkumar Rishi, Director, Consumer Channel, PPS, HP India. He is also heading the channel programs in India.

The aim to form PPS was to cross fertilize PSG’s operational leadership with IPG’s innovation leadership, to leverage the commonalities (same customers, partners and retailers) and create and deliver value to its stakeholders. And with the formation of Post Printing and Personal Systems HP has introduced a slew of channel centric programs.

Through Channel Odyssey HP says it has been able to communicate a whole lot of new possibilities to its partners. It saw tremendous opportunity to leverage these commonalities and realize a new level of optimization. The sales team has been halved, the supply chain functions of erstwhile IPG and PSG have been consolidated, number of

“THE HP CHANNEL ODYSSEY ROADSHOW WAS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO COMMUNICATE AND REINFORCE OUR COMMITMENT TO CHANNEL PARTNERS.” RAJKUMAR RISHI, DIRECTOR, CONSUMER CHANNEL, PPS, HP INDIA functions has also been halved. And along with the new structure a slew of channel programs and initiatives have been introduced which are focused on higher channel profitability and increased channel delight.

HP further announced that it wants to reinvigorate the channel partner ecosystem with a simple,

integrated partner engagement framework, sharp focus on product innovation, and increased investment to drive an improved experience.

In a process to give partners an improved experience HP has streamlined its channel partner engagement process. It has reduced the number of touch points and broadened sales accountability, simplified product portfolio, tools and processes, and made it easier for partners to get compensated by streamlining the claims process.

HP is also investing in programs, people and resources to equip its partners and help them drive profitable growth in a rapidly changing marketplace. Its Deal Registration is an online system that helps support new business opportunities for partners and Lead engine enables HP to pass a significant number of new leads to the channel.

With the focus on strengthening its relationships with the partners HP is strengthening its primary touch points with them and ensuring that channel partners are looped into its GTM strategy. Apart from this HP is also proactively engaging with the partners and increasing communication by becoming more visible at channel events.

Along with introducing newer programs HP is also looking at simplifying the existing channel programs; many partner incentive programs along with training programs will be continued.

“Our key focus has been to empower our partners in building more synergy in selling products and solutions from the PPS (Printing and Personal systems) standpoint, while improving the product mix - new products and solutions to help partners sell them more profitably,” informs Rishi.

The IT major has further devised a centralized worldwide learning experience for all regions encompassing SMB, commercial and retail channels.

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PARTNER CORNER

THE CORE STRENGTH LIES IN TRAINING

Today’s IT channel business is no longer as lucrative as it used to be. There is a huge competition in the market; margins are falling, products are going the retail way, costs of operations are mounting, etc. Even then, there are channel partners who are making good bucks out of the existing market like Comguard Networks.

AJAY SINGH CHAUHAN, CEO, COMGUARD NETWORKS

“COMPANIES OFFERING VALUE ADDED DISTRIBUTION SERVICE HIRE ONE OR TWO TECHNICAL PEOPLE BUT WE HAVE 50% OF OUR STAFF IN TECHNICAL GROUP.

S

pectrum which is a synergy of Spectrum Training, ComGuard Distribution, ComGuard Value Business, Psilog International, Spectrum Network Solutions, ComGuard Networks (India) from Middle East, during its inception realised the future of channel business. They knew that training is the foremost empowerment or value addition for the channel partners. Therefore, the company started, with Spectrum Training, and its primary focus was to help enterprises to bridge the huge shortage of skilled technical resources in the region. Today, this thinking has enabled the company to be the largest training provider of Juniper technologies as well as three time winner of Platinum Award for the Best Training Partner, EMEA region by Juniper Networks, and their major revenue across the operations comes out of training as well.

After three-four years of successful run of Spectrum Group, the Think Tank felt the need of expansion, and they turned to distribution of niche products or products tracked in Gartner magic quadrant. As a cash rich company, they preferred to acquire one company called Comguard Networks in 2007, rather than creating a distribution organization from grounds up. The objective of the company was to focus on the security and networking business and become a value added distributor (VAD) not the stock and sell distributor.

Hence in 2007, Comguard was acquired and became a true value added distributor. Once the company gained success in Middle East, the company decided to extend its operation to India. Since then Comguard has been present in India and doing decent business. Aligning with its global business Comguard in India also focuses on network and security products apart from training.

With the aim to replicate the same success in India, the company expanded most of the brands’ MEA engagement to India. They empaneled a good number of channel partners and mentored them with education, training and product knowledge.

Ajay Singh Chauhan, CEO, Comguard Networks, says, “Having well placed in education space, we desire to spend in education sector and thereby making sure the availability of adequate skillset to channels and end users.”

Comguard believes that the core of the whole organization is the training arm which drives the knowledge to a different level for everybody within organization or partners or even the end users.

The training for the partners is quite necessary for the simple reason that the trouble of his technical person does not match the issue of his sales person.

Secondly, a number of technical people help the company to develop in different markets.

But if one observes the market trend more and more distributors are becoming VAD and are also

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PARTNER CORNER

2013

focusing on training.

Chauhan explains, “Companies offering value added distribution service hire one or two technical people but we at Comguard have 50% of the staff in technical group. So, if we have 200 people, out of that we have 100 engineers, which is a significant number. They are there to do POCs, support a vendor and make sure knowledge is transferred. This is the real difference between Comguard and other companies.”

As per Chauhan India being a huge market doing 100 million business is very easy here because of the large project sizes. Further the country and the economy is growing and there is enough room from a numbers’ prospective. But to implement these projects, skill-set is very necessary to design the projects and thereby creating value around end-users and partners to get more and more projects done in a more successful manner.

Though Comguard by heart is a distribution company but training provides credibility and remains a cornerstone. Hence for the year 201314, the company will bring in products which require significant value addition, and knowledge transfer. Secondly, the company will also work on developing content to deal with cyber crime area and educate law enforcement agencies, judges and transfer knowledge to the people.

Comguard however, is refraining from two key areas - storage and voice- as it requires significant knowledge for which the company is not prepared at present. However, Chauhan remarks, “We are very keen in high-end enterprise class storage.”

Comguard says its philosophy is to focus not on the big brands like HP, Cisco, EMC, etc.. This is because in big brands with too many partners and resellers, it becomes very difficult to figure out the value of those people. “We always look for anyone who qualifies in the Gartner Magic Quadrant space. We are actively looking at that and that is the Bible we use because that is also the Bible which is used today in the industry to buy product or to invest in a product,” explains Chauhan.

As the market moves towards cloud computing, there is a perception that it may hurt traditional distribution businesses like Comguard.

Chauhan maintains, “It is a perception that traditional distribution in this digital world might lose its essence with everything becoming online but the concept - distribution will not expire because only the process of distribution will change. For example, on Amazon.com one can select and buy product via online medium but somebody has to first sell to Amazon to carry the product and again here comes the role of distributors. So value distribution will not die but the method of creating

value will be different.”

On cloud creating significant business opportunities, Chauhan predicts that in the next two to five years, these clouds are going to be built first so there will be enough business to be done for the people who are going to build the cloud infrastructure.

“There are two pieces, first there is going to be global clouds like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. and there are private clouds and every country is investing into private clouds, so government of India will have its own clouds. Similarly, large enterprises in India will have their own clouds, etc. but the biggest question is who will first build the cloud,” asks Chauhan.

Finally This year, Comguard will put emphasis on strengthening its distribution arm and if possible will acquire more companies - especially the small and midsized companies with the revenue range of US$1 to 3 million. In terms of geographic expansion, the company is looking at two areas, Africa and Asia Pacific, and after that it will eye America and Australia. Furthermore, the company wishes to touch a turnover of US$ 100 million in next two years and for India the growth will be 30-50%.

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SECURITY CORNER

AIMS TO BE ONE AMONG TOP-3 SECURITY VENDORS IN INDIA India antivirus market is hotting up and the game is becoming tougher with the entry of most of the global antivirus companies into India. But only those companies with commitment to the market along with wide spectrum of solutions will have the upper hand.

B

ucharest, Romania-based security software company Bitdefender, after tasting success in European and American markets, has turned its gaze aggressively towards African and APAC market with the objective to replicate the same success in these geographies.

In APAC region, the company has pinned high hopes on the large growing India market. In most of the developing countries, where the market share is small, the company prefers to do business through its channel partners but in India the company has changed its policy and appointed Arghya Sanyal as channel director who will also take care of rest of the countries in the South Asia region. At the same time Mumbai-based Venktron Digital Systems Pvt. Ltd. has been appointed as its sole distributor for India.

The privately held company, Bitdefender, was established in 2001 and has become a trusted and respected security solutions company. Today, it is present in more than 100 countries. The com-

pany’s philosophy is to provide the best performing security technology available in the market and help customers stay ahead of the threat environment.

Florin Talpes, present CEO of Bitdefender, started the company 20 years back. Florin, who was an engineer in an encryption company in Romania, realised the need for a strong security product and started a company called Softwin under which he created the security product brand Bitdefender but later with the success of the brand the company changed its name. Apart from Romania, France is a very big market for Bitdefender.

The advantage that Bitdefender enjoys here is the use of its antivirus engine by many security companies in India. However, the challenge is posed by the 25 security players operating in the country.

Arghya Sanyal, Channel Director (South Asia), Bitdefender, says, “From the antivirus perspective, the opportunity in India is immense as there are

“Currently we are expecting 500,000 licences to be sold in India through channel partners.”

AMARJEET SINGH,

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER, VENKTRON DIGITAL SYSTEMS PVT. LTD.

90 million internet connections and it will double in 2015 and if you tap at least one per cent of this, it will be a good number.”

However, Pablo Piug, Sales Director-ROW, Bitdefender, says, “We are technically No.1. We are the No.1 Company in Europe and England.

We spend a lot of money in R&D and technical things. Now the company has started investing in other countries including in India. We expect to get good result here as well.”

Pablo adds, “We are present in all of the APAC counties but it is difficult to drive business from the headquarters – which is almost 2000+ kilometres away. So we have hired a new member in Kuala Lumpur to cover Malaysia, Singapore,

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SECURITY CORNER

“We are technically No.1.

We are the No.1 Company in Europe and England. We spend a lot of money in R&D and technical things.”

“From the antivirus perspective, the opportunity in India is immense as there are 90 million internet connections and it will double in 2015” ARGHYA SANYAL, SOUTH ASIA CHANNEL DIRECTOR, BITDEFENDER

PABLO PIUG, SALES DIRECTOR-ROW, BITDEFENDER

Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and other small countries. Hopefully we will get new resources in Australia and New Zealand as well. Similarly, in India we now have one person, who will cover other South Asia countries including Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.”

Traditionally, Bitdefender has good presence in the consumer market but the company has started investing in addressing the growing market including SME and enterprises. Bitdefender’s goal is to create a balance between consumers and enterprise business. As the company is focusing on the enterprise market since March last year, it already has a dedicated team in place to focus on the private cloud and enterprise security.

Pablo adds, “As far as India strategy is concerned, we are going step by step. First we are selling consumer products, which will bring us real brand awareness then in a quarter’s time, we will sell our business solutions.”

Bitdefender’s exclusive distributor Venktron is a new entrant to software business and they

take this business very seriously. Amarjeet Singh, National Sales Manager, Venktron Digital Systems Pvt. Ltd., says, “This company has a very good background and in software business, especially in antivirus business, there is good bottom-line.

So as distribution strategy, we will have two-three regional distributors in every city. We are also tying up with lot of online partners including Flipkart.com, Snapdeal.com, etc. We are happy with the principal’s support and also have our own support team in Mumbai.”

Bitdefender aims to be among the top-3 antivirus companies in India in next two to three years and this can become a reality with the concerted efforts of both the distributor and the direct sales force of the company. Sanyal adds, “The advantage with Venktron is that they have offices in 14 places with more than 5,000 channel partners in India.

They are one of the very big importers in India. So if they sell one piece to one partner then volume becomes 5,000 thousand; imagine the volume in the next five years.”

The company already has 15 Tier-1 partners or sub-distributors and below them there are many channel partners.

The company plans to engage in various activities including dealer meets, participate in exhibition and engage media for advertisements and advertorials to take their brand name to wider audience.

Singh adds, “Currently we are expecting 500,000 licences to be sold in India through channel partners. We have recruited people everywhere for Bitdefender. Our challenge for the time being is to create awareness. So we will investment in making people aware about the availability, pricing and technical superiority of Bitdefednder.”

Finally…

The focus of Bitdefender is on four segments: consumers, SMEs, mobile and private cloud. In India too the company will maintain the same focus.

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SME BIZ

K7 COMPUTING

REVERSING THE ORDER OF BUSINESS Deciding what you want to do with your life is not an easy task no matter how old or young you are. But there are those who irrespecive of their age are quite clear on the path they want to tread.

BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA

sanjay@smechannels.com

FACTS ABOUT Year of operation in India

:

1991

Headquarter

:

Chennai

Key Executives Direct Presence In

:

Jayaraman Kesavardhanan, (Keseven) Founder and CEO, K7 Computings Consumers/ SoHo/ Enterprise

Key products

:

K7 Business Lite, K7 Business Security, K7 Ultimate Security Gold, K7 Ultimate Security, K7 Total Security, K7 AntiVirus Premium, K7 Anti-Virus Plus, K7 Secure-Web

Website

:

www.k7computing.com

:

A

popular saying says that life is short, who can play faster. How many of us were even sure what we wanted to do at the age of 15 or even start a business? There are some cases, though not many, and one such home grown wonder is founder and CEO of K7 Computing Pvt. Ltd., Jayaraman Kesavardhanan, also known as Keseven in the industry.

He realised his potential of developing software at a very young age – right after passing his 10th standard during 1984-85. It was an accidental move for him but definitely worth it.

The life changing incident occured when during the summer vacation, he joined an institute of computers and attended a one and half month course on computer programming. It proved to be the turning point in his life. While learning programing Keseven realized that this was what he should pursue. He discontinued his schooling took specialization on system level assembly language. He also learnt the low-level programming and how software and hardware work together.

Keseven says, “Somewhere down the line I realised that there was no requirement of systems level programmers as there was not much

opportunity during those times, where one could employ the talent of assembly language. So I did some freelance consulting, helping people to learn system- level language and taught people low-level programming, etc. And it was in 1988, that virus made its appearence. It was easy for me to understand the structure of virus and I distributed a lot of free cure. While doing so I was fascinated by the shareware programmes available those days, as Norton and McAfee were available then. This made me think that if these companies can do so why can’t I. I realized that people were thinking about services, value addition, etc. not product development. Therefore, in 1991, I started a security company named K7 Computing, out of Chennai.”

“I was very clear on never moving out of Chennai and the intention was to develop a product from India and take it to the world-wide market because my fascination with the idea that if Norton and McAfee could come to this part of the world why cannot we go to the other partners of the market too.”

Of course K7 had its ups and downs but most importantly the company stayed focussed on Antivirus and brought out a great product called VX2000 in those days. Keseven said, “We did a lot

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K7 COMPUTING

S. SRINIVISA KUMAR, BUSINESS HEAD, VECTRA SYSTEMS & SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD.

JAYARAMAN KESAVARDHANAN, FOUNDER AND CEO, K7 COMPUTING PVT. LTD.

“MY VISION IS TO MAKE K7 NO.1 IN THE INDIA MARKET” of innovative things those days but never realized the need of commercial or business aspects of the product or even patenting it or taking to a much bigger market, etc.”

K7 was the first company to bring out product for Novel NetWare in India. The company predominantly dominated the Novel NetWare market those days. But the biggest break came to him in around 2002 when he got an interesting offer from one of the biggest software publishers from Japan called SOURCENEXT Corporation, which was selling McAfee earlier, to distribute K7 products. Keseven adds, “They were excited to see how K7 product is coming out of a small team in India compared to big MNCs like McAfee. They were wondering how we were able to develop a product with handful of talented people. They studied the product and decided to take the product for distribution. It was a real turning point.”

This turn around was a dream come true for the company! Globally, Japan is the second largest market in terms of PC penetration and a partner from this country was ready to distribute their products. So there was no other news bigger than this for K7 at that point of time. In order to leverage the market, K7 completely dedicated

Vectra systems started with selling Toshiba from HCL during 1995 but later transformed into an end-to-end solution provider.

A Rs.18 crore company, Vectra has chosen products which can help them maintain their bottom-line. Today, they are selling TCS iON Cloud Computing and K7 Enterprise Security. After creating a niche in the consumer segment, K7 has started growning in depth into the Enterprise and SMB market spaces in a short span.

its resources to make the product powerful and highly qualitative. The company almost stopped selling the products in India. Finally, the product was launched in Japan in 2003 and was an instant success. In the first year, K7 earned US$2million revenue, and in the second year US$5mllion revenue, and in third year, the company achieved a reasonable size of the market with 20 per cent market share, which later on increased to 25 per cent.

This expansion gave K7 a tremendous boost.

For the next four to fiive years, there was no stopping Keseven and no respite either. With a good cash reserve and good market position, etc., in 2007 Keseven realised the need of refocusing on India as the market was becoming very large in terms of volume. .

After being successful in Japan, he thought India market would be a cake walk, but it was not meant to be. When he launched his products, he had to face a stiff resistance from both technology and sales perspective. He realised that people in India use PCs for a long time and top up the old machine with updated software and OS as a result the hardware and software does not gel with each other. So he quickly responded to the issues and made the product

SME BIZ

JOJI PHILIP, DGM, ORIENT TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD. Orient technology is a group of company with Rs.145 crores of turnover with pan India presence.

Based on their experience they claim that K7 is a real world class product. Compared to other products, it finds K7 easy-tomanage, scalable, flexible and enterprise class. It has also won cases against old established MNC companies for K7. And says is very good when it comes to extending their support to the partners to better serve customers. It says that K7 is soon going to be one of the market leaders.

more robust. But the issue of sales still persisted as there was no ecosystem of channel for software distribution.

Keseven also thought that like in Japan there would be a channel for software selling so he would not require more people for sales and would focus only on product development, but he was wrong.

Keseven said, “The distributors of the country were not able to understand the products. So I had to jump into the management role to drive the business as CEO. Post which I established the entire channel network and it took me two to three years to establish operation in India.”

Today, Compuage Infocom Ltd. is the national distributor. K7 has decent market share in India and in Japan they keep toggling between No. 2 or 3.

Finally…

Keseven’s vision is to make K7 a US$100 million company by the end of this year; and to make No.1 in India market and have good market share globally as well. K7’s asset is developers who have been there with the company for the last 10-15 years, who knows how to create the product from grounds up.

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SME SOLUTION

MATURITY IN PROCESSES AND DEMANDING NATURE DRIVE SAAS.” According to industry research reports CRM market in India is about 100 Million USD out of which SaaS market is estimated to be around 30% and growing at about 18% YOY over next 3 years. In this situation it is natural that SaaS providers will be gung-ho about their market success.

BY: SANJAY MOHAPATR sanjay@smechannels.com

L

aunched in 2006, after 4 years of intensive research and product development, with over Rs 70 crore as investment, CRMnext is the flagship product of Acidaes Solutions Pvt. Ltd, headquartered in New Delhi, India. The founders created CRMnext with the belief that, with time, CRM software will become pervasive and enterprises must have the choice to run them anywhere. This led CRMnext to create innovative commutable cloud technology where an organization has the freedom to choose and switch between a public cloud or a private cloud hosting model depending on the economies of scale, without compromising on any functionality and huge migration costs.

Nishant Singh CEO of CRMnext, says, “As a

pure enterprise CRM player CRMnext understands that the CRM is just not about technology.

It believes, a business must create winning strategies, define processes that will deliver them and finally implement it on a CRM solution. Hence winning CRM’s that deliver transformational results are a combination of strategy, process and technology. This is the philosophy of High Impact CRM which CRMnext has been delivering since last 7 years now.”

CRMnext has one of the world’s best research facilities at Delhi, India. The key to its success lies in its innovations in technology like Autonoma Integration, Autobot Upgrades and Shapeshifting architecture that help customers realize its CRM vision despite the challenges of complex system environment and integration needs.

CRMnext has the ability to deliver across diverse enterprise eco-systems without compromising on uptime, reliability or speed of change. Its customers have leveraged these innovations to make their CRM perpetual, boosting adoption and ability to deliver results. In short, these are exactly the capabilities that incumbent CRM’s miss, throwing CIO’s the challenge of managing the dynamic business environment with limited capabilities to react.

Since its launch in 2006 CRMnext has quickly established its leadership in the CRM space globally. Its customers range from fortune 500 companies to SMEs globally. It runs thought leaders across verticals including Banking, Insurance, Financial services, Media, Pharma and Logistsics. Its elite list of customers includes names like

“TATA AIA as a brand stands for trust. We are ensuring customers enjoy the highest level of convenience at all touch-points.

CRMnext has helped us to integrate, refine and adopt processes, diversify offerings and provide a single platform with a powerful 360 view.”

“With over 25000+ users & 2500+ branches and multiple integration points, it was hard for any system to match our expectations. But with CRMnext we have enjoyed 99.9% uptime availability and seamless scalability.”

SAMRAT DAS, CIO – TATA AIA LIFE

BANK LIMITED

RAJESH WAGH, VICE PRESIDENT IT – HDFC

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SME SOLUTION

HDFC Bank, Reliance Capital, Bajaj Finance, IIFL, Pfizer, ING, TATA AIA etc.

Today, the customers are increasingly looking for a solution which is easy to configure and change as per their requirements. They look for capabilities where they can make incremental changes by themselves like addition of new fields, ad-hoc reports, basic workflows etc. They also are looking at flexibility to start on a public cloud and in future host from a private cloud infrastructure.

Also in addition to standard sales, service and marketing processes, companies are looking for mobile, social and out-of-the box automated sms and email alert capabilities. Two way sms capabilities for getting status and offer information is also catching up. To summarize companies are looking CRM as a strategy execution platform wanting to

“Verticals like Banking, insurance, financial services, media, pharma and manufacturing companies are major spenders in the CRM space.”

NISHANT SINGH, CEO OF CRMNEXT

bring on more number of processes incrementally on the CRM platform.

He adds, “Verticals like Banking, insurance, financial services, media, pharma and manufacturing companies are major spenders in the CRM space. Maturity in processes, increasing competition and demanding nature of customers are the major drivers.”

In this situation, CRMnext offers the complete CRM stack to manage and improve all customer- related processes including sales, marketing & customer services with end to end visibility across all departments in the organization. It offers advance reporting and analytics with sonic distribution capability for scheduling and delivering reports in users mailbox. CRMnext’s pre-configured out of the box vertical editions with cross-domain best practices. Its advanced codeless configuration capabilities help to go live on an average in less than two weeks with custom forms, workflows and reports as per the needs of an organization.

Apart from technology excellence and end to end offerings, CRMnext has partnerships with local IT services companies in various geographies to service SMEs in the respective markets.

CRMnext has stringent qualification criteria for selecting its consulting and implementation partners to ensure high quality of implementation and benefits to its users. It also offers on SaaS model through its websites where customers can opt for a free trial and buy online and implement either with the help of a local partner or online CRM coach. Today companies like TCS, Polaris, Mahindra Satyam, QUESTECH, Computer and Systems Engineering Company (CSE), CEVA Limited, Symphony, ACT21 Softwares, Segenarm 4v Solutions etc.

Finally…

It is just the beginning of the SaaS market in India. in a few years from now this market will be really very big and companies like CRMnext will take advantage of that. SME

“CRMnext has not only created an extra amount of atleast 15-20% in terms of revenue but also a increase in the level of efficiency in terms of manpower, productivity in us being able to drive our people in various directions and to be able to know what the gaps in the system are.”

“CRMnext provides us a one click access to complete details of contracts and execution status. The system also helps to analyse future project pipeline which serves as a vital input in resource planning and utilization which is very critical for us.”

TARUN KATIAL, CEO – RBNL ( 92.7 BIG FM)

INTERNATIONAL

JAGMOHAN BHATT, SENIOR VP-IT, ARSHIYA

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PRODUCT

REVIEW

QNAP NAS TS469L

PANASONIC LASER MULTI PRINTER KX-MB1500BX

BY MANAS RANJAN / SATYA SAGAR SINHA info@smechannels.com

PANASONIC LASER Multi Printer KX-MB1500BX is a monochrome 19ppm laser printer that can enable small workgroups and home offices. The small form fator structure houses the most efficient printer at an unbelievable price. This MFP comes with Panasonic Multi-Function Station Suite Software that can help make all your document management very easy. You can also scan any document at up to 19,200 DPI using its flatbed scanning capability. Connecting a telephone line you can send faxes using this machine at a speed of 33.6kbps.

When we unwrapped it from its neatly packed box, it looked very nice with black chick colour, which goes nicely with our work desk. We found it has both USB and network printing capability. It means you can either use it as a stand along printer connected to a particular department or if you are an SME organization, you can also use it as a network printer. Like other panasonic printers, it also copies both sides of one or more ID or business cards consecutively, and then print onto a single page in the 2-in-1, 4-in-1 or 8-in-1 format. This reduces paper consumption and simplifies information management.

Its has a paper tray to hold 360 pages of papers.

FEATURES n 50 ppm and 100 ipm duplex sheet-

feed scanning n Allows for tracking information and status of unit n Scans up to 5,000 pages a day n Launch customized scan profiles n Allows customization by printing page number, character string or distinguishable mark on the back of scanned hard-copy pages and supports date, time, document count n No manual rotation of hard-copies n Enhances images with Kofax Virtual ReScan Professional (VRS) technology n Seamlessly integrate into existing systems with ISIS and TWAIN drivers. n Reduces start-up time with Instant Lamp-On Scanning Technology n On-board JPEG compression allows fast scanning with less reliance on PC n Convert scans into text that can easily be edited using IRIS Readiris Pro OCR software

PRICE Rs. 19,600

CONTACT

IDEAL FOR SMEs QNAP NAS TS469L is a small compact in size NAS Box having power supply VGA out HDMI port facility. When we opend the box the NAS box very nicely packed. It features 2 LAN ports, 4 USB ports 2.0, and 2 USB 3.0 and 2 ports-eSATA for HDD. It also comes with front indicator for user indication, one USB port for copy system and is compatible with PC and Laptop via LAN port. Besides it can be accessed through any browser and can connect with provided IP address. With its internal module ram 1GB/2GB, it works faster than other NAS. The 4-bay all-in-one NAS server with exceptional performance, can meet the storage requirements of modern SMB IT environments.

An iSCSI/ IP-SAN storage combo solution and a number of versatile, value-added business applications, it can be the right device for the organizational critical business information storage. The QNAP TS-469L is also an ideal shared storage solution for virtualized and clustered environments, via VMware Ready and Citrix Ready certification, and is compatible with Microsoft Hyper-V environments.

n Price: MRP Rs. 53,400 (excluding HDD and memory) Warranty: 1 Year Contact: Sanjay Biswal, Phone:91-119953036535, Email: sanjay@qnap.com

Toll free: 1800 103 1333/ 1860 425 1860 Email: helpline@in.panasonic.com.

OVERALL RATING

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NEW ARRIVALS

PRODUCT

UTM COMPONENT

CORSAIR HYDRO SERIES H110 CPU COOLERS CORSAIR Hydro Series H110 is a low-noise, high-performance liquid CPU cooler with a double-length 280mm by 140mm radiator. The H110 radiator's large surface area provides more contact room for heat dissipation and for side-by-side mounting of dual fans. Each fan is a specially-designed low-speed 140mm static pressure fan, which moves much more air per decibel of noise than 120mm fans. The H110 fits cases with dual 140mm top fan mounts and 20mm screw spacing. The H110 fits cases with dual 140mm top fan mounts and 20mm screw spacing. It is compatible with most modern CPU platforms including AMD AM2, AM3, AM3+, FM2 and FM1 and Intel LGA 1155, LGA 1156, LGA 1366, and LGA 2011. n Price: On request Contact: Corsair Memory Phone: +91 9845651608 E-mail: Indiaservice@corsair.com Website: www.corsair.com

CYBEROAM UTM DPU CR100: NG CYBEROAM UTM DPU CR100: NG is a comprehensive security solution for the SMEs. The UTM’s Layer 8 Technology treats User-Identity as the 8th Layer or the HUMAN layer in the protocol stack. It attaches User-Identity to security, which adds speed to an organization’s security by offering instant visibility into the source of attacks by username rather than only IP address. Cyberoam’s Extensible Security Architecture (ESA) supports feature enhancements that can be developed rapidly and deployed with minimum efforts, offering future-ready security to organizations.

This UTM solution reduces complexity and avoids tiple software installation and maintenance. It also features plug-and-play architecture, and Web-based GUI for easy management. n Price: Rs. 3,52,011 Warranty: 1-Year Contact: North: Naveen Kumar – 9899150300.

Email: naveen.kumar@elitecore.com

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VIDEO SYSTEM

LIFESIZE “SMART VIDEO” WITH NEW ICON SERIES LIFESIZE ICON SERIES is a newly designed highest quality video system.

This series is the culmination of years of user-behavior research and corresponding purposeful design to alleviate common barriers to adoption that have plagued the video conferencing industry. The Icon Series introduces a new, simplified user experience designed to make video communication so simple and intuitive that anyone can use it without training.

The video conferencing market is entering a transitional phase. As mobile, cloud and virtualization technologies take hold, they’re fundamentally changing how video communication works. Much as the introduction of the smartphone dramatically changed how people engaged with their mobile phones, LifeSize is aiming to transform the video communication. n Price: Starting at US $2,999 MSRP; Warranty: 1 Year; Contact: LifeSize Communications India Pvt. Ltd, Level 8 Raheja Towers Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra East, Mumbai 400 051; India Tel: +91-22-4090-7316; Fax: +91-22-4090-7272

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ANALYST VIEW

WIPRO

ENVISIONING CLOUD ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE With the prevailing uncertainty in the world economy, IT budgets are being silently pruned and innovative mindset is being insisted upon and instilled among professionals to come out of the current constriction.

I

n today’s very delicate and difficult scenario, experts and evangelists insist an integrated and insightful approach for systematically associating and accentuating business and IT very closely. Precisely speaking, the muchmaligned business and IT alignment and affinity have to be decisively deeper and deterministic.

There are innumerable reasons why business and IT alignment is insisted as an indispensable criterion. Suppose a corporate wants to introduce a new product into its portfolio, there is a need to define additional business processes, hire extra personnel, change the supporting applications and augment the technical infrastructure to support the additional load. This new initiative could lead to changes in the organizational structure also. Leveraging IT advancements fruitfully and fully to shape up business automation, optimization and transformation is a tedious and time-consuming task and hence needs a lot of brainstorming, strategizing and planning followed by smart actuation.

IT capabilities need to be weighed objectively and the resulting knowledge has to be deposited safely for future access and articulation. Executives need to be in a position of taking appropriate decisions quickly. All these mandate that there has to be an integrated vision and mission in place to make business to be IT-aware and IT to be business-aware. Without such a mechanism in place, business may not profit from the series of innovations and improvisations happening in the hot IT domain and discipline.

It is a widely recognized fact that enterprise architecture (EA) is the most efficient and effective way for perfectly articulating and attaining the business and IT alignment. EA has become the tool of choice for architects in order to establish the direct and decisive link between business and IT. EA is an enterprise-scale holistic approach

and instrument for accomplishing the strategic integration between business and IT. Precisely speaking, EA is a coherent and cogent set of principles, methods and models that are used in the design and realization of the enterprise’s organizational structure, business processes, information systems, and infrastructures.

In the recent past, there have been a few business-driven technologies emerging and evolving. Service oriented architecture (SOA) is the most notorious architectural pattern and is being projected as a promising and powerful design paradigm with a great potential for producing mission-critical, dynamic, adaptive, and enterprise-class applications.

Another concept sweeping and spanning the entire IT industry is the cloud theme. While the service paradigm targets the arenas of software design and development, the much-debated, deliberated and discoursed cloud idea assists exceedingly well in software deployment, delivery, and management. Simply speaking, the massive and mesmerizing adoption and adaptation of SOA and cloud computing greatly and gently simplify and streamline the full-fledged and fail-safe implementation of the ideas and ideals of EA. In order words, SOA and cloud are the leading EAenablement technologies. They are assisting and affecting the EA field immeasurably.

There is no doubt on the irrefutable fact that the impacts and implications of the evolving enigmatic cloud concepts on the enterprise architecture (EA) are going to be game-changing. It is possible to visualize all the noteworthy shifts due to the blending of cloud concepts with the traditional EA. Apart from the key architectural domains such as cloud data, application, technology and business architecture, the synchronization of the transformative and disruptive cloud technology with the fast-moving EA

PETHURU RAJ (PHD), ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE CONSULTANT, WIPRO TECHNOLOGIES, BANGALORE, INDIA

concepts are throwing more prescriptions and propositions such as cloud-instigated security, management, governance, and integration architectures.

There are fresh possibilities and opportunities for business houses with cloud meeting, mingling with and molding EA substantially. It is greatly watched how the convergence of cloud with EA is to bring bigger turnarounds on small, medium and large-scale enterprises. Cloud, being such a powerful and impactful technology, is capable of producing more power and value to business organizations in taking head on and tackling newer concerns, changes and challenges. On the other hand, with the explicit and extensive understanding of the EA ideals, it is safe to anticipate that there will be more specific advancements in the cloud domain.

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Date of Publication: 20 of Every Month Date of Posting: 22 & 23 of Every Month

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