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NetApp opens its DVEC Center

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Walmart signs agreement to invest in Flipkart Group

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almart has signed definitive agreements to become the largest shareholder in Flipkart Group (“Flipkart”). The investment will help accelerate Flipkart's customer-focused mission to transform commerce in India through technology and underscores Walmart’s commitment to sustained job creation and investment in India.

“This investment is of immense importance for India and will help fuel our ambition to deepen our connection with buyers and sellers and to create the next wave of retail in India,” said Binny Bansal, Flipkart’s Co-Founder & Group Chief Executive Officer.

HPE launches HPE SimpliVity 380 with Microsoft Hyper-V

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ewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced HPE SimpliVity 380 with Microsoft Hyper-V and new SimpliVity integration partner solutions as a Citrix WorkSpace Appliance Partner. The new offerings expand customer hypervisor options and simplify and enhance the ability to provide high-performance virtual applications and desktops, making it faster and easier to deliver secure digital workspaces in today’s hybrid cloud world.

HPE SimpliVity 380 with Microsoft Hyper-V provides businesses with an easier IT infrastructure solution, simplifying the data center by converging servers, storage and storage networking into one simple to manage, software-defined platform.

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HELLO INDIA

Is social media a disruptive innovation?? …GDPR to replace the existing Data Protection Law

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t’s a question of how to define digital transformation and the technology developed by the global leaders for improvising better customer experience through social strategy? Is it about identifying opportunity to engage with customers in a compelling way? Europe’s new law into privacy is expected to change the world of web.

Social media is truly a disruptive innovation which has created a new market and platform for itself. It understands the customers and the user experience and takes all types of data of the users. Across the globe, approximately 6,000 tweets are sent to the worldwide social sphere every second. Across 900 million users, those 140-character memos add up to roughly 200 billion tweets every year. When we post anything on the Internet, even those who are not on your circle lists (i.e. Friends lists in Facebook, followers on Twitter, etc.) can still listen to your conversations via wall posts and general tweets, and can respond to other tweets, etc.

Secondly, the social medias apart from knowing about us, they can also access to the personal data. On May 25, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is being enforced which will help to shift the power towards consumers, a big thanks to the European privacy law that restricts how personal data is collected and handled to protect and empower citizens in the digital era. The law ensures that users know, understand, and consent to the data collected about them. The GDPR will officially replace 1995’s Data Protection Directive as the new global standard on data privacy for all government agencies and companies that conduct business with EU citizens will be subject to strict new data protection rules – and failure to comply can result in hefty fines.

In June 2017, Google announced that it would stop mining emails in Gmail to personalize ads. In. With this Google’s new privacy dashboard makes it easier to see what Google knows about you. In January, Facebook announced its own privacy dashboard, which is yet to launch. Though the law applies only in Europe, but the companies now have to make changes globally, because it is simpler than creating different systems. Now, every country including India, has to come out with data privacy policy soon.

Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised this concern along with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, (MeitY) and National Payment Corporation (NPCI). MeitY, according to sources is opposing to sharing of payments information under any circumstances. The ministry also had raised the issue with the apex banking body (RBI). WhatsApp Payments appears to be in trouble as it has caught the attention of regulators over the issue of data sharing with parent entity Facebook and ICICI Bank. The report also adds that NPCI seems to be okay with the terms and conditions laid by WhatsApp for sharing data.

Going forward, companies must be clear on, why they are collecting the data and moreover, consumers will gain the right to access data that companies store about them.

Lastly, it is time now for the privacy experts to plan to use GDPR as a weapon to enforce changes in corporate data-handling practices.

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CONTENTS Website: www.varindia.com

Publisher: Deepak Kumar Sahu Editor: S Mohini Ratna Executive Editor: Dr. Vijay Anand Copy Editor: C. M. Dutta Deputy Editor: Samrita Baruah Sub - Editor: Aparna Mullick Correspondent: Abha Singh Art Director: Rakesh Kumar Network Administrator: Ashok Kumar Singh Manager-IT: Subhash Mohanta Manager-SEO: Bidyadhar Behera BUSINESS: Commercial Manager: Amit Kumar Jha Sr. Marketing Manager: Ashok Ranjan Dash Circulation Executive: Manish Kumar Marketing Manager: Dipendra Kumar CORPORATE OFFICE: VAR House, A-84A/3 Rose Apartment, Paryavaran complex, IGNOU Road, New Delhi - 110030 Tel: 011-41656383, 46061809 Email: edit@varindia.com Bangalore: Bureau office Marketing Manager: S. Kamala kar Correspondent: L. G. Swami D-103 G.F., Ashish JK Apartments Thubarahalli Extended Road Bangaluru- 560066 Tel: 080-49530399 | Mobile:09886280836 E-mail: kamlakar@varindia.com Mumbai: Bureau office Regional Manager (West): Anil Kumar Sr. Correspondent: Mamta S. Anurag Residency, 203 - “B” Wing, Plot No-5, Sector-9, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai-410 209 Tel: 022-65561292, Mobile: 08108017479 E-mail: anil@varindia.com, mamta@varindia.com Chennai: Bureau office Branch Manager: Parthiban K A2, R.C.Residency, Cholambedu Road, Thiruvenkada nagar, Ambathur, Chennai - 600 053 Mobile: 098400 55626 E-mail: barani@varindia.com Hyderabad: Bureau office Branch Manager: Sunil Kumar Sahu 32-161/3, 202 Neha Paradise, Nr. Maissamma Temple, Venketeswara colony Ramakrishna Puram, Hyderabad - 500056 Telangana, Tel: 040-32989844/ Cell No. 08100298033 E-mail: sunil@varindia.com Kolkata: Bureau office Marketing Officer: Sunil Kumar Correspondent: Kiran Kumar 67 Sarada Park, Garia, Kolkata - 700084 Mobile: 08100298033, E-mail: sunil@varindia.com Mobile: 09903088480, E-mail: kiran@varindia.com Printed and Published by Deepak Kumar Sahu on behalf of M/s. Kalinga Digital Media Pvt. Ltd. and Printed at Pushpak Press Pvt. Ltd. Shed No. 203 - 204, DSIDC Complex, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi-110020 and Published at A-84A/3 Rose Apartment, Paryavaran complex, IGNOU Road, New Delhi - 110030, Editor - S Mohini Ratna.

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ROUND ABOUT

US-China Trade War: What Warren Buffett Forecasts I reflect over what I should write in this column for some time. Many themes have occurred to me-digital frauds, new technology platforms that Google and Facebook are working on despite the ground swell of criticisms they have to absorb these days from several quarters including from governments, users and regulatory bodies. What prevented me from writing about it, I tried to introspect. It invariably would have a semblance of what I would have written earlier in this column. Not that I did not write on the same subject earlier in the column. That was only when a new development had taken on the same subject or because of lapse of time; the subject got transformed into a new one.

Yet, I have decided to dwell on trade war in this column that is occupying the media space in India and abroad. You may ask me what IT has to do with tradewars. My response is that a major reason for this trade war is on account of the IT. I will explain. But before that, let me briefly touch upon the nuances of the present trade war. It was a unilateral decision of the US. If there is trade dispute between two countries or between a group of countries with another set of countries, it should be referred to World Trade Organization (WTO) created exclusively for ensuring orderly global trade. Its functioning is based on certain principles and procedures. There is a separate wing in WTO for dispute settlement among member countries.

But the present trade dispute is qualitatively different. The US assertion is that it is not a trade dispute but something to do with its national security.

Its argument is that with its liberal trade policies followedby various regimes earlier, including that of BarakObama’s, US trade and economic interests got compromised. The result is that many countries have built huge trade surpluses against the US. That included China, EU, Australia, Canada, Japan, Russia, South Korea and India. For deciding the countries which derived undue favor from the US, three parameters were evolved.

One, countries having over US$ 20 billion trade surplus with US, two, countries having favorable current account balance and three, countries which are having more than 2% of its GDP invested in the US treasury bills.Even if a country attracts any two provisions of the said criteria, it would attract retaliatory action.

I have mentioned that ICT is an integral part of the trade war. It needs some explanation. Of late, China is emerging as a major technology developer thanks to the breakthrough innovations it has made in all fields of technology, be it relating to semi-conductors, artificial intelligence, robotics, sensors, aerospace and the list goes on. It is several notches above most of the developed countries and is inching close to the US. Millions of smart phones are made in China and exported world-wide including developed world.

A lot of negotiations were held between the two countries to smoothen the differences. Signs of compromise and reproach are coming from both sides. The Chinese expressed satisfaction over the progress of the negotiations. They felt that there were meeting grounds, where both countries can build trust and confidence to eschew aggressive postures.

But in private, they tell the media that the US demand for cutting down the trade surplus by US$200 billion as high pitched, too ambitious and untenable in the given situation.

Now, let us focus on India and how the ongoing trade war would affect her. India is attracting retaliatory actions from the US and is also making noises both in the WTO and other forums. But its voice is modulated, calibrated and if I may use the word, muted. There are reasons for that.

Foremost, India is not in the same league of China as far as the trade surplus is concerned. The trade surplus of China with the US is more than the international trade of India. Secondly, the two commodities, on which the US has imposed the import duty –steel and aluminum –willnot affect India that much. India’s exports of these two goods are only US$ 2 billion. India’s exports of steel and aluminum are mostly to Malaysia and Indonesia. That way, India-US bilateral trade pales into insignificance comparing to that of China –US trade.

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Of late, India has taken some definite strides for reducing the trade deficit with the US. Import of crude and natural gas is one among them, which in all likelihood is going to increase in the coming years. Also, India is increasingly importing armaments from the US, reducing its dependence on Russia. The US aerospace companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin have projected that India would be a major market for their productsaircrafts and aerospace equipment. That would be good news for the US. How ICT has facilitated the trade war? I have few reasons and I do not know whether they stand scrutiny by trade experts and political watchers.

Some decades ago, trade statistics to come to the public domain, it would take months together and sometimes years. One can access only estimates and not the real figures. Those days have gone. With the advent of digital platform and its wide usage in all walks of life, dataaccess is on a real time basis. Now, one can collate data on a real time basis, whichever part of the world he or she is. The response and retaliation by the affected parties can be quick and swift. Secondly, as the pace of globalization picked up, business decisions have becomemore independent of the thinking of the government. Earlier, during the cold war days, businesses could not take a stand independent from that of the government.

Thirdly, technology is a leveler. More and more countries are entering this fray, which was a pre-requisite of rich and privileged. China is on a fast track to catch up with the developed world and has very easily overtaken many western countries.

Without much ado, let me conclude with what veteran industrialist Warren Buffett has said on 6th May 2018 at the Berkshire Hathaway’s 39th annual meet held at Omaha, described as the Woodstock of Capitalism, on US-China trade war. He said that the United States and China are going to be the two super powers of the world for a long time.In the 1970’s, US exports and imports both contributed to about 5% of the GDP.

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May 2018

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FACE TO FACE

AWS enabling its Partners Always The cloud service provider, Amazon Web services (AWS) has recently organized its AWS India Summit 2018 where VARINDIA has interacted with two of the premium partners who has started their journey with its cloud platform and back then it was the only choice for them to host theiw application. Varoon Rajani, CEO, BlazeClan and Siva, Founder & CEO, PowerupCloud Technologies speak about their experiences with AWS.

Varoon Rajani CEO, BlazeClan Kindly share your journey with AWS. We started off as a customer of Amazon Web Services (AWS) around 2010-11 where we were building a product which was an online learning system for the masses in India and back then the only choice that we found to host our application at a scale was AWS, otherwise we would had to invest a lot in data centers.

We learnt a lot around AWS. We used AWS and helped a couple of our friends on the platform, that all opened up our mind that this could be a whole new opportunity for us and AWS was clearly the future. In 2012, we registered as an AWS Partner and since then we have been focusing on AWS, building our company on AWS skillsets as well as competencies. We have seen some good success and growth by investing into AWS.

Kindly, mention about BlazeClan’s breakthrough product on AWS. There are multiple but if I speak of one specifically it would be our media asset management called CloudStream. We basically allow media companies of any size and scale to host the digital content on cloud, we help them to transcode or reformat that digital content for various different scheme factors, allow them to put in meta data and manage then to complete end to end lifecycle of the digital video assets on to cloud.

What are the differentiating factors of BlazeClan from competition?

Since 2012 when we registered as an AWS partner on APN Network and we were probably one of the first few partners and we have been working very closely with AWS. A lot of good relationships with the leadership team and mutual trust have been build over the years.

Apart from that, from a technical and delivery perspective something that we need to do for our customers - we are building skillsets, grooming people internally, investing into the AWS competency. So today we have six to seven competencies from AWS. If I talk about India specifically we are the only ones with financial services competencies, we were one the first Managed Services partner in APAC. We have been a premier partner for last three years. We are continuing to invest in our competencies as we are very conscious that we need to stay ahead of the curve by investing into skillsets, competencies which would make a stand apart from the competition.

Which are the upcoming verticals?

When we started it was more of startups in 2012 and since then it has evolved. So now any internet facing businesses are one vertical – there are many enterprises which are coming up with their eCommerce, online platforms etc which are more of B2C running on internet is one vertical.

Media has been the favoured vertical for us. More of financial services companies or non-banking customers are adopting it today but in next couple of years we are confident that a lot of Banks will start moving to AWS. Financial services is growing and adopting AWS fast and it is a focus area for us. I believe that the cloud industry will grow over the next five years at a very rapid pace. In next three to five years its going to be more than 50% year on year growth for all of us.

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Siva Founder & CEO, PowerupCloud Technologies Kindly share your journey with AWS. I have been working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) since 2012 in India. I was setting cloud business for two other partners which gave me good amount of connect within AWS team as well. They all knew what we can do in respect to solution sales and consulting on Amazon.

In June 2015 we decided to come out and start a company so that is how PowerupCloud was started.

Kindly, mention about breakthrough product on AWS.

PowerupCloud’s

It is our Chatbot platform IRA which happened in 2016. We did a project for a customer were we automated few of their customer support problems so that is where we realize that there is some potential for a product like this in the market because it is too early in the chatbot arena.

We started investing in 2016 and build the platform with few of our initial sponsor customer. It is now quite evolved and used by many 500 Fortune companies. So that is our best product so far on Amazon.

Companies are looking towards Chatbots as a way to bring down cost, know more about customers and improve their support functions and business processes. There is a misconception where we see chatbots purely from customer support automation perception. A lot of analytics go behind chatbots. Large enterprise customers are able to know more about their consumers because the analytics gives them the data. That is why chatbots are picking up and we are foreseeing the future is about chatbots.

Banking and financial are adopting in a major way because of large customer interaction. Retail, eCommerce, internet businesses are also coming onboard quite fast. We are also building chatbots for logistics firm, HR IT helpdesk for large companies. Customers who are running large businesses are actually have much problems to solve with chatbots, voicebots and machine learning and deep learning, they bring much interesting problems to us. These are the initial sectors which are picking up.

How AWS is enabling you?

AWS is the most important reason that we are here as a technology services company. They have been a great partner and it is a partner led company, we can really vouch for that. They have always been with us during testing times basically. Lot of credit goes to the team in India, the way they supported partners like us and help to grow business along side AWS.

How do you see the acceptance of latest technologies like Big Data, IoT etc. among Indian customers?

The technology adoption in India is slower than the mature markets like US and Australia. But the scenario is changing fast because a lot of startups in Bangalore who has parallel offices outside India, so the latest technologies and development process that we see outside India the same thing we see in India as well. It is a matter of one year probably and we will be able to catch up with the global changes that are happening. India is not far behind.

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HOT BYTES

NEC announces FIWARE Lab Node in India

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EC Corporation (NEC) and NEC Technologies India Private Limited (NECTI) have

launched a FIWARE Lab node in India to encourage application developers, solution providers, government bodies and academia to experiment and

innovate with FIWAREbased solutions for smart cities.

"The FIWARE Lab Node enables companies developing smart city solutions for India to keep their experiment data within India. FIWARE brings in royalty free standards for interfaces and data models that help to integrate applications easily, which can be an edge over others,” said Ulrich Ahle, CEO, FIWARE Foundation.

Avaya and Afiniti partner to integrate AI with contact center intelligence and machine technology learning technologies as a

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vaya and Afiniti have entered into a strategic partnership to improve enterprise customer experience and contact center performance through a unique integration of artificial intelligence into contact center routing technology.

“This partnership highlights the shift in the communications and collaboration marketplaces towards artificial

transformational tool for large enterprise,” said Zia Chishti, Afiniti CEO & Founder. “Today, Afiniti’s AI is helping save lives and delivering billions of dollars in profitability to our global clients. Our new partnership and native integration with Avaya will accelerate the pace at which our joint clients will drive precisely measurable value to their shareholders and customers.”

Analog Devices expands its reach with new facility in Bengaluru

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nalog Devices has unveiled its new India headquarters for the approximately

600 Bengaluru-based staff that make up ADI India. The new facility, which houses one of

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May 2018

ADI’s top three global design centres, will focus on developing and selling cutting-edge technologies and solutions for the global automotive, industrial, healthcare, consumer, Internet of Things (IoT), security, communications, and energy markets.

Having started as a product development centre, ADI India’s headcount has grown by a factor of 200 over the last twenty years to support the evolving needs of ADI’s global customers.

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Vistara strikes alliance with Adobe

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istara has entered into a strategic partnership with Adobe to leverage next-generation technology in Adobe Experience Cloud to bolster the company’s endcustomer experiences.

Ravinder Singh, Chief Information & Innovation Officer, Vistara, said, “World over, the aviation industry has always been amongst the most customer-experience oriented, and the onset of today’s digital revolution has brought technology to the front and centre of customer experience strategies.

Technology has played a key role in enabling business goals and customer experiences, and a solid digital presence has been integral to our strategy."

NVT Phybridge enters into strategic alliance with Inflow Technologies

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VT Phybridge has entered into a strategic partnership with Inflow Technologies. Inflow will begin offering the NVT Phybridge CHARIoT Series, a portfolio of long reach PoE solutions that help customers migrate to IP with ease. Inflow Technologies acts as the perfect link to connect NVT Phybridge to system integrators, resellers and customers looking to quickly and efficiently turn new or existing infrastructures into IP paths with power.

“The CHARIoT Series solutions are designed to eliminate every barrier to making the move to IP. Security risk and breaches during network refresh is a top concern,” said John Croce, CEO, NVT Phybridge.

Atos and Google Cloud to address digital transformation of Enterprise global partnership with customers Google Cloud, one of the

A

tos has entered into a global agreement with Google Cloud to address the digital transformation needs of enterprise customers.

This agreement will see the creation of secure solutions in areas including hybrid Cloud, data analytics & machine learning and digital workplace.

“I am extremely pleased to announce this first

world’s leaders in Artificial Intelligence.

Together, we will enable fast and

smooth adoption of AI for enterprises,” said Thierry Breton, Chairman & CEO, Atos.

Stellar Data Recovery introduces “100+ Partners Program”

S

tellar Data Recovery has announced a new “100+ partners program”, aiming to foster business growth and profitability, strengthening and recognizing partners’ ability to sell, deliver and support the company’s data recovery, erasure services and solutions in India.

The company now forays into India by launching its lucrative, pan-India partner program.

The new, robust program is designed to provide unique benefits tailored around the

capabilities of each partner, reinforcing the delivery of real and measurable benefits such as reward value exchange between Stellar and its partners, offering flexible ways of earning revenue margin.

Stellar will now be strengthening its presence in more than 100 cities such as Bhopal, Dehradun, Guwahati, Indore, Jaipur, Kollam, Lucknow, Madurai, Mysuru, Patna, Salem, Shimla, Siliguri, Surat, Tiruchirappalli, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam.

Motorola opens 100 new Moto Hubs in Gujarat

M

o t o r o l a Mobility India has announced further expansion of their retail presence and entered Gujarat with the opening of 100 new “Moto Hubs” across top four cities, including 50 in Ahmedabad, 20 in Rajkot, 15 each in Baroda and Surat.

Moto Hub is a key destination that provides easy access and availability of all Motorola products to customers, where they will be able to experience the entire

portfolio of Motorola devices at convenient locations, including the

online exclusive devices like the popular moto e4 plus and moto g5s plus, apart from the newly-launched moto x4 and moto z2 force.

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May 2018

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HOT BYTES

Adidas India deploys Oracle IBM partners Ramco to empower P&N Bank Cloud to provide better Customer with Red Hat branches in Western Australia BM and Red Hat point-of-sale systems Australian Ihave announced Western Experience to Oracle Cloud member-owned

A

didas India has smartly leveraged cloud technology to provide a new shopping experience for its customers. With

Oracle Cloud, Adidas India customers will be able to complete the shop-billcheckout process three times faster than earlier at any of the Adidas stores across the country.

Adidas recently upgraded its franchise

Infrastructure – a modern, enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure solution, to enable a superior customer experience. By switching to

Oracle Cloud, Adidas India is able to ensure a faster, smoother checkout process for its in-store customers.

The cloud upgrade was successfully completed by Oracle’s Cloud Standard and Platinum partner Sunera Tech.

Salesforce acquires MuleSoft to accelerate customers’ digital company transformations is “Every undergoing a digital

S

alesforce, the global leader in CRM, has announced that it has finalized its acquisition of MuleSoft, the provider of one of the world's leading platforms for building application networks. With MuleSoft, Salesforce will accelerate customers’ digital transformations, enabling them to unlock data across legacy systems, cloud apps and devices to make smarter, faster decisions.

transformation and integration has never been more strategic,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman & CEO, Salesforce. “With MuleSoft, Salesforce will enable customers to connect all of the information throughout their enterprise across all public and private clouds and data sources – radically enhancing innovation. I am thrilled to welcome MuleSoft to the Salesforce Ohana.”

5 years warranty on Corsair VS Series PSUs in India now

C

ORSAIR has announced the increase of warranty on VS Series of PSUs in India.

This extended warranty is an affirmation of the company's active pursuit of innovations a n d commitment to continuously e n h a n c e and ensure customers get a peace of mind.

"Corsair's commitment to PSU quality and longevity has always been at the heart

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May 2018

of its entire product lineup, and is the reason why millions of customers have chosen Corsair PSUs to power their PCs. The two years of additional warranty on these PSUs is in recognition of the sheer q u a l i t y, r e l i a b i l i t y, perfor mance as well as value for money that VS Series represent," said M A Mannan, Country Manager at Corsair India.

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to enable IBM and Red Hat customers to benefit from the combined power of both companies’ technologies in private and public clouds.

The agreement builds on IBM’s recent moveto reengineer its entire software portfolio with containers, including WebSphere, MQ Series and Db2.

Container technologies are fast becoming a safe and reliable way to move applications across multiple IT footprints. Going hand in hand with IBM’s shift to containerized software is Red Hat’s expansive portfolio of enterprisegrade, cloud-native, and hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions, which provide a clear pathway for enterprises to adopt hybrid cloud computing.

Paytm with its “My Payments” app aims for Rs.60,000-crore bank transfers

O n e 9 7 Communications that owns the brand Paytm has further unified bank transfers for its customers with the new “My Payments” feature on its app. This will enable Paytm users to make recurring, high-value payment and other monthly expenses in an instant.

Using the Paytm app, Bank Transfers can be done from any Bank Account to any Bank Account, making it easier for customers to make payments at 0% charge. Even non-KYC Paytm users can avail this facility.

Paytm is aiming to process Rs.60,000 crore in monthly Bank Transfers alone by the end of this year. It has been aggressively educating its users to link their bank accounts and experience instant and secure Bank Transfers

retail bank, P&N Bank (Police and Nurses Limited), has signed an agreement with the global enterprise software provider Ramco Systems to launch a digital HR transformation with Ramco HCM integrated with Global Payroll.

Ramco will implement its end-to-end HCM solution across all P&N Bank branches in Western Australia.

The installation of Ramco HCM integrated with Global Payroll comes amidst a movement to

digitise Australian Payroll, with Single Touch Payroll (STP) Reporting. The law which comes into effect from 1 July 2018, requires employers in Australia with 20 or more employees to report employees’ tax and super information to the Australian Taxation Office using Single Touch Payroll (STP) enabled software.

Pegasystems improves Customer Service with AI Capabilities

P

egasystems has introduced new Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities in the latest version of Pega Know Your Customer (KYC) and Pega Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) applications.

The software provides banks with complete AI control and transparency, ensuring banks remain in regulatory compliance while driving additional revenue and providing exceptional customer experiences.

With new

enhancements in Pega KYC and Pega CLM, banks can confidently deploy AI during the on boarding process to provide more personalized and differentiated service.

Pega KYC and Pega CLM use proven AI capabilities that analyze customer profile data in real time. Pega CLM leverages these insights to continually personalize the on boardingjourney for each new customer with only the most appropriate products and service offers.

Fortinet now a part of IBM Security’s X-Force Threat Management Services

F

ortinet has collaborated with IBM on the new IBM X-Force Threat Management Services.

This will enable both organizations to further provide mutual customers with unprecedented threat insight, attack detection and prevention, and an integrated defense-in-depth strategy.

IBM X-Force Threat Management Services was developed around the key tenets of the National

Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) Cyber security Framework creating an integrated and programmatic approach across the entire threat management lifecycle.

This latest partnership combines Fortinet’s comprehensive security protections with IBM’s world-class security expertise to provide enhanced value to customers through the delivery of advanced protection.

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Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other countries or both.

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May 2018

19

ON THE RAMP

Dell launches Inspiron series with AMD Ryzen processor

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ell India has launched the new Inspiron series, now equipped with AMD Ryzen Processor with Radeon RX Vega Graphics. The

Inspiron 15 (5575) is the latest addition to Dell’s portfolio of mainstream performance notebooks, powered by AMD Ryzen to deliver split-second responsiveness and an incredibly fast and reliable

performance.

Dell’s line-up of notebooks in 2018 prioritize an immersive experience, delivered by an irreplaceable backbone. A sophisticated design in a striking aluminum finish, along with an array of options to deliver a fully immersive and elevated entertainment experience, the Inspiron 15 (5575) is a sure-shot head-turner. With consumers turning to their laptops for viewing highdefinition content on larger screens, there is no looking away with the stunning antiglare HD and FHD display, available on the Inspiron 15 (5575).

Juniper Networks expand Contrail Enterprise Multicloud

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uniper Networks has announced the expansion of Contrail Enterprise Multicloud to enable end-to-end policy and control capability for any workload running in physical and virtual environments, any cloud and across multivendor environments.

Contrail Enterprise Multicloud integrates both overlay and underlay management into an open platform. Whether an enterprise is looking

for device or fabric management, or overlay policy and control, Contrail Enterprise Multicloud provides a unified approach to enterprise operations that

streamlines workflows and improves end-to-end visibility across bare metal servers, virtual machines and containers, along with network devices.

Forcepoint introduces new automated Risk-Adaptive Protection Solution

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orcepoint has announced the industry’s first RiskAdaptive Protection solution called Dynamic Data Protection in response to the challenges enterprise and government CISOs face today in balancing airtight user and data security with business productivity.

Built to address the barrage of complex and sophisticated threats facing organizations today, Forcepoint’s Risk-

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May 2018

Adaptive Protection continuously assesses risk and automatically provides proportional enforcement that can be dialled up or down. This capability is enabled through the power of human-centric behaviour analytics that understand interactions with data across users, machines and accounts.

Intelligent context speeds decision-making and security controls specific to changing risk in enterprise networks.

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D-Link launches Tech Data introduces StreamOne Mini HD Home Cloud Marketplace Camera TechlaunchedData hasthe customers.

“We are thrilled

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-Link (India) has announced its latest mydlink-enabled Mini HD Wi-Fi Camera – DCS-P6000LH. An affordable surveillance solution D-Link DCSP6000LH helps users keep an eye on everything that matters. Equipped with mydlink Cloud, the Mini HD Wi-Fi Camera DCSP6000LH makes it easy and convenient for one check on home or office from anywhere.

Sanket Kulkarni, VP – Channel Sales, D-Link (India) Ltd, said, “Working parents, pet owners, children with elderly parents or anyone who is looking for an affordable home security solution, for them the search ends with our D-Link mini HD Wi-Fi Home Camera."

VMware unveils Cloud capability along with NSX networking portfolio

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Mware has outlined its vision for the future of networking, and has unveiled the Virtual Cloud Network. The Virtual Cloud Network will enable organizations to create a digital business fabric for connecting and securing applications, data, and users across the entire network in a hyper-distributed world.

“The future of networking is software, and the network of the future is the Virtual Cloud Network,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, Chief Operating Officer, Products and Cloud Services, VMware.

“VMware is helping customers today to build tomorrow’s softwaredefined Virtual Cloud Networks to connect and secure apps and users.”

StreamOne Cloud Marketplace in India.

The provisioning, billing and end-user lifecycle management digital platform allows partners to scale, launch and manage a broad range of cloud services, including SaaS, IaaS and Platform-asa-Service (PaaS). It also enables partners to deliver advanced offerings such as assessment, migration, security and monitoring, enabling hassle-free cloud transitions for their

to announce that Tech Data’s StreamOne Cloud Marketplace is now available in India,” said Naresh Desai, Vice-President, Specialist Business Unit, Asia-Pacific, Tech Data.

“The digital platform provides simplified access to premium cloud services from trusted providers, enabling our partners to offer cloud services with minimal investment and quickly drive recurring revenue.”

SUSE releases new services for its OpenStack Cloud SUSE has unveiled SUSE Select Services for its Openstack Cloud and Enterprise Storage Solutions. This fixed-price service offering is a blend of consulting, premium support and knowledge transfer designed to jumpstart implementations and integrations of these two key software-defined infrastructure components.

Solutions are implemented quickly and smoothly, easing data center transformation for enterprise customers.

"The pace of business and technology is changing

the data center, and many organizations need to review and implement new solutions to stay ahead, and, in some cases, catch up," said Kenny Stewart, Vice-President of Global SUSE Services. “SUSE OpenStack Cloud and SUSE Enterprise Storage are important components of that transformation, and with Select Services, we will provide our customers with a cost-effective and flexible path to a fast start in these key softwaredefined infrastructure technologies.”

Dahua introduces Dual Biometric Identification Time Attendance device. Embedded with Terminals advanced infrared face

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ahua Technology has launched its new time attendance terminals – the DHIASA4214F and DHIASA6214F. These highly intelligent devices will support both face and fingerprint identification for access control and time attendance in office scenarios, enabling easy staff management and security control.

Dahua’s attendance terminals offer dualbiometric identification integrated into a single

recognition algorithms, these new time attendance terminals further improve on poor lighting environment performance, making it smart enough to identify a designated face in a very short time. Access to live face detection significantly improves safety, preventing the use of “picture camouflage” to deceive the system.

If needed, you can add a card or password to the combination to make the whole system even safer.

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May 2018

21

ON THE RAMP

Sony introduces fast speed 3.1 Gen 1 flash drive line-up

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ony India has launched the allnew Made-in-India USB Flash Drive with USMBA2, USM-CA2and USMMX3 for blazing data

are a reflection of Sony’s commitment to bring fast and durable devices to fulfil all consumer requirements.

The sleek design with metal body delivers style

sharing and transfer.

All three models are metallic, anti-corrosive and compliant with superSpeed 3.1 Gen 1 which helps transfer large media files to one’s PC in seconds for effective workflow.

These USB Flash Drives

at an affordable price while also being durable enough to protect any data.

Additionally, the USB Flash Drives compact built makes them best to use in tight spaces and also provide access to adjacent ports easily.

Jio unveils “JioInteract” – an AI-based Video Platform

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eliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (“Jio”) has announced the launch of the world’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI)based brand engagement platform – JioInteract.

According to the company, with Jio’s base of over 186 million subscribers and another 150 million smartphone users, JioInteract is poised to become the largest platform for movie-

promotion and brand engagement. Over the next few weeks, Jio will introduce services such as video call centres, video catalogue, and virtual showrooms to the forefront redefining customer experience.

Such use of artificial intelligence is a first across the world and will reposition the way brands and customers think of engagement.

Lenovo unveils V-Series Laptops for the SMBs

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enovo has launched the new V-series laptops for SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and start-ups. The V330 laptop comes with entrepreneur-friendly flexibility features like an ultrabay drive that can house either an optical drive or an additional battery, a QuickCharge battery, an elegant spill-resistant backlit keyboard, and both USB-C type and USB 3.0 ports.

Ashish Sikka, Director – SMB, Lenovo India, said, “SMEs are the backbone

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May 2018

of the country’s economy and are facing a digital crossroad on keeping their existing infrastructure versus expanding on

mobile computing to meet the challenging demands of their customers."

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R&M unveils Quality Seal for PoE Range

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&M has launched a quality seal for the Power over Ethernet product range. PowerSafe is the name of the new mark. Cabling products labelled PowerSafe can continuously transmit high currents in local data networks.

Supplying power to end devices over data cables is paving the way to more intelligent buildings and to the Internet of Things.

Sensors, Wi-Fi antennas, lighting, video cameras, medical technology, emergency and access control systems, remote maintenance, checkouts, terminals, scoreboards, airconditioning and heating technology, thin clients and lots of other digital systems can be integrated.

Nutanix launches new SaaS offering

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utanix has announced Nutanix Beam, a new software-as-a-ser vice (SaaS) offering that delivers multi-cloud governance so organizations can manage their spending, security and regulatory compliance across nearly any cloud platform. Beam is based on Nutanix’s recentlyacquired Minjar Botmetric service, which is already used to manage more than $1 billion of cloud spend across Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

The Nutanix Enterprise Cloud OS software helps companies reduce complexity of their multicloud architectures by melding private, public and distributed clouds into a common IT operating model for their end-toend infrastructure. Beam further reduces complexity by providing customers with deep visibility and rich analytics.

NetApp opens its DVEC Center

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etApp has unveiled a new Data Visionary Engineering Center (DVEC) in India to empower Asia-Pacific customers and partners to transform the world with data. Along with this, NetAPP has also announced NetApp Cloud Volumes for Google Cloud Platform, offering customers a fullymanaged, cloud-native file storage service that’s integrated with Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

“Companies are increasingly looking at using

data and cloud technology to accelerate their businesses,” said George Kurian, CEO, NetApp. “As the leader in hybrid cloud data services, NetApp

is uniquely positioned to help them create new market opportunities by rapidly deploying new technologies."

Hitachi Vantara introduces AI Operations Software

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itachi Vantara has introduced new innovations to drive data center modernization.

The all-new, all-flash and hybrid Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) systems and AI operations software give customers unprecedented agility and automation to reduce costs and increase operational efficiencies – the foundation for any modern data center initiative.

“As artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies mature, enterprise storage vendors

have an opportunity to provide considerable assistance to customers on their journey to autonomous operations,” said Eric Burgener, Research Vice-President of Storage, IDC. “Vendors like Hitachi Vantara, with their enhanced AI operations portfolio, are leveraging AI/ML to simplify infrastructure management while improving platform reliability, infrastructure efficiency and the ability to meet service level agreements.”

ASUS India brings new range of Gaming series with TUF Gaming

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SUS India, while focusing on diversifying the Gaming series has introduced a powerful duo – FX 504 TUF GAMING and ROG G703.

FX504 is the first laptop in the new “TUF Gaming” Series powered with 8th-Gen processor. ROG G703 is also 8th-Gen powered by the newest hexa-core Intel i9 processor. The new entrants provide unmatched toughness and reliability allowing the consumer to multitask with ease.

Arnold Su, Business Development Manager, ASUS India, said, “We take immense pride in

introducing intuitive technology like TUF GAMING and latest i9 processor in our newest 8th-gen editions lined up."

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May 2018

23

VOICE-N-DATA

Bharti Infratel announces merger with Indus Towers to create major tower firm

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harti Airtel's tower subsidiary Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers have decided to merge their companies to create one entity. With a combined revenue of around Rs.25,360 crore, and 1.63 lakh towers across 22 telecom service areas of the country, this new pan-India tower company, which will be named Indus Towers Ltd, will easily become the world's largest tower company.

However, as per the reports, Bharti Airtel is planning a stake sale in the

new tower company that will be formed after the merger. The company in a regulatory statement said, "The board has decided to engage with the potential investors for evaluating a strategic stake sale post the completion of the merger."

The merger between Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers is happening at a time when Bharti Airtel's tower arm registered 8-per cent annual growth in revenues to Rs.14,490 crore, while its net profit slipped by 9 per cent to Rs.2,494 crore.

Nokia to deploy FTTH network across Nepal with Subisu

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okia and Subisu, a leading Internet Service Provider in Nepal, will deploy a Fiber-ToThe-Home network across Province 2 of Nepal to provide enhanced, reliable and quality services to their subscribers. Nokia’s GPON solutions will help Subisu expand its network and reach new customers.

Once deployed, the FTTH network will enable

Subisu’s subscribers to enjoy new ultra-broadband applications and services.

Subisu was selected by the Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) to build the FTTH network for eight districts in Province 2 of Nepal. The new network will enable Subisu to deliver Digital Television, IPTV and highspeed Internet services up to 1 Gbps.

BSNL and SAP offer GST solutions in Indian enterprises

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tate run telecom major BSNL and SAP SE have announced signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly offer innovative GST solutions to enterprises a c r o s s India.

The collaboration leverages the capabilities of BSNL as GST Suvidha Provider (GSP) and SAP as Application Service Provider (ASP).

BSNL, through its network of appx. 115 million customer base currently connecting 646

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May 2018

districts, 4519 cities/ towns & 6.25 lakhs villages across India, will provide enhanced accessibility to companies of all sizes, specifically S M E s , to create, consolidate and file GST R e t u r n s through SAP’s ASP solution in an easy, secure and smooth manner.

The alliance will thus help realize the full potential of GST on the back of BSNL’s country-wide reach and SAP’s expertise in providing robust technology offerings.

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Spirent forges alliance with Cohda Wireless

S p i r e n t Communications and Cohda Wireless have entered into partnership to support the testing of WAVE-DSRC (V2X) devices. Building on their long successful cooperation for testing the European V2X standard ITS-G5, Cohda Wireless and Spirent will provide similar tests for the USDOT WAVEDSRC standards, as per IEEE1609.x and SAE J2945/1.

Spirent and Cohda Wireless will be participating in the OmniAir Motor City Plugfest where Spirent is providing WAVE-DSRC V2X conformance testing at five test stations, enabling V2X vendors to prepare for OmniAir certification and to improve their product quality.

ACT Fibernet raises data limits of its broadband plans

ACT Fibernet, a fiberfocused wired broadband ISP (Internet Service Provider) in terms of the number of fiber broadband internet subscribers and one of the most reliable wired broadband internet service providers in India, recently increased the FUP data limits across all its broadband plans beginning in Hyderabad. With this move, ACT Fibernet aims to meet the incessant demand for higher internet data among its existing customers and enhance their internet broadband experience.

ACT Fibernet enjoys the highest market share in Hyderabad in wired broadband market.

Coupled with incredible internet speed the newly revised plans will now allow customers to consume additional data basis his/ her usage needs.

Sequans and Sasken to bring new LTE devices to vertical markets

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e q u a n s Communications S.A. and Sasken Technologies Limited have entered into collaboration to bring new LTE devices based on Sequans’ Monarch LTE Cat M1/NB1 and Cassiopeia LTE-A platforms to several vertical markets.

“Our collaboration with Sequans is based on the development of 3GPP-compliant devices, but we are adapting our technologies to extend

our market reach,” said Ajit Singh, SVP and Head – Communications & Devices BU, Sasken. “We are customizing our Sequans-

based solutions to adapt to non-3GPP requirements, such as to cover non-3GPP frequencies, to extend transmit output power, to add security, and to improve operation in challenging environments."

Vodafone now expands its VoLTE services to Kerala Vodafone has announced the rollout of its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services across Kerala. With this launch, Vodafone is enabling customers to make calls using VoLTE and enjoy HD quality crystal-clear voice with super call connect.

Vodafone SuperNet 4G customers can access Vodafone VoLTE for no additional charges and all calls will be billed as per existing plan or pack benefits, thus experiencing

the best from Vodafone’s Data Strong Network.

Announcing the launch of the Vodafone VoLTE service, Ajit Chaturvedi, Business Head – Kerala, Vodafone India, said, “As a leading telecom services provider in Kerala, we have been making significant investments to expand, upgrade our network and to deploy new technologies, so as to ensure that we provide the finest service experience to our valued customers."

NETGEAR unveils R6260 Dualband Smart Wi-Fi Router

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ETGEAR has announced the launch of NETGEAR R6260; an incredibly fast router with a dual-core 880 MHz processor which enables combined Wi-Fi connections at Gigabit speeds of up to 1,600Mbps, providing enough wireless coverage for larger homes.

The R6260 dual-band smart router is compatible with the next generation Wi-Fi devices and is compatible with 802.11 a/b/g/n devices With its new and enhanced features the AC1600 offers 3x faster speed and enables HD streaming throughout

your home with utmost ease.

With up to 300+1,300Mbps speed and simultaneous dualband Wi-Fi technology, the device avoids wireless interference, ensuring top speed and reliable connections. The device is ideal for applications such as lag-free multiple video streaming, multi-player gaming, ultra-fast speed and a secure and reliable connection to the Internet.

Friday, 25th May, 2018 Shangri-La Hotel, New Delhi Theme :

Disruption - A New Reality

BRAND ICON OF THE YEAR

Digital disruption accelerates improvements in business processes, elevates customer’s satisfaction and increases revenue and business growth. Marketing technology has come a long way in enabling marketers to start real conversations with prospects by providing content they care about and derive value from. This year, the 16th edition of Infotech Forum, wherein the 7th edition of the Brand Book will be unveilled, will witness the recognition of Brand Icon of the Year.

Marketing investment builds sales over long term, but in the present competitive environment the marketing team is under constant pressure to achieve more and more with less and less. In our recent interaction with 100 corporates in India, most of the CMOs spoke on their shrinking budgets. So they have to work out how to spread their wings wider and get the most bang for their bucks. At the same time, they have to meet the challenge of driving immediate sales.

So there is a lot of pressure to really look at where they need to spend their money to get that return on investment. In order to build brand equity and drive steps for their respective organisations, let’s see how these corporates have performed over the last one year. It is worth mentioning that these brands have created impactful marketing which includes ways of capturing great ideas, prioritizing ideas, and managing implementation of experiments of enhancing customer experiences.

Absolutely, it is the inherent quality and powerful asset of the MARKETERS.

Resulted double digit ROI by rightfull marketing spend by CMOs

Many More...

Only 10 CMOs to get recognised FIVE TRAITS OF SUCCESSFUL CMO Impactful marketing for the organisational growth

Spending on internal marketing than external

Believing marketing as the revenue driver

Working towards building corporate reputation

Successful in getting marketing money back

Brand Icons of the Year (BIoY 2018) awards are one of a kind and highly credible - facilitating entrepreneurs and corporate houses for their contribution to the business world, innovation, leadership, entrepreneurial spirit and best business practices, etc.

These awards are aimed to recognize and facilitate the most successful marketers in the corporate world.

For more information, please contact: publisher@varindia.com www.varindia.com www.mybrandbook.co.in

HEAD OFFICE

Kalinga Digital Media Pvt. Ltd. VAR House, A-84A/3, Rose Apartment, Paryavaran Complex IGNOU Road, New Delhi – 110030 Tel: 011-41656383, 41655458, Fax: 011-46061809 www.varindia.com May 2018 25 Email: info@varindia.com

CHANNEL BUZZ

IP-COM organizes Partners meet with a plan to re-introduce itself in India

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P-COM India recently held partners meet with an initiative to re-introduce IP-COM Brand in India. The meet was attended by 30+ Prime Partners across New Delhi region.

IP-COM’s strategy is to focus on the SMB market in India and provide the complete networking solution for the customer instead of single product. IP-COM pursues the value of the solution. IP-COM holds expertise to provide the most suitable solution for the project, such as hospitality, enterprise, education, outdoor transmission.

With a re-entry in the Indian market, IP-COM will be focusing on the SMB market and CCTV segment to fulfil market demand.

This time around, IP-COM is

differentiating itself by offering direct support and price to its Partners and SIs, which will default issue such as stock, RMA and project delivery incompetence.

The brand is also making sure to keep abundant stock for special projects and tenders which will need products in handy. With the complete solution projects needing more than only products to make it successful, IP-COM has also made sure to have technical as well as presales and after-sales service team ready so that the customer gets a satisfactory result from the brand.

The brand assured they will be introducing new price system and new channel system and will make sure that they protect the profit of their partners in this cut-throat competitive market. IPCOM is aggressive on rebuilding the channel system in India with each area consisting of two or three distributors who will adhere to respective channel policy.

DIGISOL delights its Channel Partners in Mussoorie

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IGISOL Systems hosted a partner event at Mussoorie. The trip was organized for all the partners to celebrate their achievements in active and passive networking business. The event was organized from 14th to 16th April, 2018.

“We intend to keep rewarding our distributors from time to time.

For us, the regional distributors are most important as they represent the DIGISOL brand in the market,” says Mandar Joshi, Head – Channel Business, DIGISOL Systems Ltd. He added, “Such trips help in building excitement in the channels and encourage them to focus and improve their business relationship with us.”

During the event, the company unveiled its latest strategic products and solutions and shared market and sales insights.

In a constant endeavour to work closely with its partners across the country, DIGISOL will continue to introduce number of incentive programs for its partner community.

Inspira Enterprise hosts 9th edition of its Annual Sales Conference at Bali

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M-tech Mobile conducts dealer meet for its Gujarat partners

nspira Enterprise pioneered IAC, the Inspira Annual Conference, marked its ninth year in Bali. IAC is an Annual Sales kickoff, which is also attended by all the heads from various departments. At IAC 2018, the stage was set to plan the New Financial Year, inspire a growth mindset and celebrate the success of its top-performing

on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Inspira Enterprise standing true to its image of innovation, this year went ahead with Live Streaming of awards night on Inspira Enterprise’s Youtube channel, which was watched by many employees and their families, along with other partners back in India.

“The theme for IAC 2018 was

The senior officials from M-tech presiding over the meet included Goutam Jain, Co-Founder, M-tech Informatics Ltd;Lalit Agarwal, CEO, M-tech Informatics Ltd; and Sandeep Bediawala, State Head.

The meet showcased M-tech’s array of smartphones and

employees. Adding to the energy and prestige around the event, senior executives from OEMs like Array Networks, Avaya, F5 Networks, Fortinet, Juniper Networks, Motadata, NetApp, Polycom, Ruckus &WinMagic, Guardtime, i-Ram Technologies and Manorama Infosolutions were present.

Understanding the fastgrowing social media trend, there were live updates from IAC 2018

Q&A which stands for Quality and Accountability. Q&A was intended to give an update on the future aspirations and a synopsis of the contribution made by Inspirers,” said Manoj Kanodia, COE, Inspira Enterprise.

The Conference highlighted Review & Training Sessions on Cloud, HCI, Blockchain & Smart City Solutions, along with Business strategies and Marketing presentation for the year 2018.

M

-tech Mobile has recently organized a meet for its dealers in Goa. The meet was attended by over 40+ leading channel partners from Gujarat and was intended to showcase M-tech’s new range of products, consolidate its relationship with existing partners and attract new partners.

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feature phones, its unique selling proposition as a brand, upcoming product roadmap and schemes for channel partners. An open walkin session was conducted to get a first-hand feel of the products with the company’s officials educating the dealers about the products and after- sales service.

Speaking on the side-lines of the meet, Lalit Agarwal, CEO, M-tech Informatics Ltd, said, “It has always been M-tech’s endeavour to understand the needs of its channel partners and maintain a long term association with them.

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FACE TO FACE

Toshiba to carry forward its 142 year legacy with new product innovations Toshiba has recently forayed into the audio segment by launching a complete range of audio products in the country. Santosh Varghese, Vice President - General Manager& Digital Products & Solutions - Toshiba Gulf FZE in a chat discusses the company’s GTM strategy and the plans for the audio market India is a strategic growth market for Toshiba, considering the business potential for Audio products in India which is estimated to be around $1-Billion this year, which is further expected to grow at a CAGR of 12% until 2021.

“Our product strategy will be focused mainly around high value products like Sound bars and range of trolley speakers, and high volume products like mobile accessories including On/IN/Over the ear phones mainly in the Wireless/BT category,” says Santosh Varghese, Vice President & General Manager, Digital Products & Solutions - Toshiba Gulf FZE. Currently in Japan, Toshiba Audio products have a 40% market share in the RCR category. In India, its target is to achieve 15-18% market share within 2020. To achieve this target, Toshiba is investing in brand category development by connecting with its target segment including Zillennials and GenX Xennials, channel development, and implement a solid productsellout driven business model.

Toshiba’s ‘Go-to-market’ strategy will be to focus more on locally fit products that deliver high quality and reliability; introduce a range of products & technology that fit the wide range of market segment in India especially focusing on Category B & C towns and a good mix of online and

Santosh Varghese

Vice President & General Manager, Digital Products & Solutions - Toshiba Gulf FZE

offline sales channel.

“We will focus on Toshiba’s USP of high quality and reliability of its products which will be our competitive edge in this crowded audio segment. We will also focus on ‘’Time to Market’’ by introducing the latest technology in the Audio segment,” says Santosh.

He further adds, “We will be launching a wide range of entry and mid-range audio products. We will also be introducing a wide range of differentiated model in the mobile accessories segment and nostalgic models for GenX like the Vinyl Players, Transistor Radios, and Cassette Players.”

There seems to be a clear shift from ‘price-sensitivity’ to ‘qualityconsciousness’. As brands like Toshiba step in with high quality and reliable products, consumers are now increasingly staying clear from lowpriced unbranded products. As most unbranded players don’t focus on quality, they just add to the ‘digital waste’ in India.

“Toshiba’s long and rich history of innovation for over 142 years has witnessed many ‘Industry First’ innovations that set the benchmark and we will continue to build on our brand philosophy based on this culture of Leading Innovation,” concludes Santosh.

CHANNEL BUZZ

PCAIT and FAIITA jointly organize Channel Vistas 2018 Progressive Channels’ Association of Information Technology (PCAIT), along with the support of the Federation of All India Associations of Information Technology (FAIITA), has organized its Channel Vistas – 2018 in New Delhi. The event was attended by traders, system integrators, IT vendors, etc from across the country.

150 members of FAIITA and PCAIT participated in it. The conclave was aimed at networking amongst the state champions of IT business, system integrators and vendors so that it encourages business growth and enhances the quality and quantity of IT business throughout India.

The first session of the conclave was devoted to FAIITA and it was inaugurated with the welcome speech by FAIITA President Champak Gurjar and the second session was for PCAIT. This session was inaugurated with the welcome speech by PCAIT President Alok Gupta.

Champak Gurjar, President FAIITA said, “The only aim of FAIITA was to unite the entire India. Initially there were many small IT associations but now all the association are getting united. We wanted to get connected with each other and FAIITA should be the connecting link. It is a platform where the channel community can grow the business.

We have signed a MoU with Taiwan so that we can leverage each other to grow our business.”

It was also announced in the meet that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between FAIITA and four vendors – HP Inc., Dell Lenovo and Acer that the pricing of products in both online and offline will be same. In case of a breach, the vendor will issue a credit note to channel partner.

A discussion was held in the second session with the title “Enhancement of Business Prospects amongst the Members” and it was moderated by General Secretary of PCAIT Saket Kapoor and Vivek Sharma. PCAIT members, along with other association members, also participated in the discussion and expressed their views.

The FAIITA President Champak Lal Gurjar, PCAIT President Alok Gupta and General Secretary Saket Kapoor highlighted the need of organizing this kind of conclaves in different states in every three months to ensure revival of their activities and business initiatives thus achieving the aim of enhancing the IT business prospects and also to resolve any problem.

www.varindia.com

May 2018

27

INTERNATIONAL EVENT

David J Henshall President & CEO Citrix

Accelerate To Win

….. The Future of Work at Citrix Synergy 2018

Anaheim, CA (USA): Enterprises have become more susceptible to cyber-security risks as work becomes more distributed and employees use cloud apps without its knowledge and consent. IT is increasingly becoming uncertain about where SaaS and web apps are being accessed, or where sensitive data resides.

Citrix Access Control attempts to alleviate such cyber-security concerns.

Citrix Synergy 2018, the annual customer conference that happened at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim,California (US) was a huge success! It was a three day event.

There were certain big announcements made

by David J Henshall, President & CEO-Citrix.

The event was kicked off in presence of 2,500 people who had come from across the world.

VARINDIA was hosted in the event. The Opening Keynote was on The Future of Work, and how Citrix is making it possible.

Beginning the conference, Mark Ferrer, EVP and chief revenue officer, spoke about the evolution of Citrix products into solution sets that really resonate with customers, partners and employees. Before introducing CEO David Henshall, Mark took everyone back to 2017 when Citrix saw a 122% increase in new patents and an 80% increase in product releases, and then the roadmap for 2018.

“As Citrix accelerates to cloud and unifies the portfolio, digital transformation is “not just an opportunity, it’s an obligation to our customers. And it all starts with you,” David said in his presentation.

“More than half of all workloads will soon be running on the cloud. 2018 is likely to be the year where the world will generate more

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May 2018

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data than all that is already in existence. And millennials — that digital-born, social-platformdwelling generation — are now the largest portion of the workforce. To realize the benefits of these shifts will require us to transform the way we do business. We need to spend less time managing technology and more time harnessing it for innovation,” David further explained.

There was an earthquake in the morning at 4.15 am of 4.5 magnitude in the richter-scale but the earthquake’s 27 aftershocks were no match for the announcements that followed, beginning with Citrix Workspace app, the industry’s first digital workspace to unify and secure all apps and content for all devices. Along with Citrix Networking and Citrix Analytics, Citrix

Workspace will power a new generation of workers with a next-gen workspace that makes it possible for work to happen wherever users are.

Citrix is working with strategic alliance partners to give customers a fully-integrated, fully-supported solution that delivers simplicity, scalability, and security.

One of the important pillars of focus for Citrix is choice without compromise, because of which Citrix workloads can be run on any cloud, including Google, AWS, Oracle and Azure. Citrix will also provide day-one support for Windows Server 2019. With Citrix Endpoint Management, Citrix will unify management of all devices, from mobile to IoT, in an easy-toadopt cloud service that offers support for

Press and Analyst Q&A with CEO David Henshall and Chief Product Officer PJ Hough

Chrome OS, Apple tvOS and new devices including Alexa for Business. It provides IT and security teams with policy controls they never had before for managing the access and use of SaaS, web and the internet sites.

Citrix Workspace features includes instant password-free access to SaaS, mobile and Windows apps, pre-integrated, resilient and high-performance networking and universal search across the entire workspace. Add in Slack integration plus self-service app and desktop provisioning with Service Now, it’s a gamechanging, unified environment including SSO that’s available now.

Citrix Innovation Award

During the keynote, Citrix chief marketing officer Tim Minahan introduced the finalists for the 2018 Citrix Innovation Award: Germany’s WAGO, the UK’s Beazley and Health Choice Network from the U.S. WAGO has developed and produced innovative products for power, transportation, process, industrial and building

automation markets for more than 60 years.

Citrix cloud solutions allow them to scale quickly, maintain security, and remain agile as they keep up with their rapid growth goals. This

Super Session with Dr. Condoleezza Rice prestigious award spotlights customers who are using Citrix solutions to drive innovation and IT simplicity.

The second day, was equally exciting with the presence of the most influential and powerful people in the world, Dr. Condoleezza Rice. She rose from a childhood in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, to become advisor to presidents and an architect of transformational diplomacy during a time of unprecedented and tumultuous world affairs.

“Technology is not good or bad. It’s neutral. The question is how it is applied.

Sometimes innovation in technology is not matched by wisdom,” explained Dr. Condoleezza Rice. The Stanford professor and the 66thU.S. Secretary of State opened the second day morning’s Super Session with a thought-provoking discussion that touched on topics from growing up in the

segregated south protected by faith, family and education to the enduring ideal of democracy.

Dr. Rice had shared her thoughts on the art of diplomacy and its significance, not only on the world stage but also in business, the workplace, and within work teams.

As the first African-American woman Secretary of State and the first woman National Security Advisor, Dr. Rice is a living inspiration of leadership with a unique perspective on global politics and the rise and fall of nations.

She shared her thoughts on the challenges facing the county of USA- “If it feels chaotic, that’s because it is,” she said. She has spoken on how she was doing her job is not to make comfortable to all but rather to make more capable and says,“It doesn’t matter where you came from, it matters where you are going,” she said.

Tim Minahan, Citrix SVP, business strategy, and chief marketing officer, joined Dr. Rice onstage for an excellent and wide-ranging Q&A on diversity, immigration, mentorship, and world conflicts. Ultimately, Dr. Rice offered her own optimistic view. “I have seen so many things that seemed impossible in retrospect becoming inevitable in retrospect,” she said.

Disruption comes in various shapes and forms

Security at the workspace helps to make things secure…

In an exclusive one-on-one interaction with VARINDIA, Citrix Senior Director, Marketing Development, Jeff Sanderson discussed on the IoT, automotive industry, insurance and the challenges being faced with absorbing data and security. He had discussed on the focus of Citrix, the challenges that need to be tackled with product initiatives through security and IoT, besides the security vision for the Citrix business.

“With our existing 4, 00,000 customers, enterprise IT is increasingly becoming hybrid and multi-cloud.Companies are looking to tap into the business benefits that different cloud platforms are offering them.

We ensure that adding a platform doesn’t increase the administrative load, thus giving you the true freedom to choose the platform that best fits your organization. Also, the huge focus is on security at the workspace with the web application firewalls, which

technologies like edge computing. Without platform-independent solutions for every new platform, the administrative burden can increase to the extent that it can annihilate the business case. 99% out of 100% are moving towards the multi cloud opportunity.

Jeff Sanderson

Senior Director, Marketing Development Citrix helps to make the things secure.

As disruption comes in various shapes and forms, we need to embrace newer

Citrix has also spoken about to keep adding to the list of supported clouds, that includes new power management capabilities for workloads on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). This adds GCP to the list of XenApp and XenDesktop service cloud platforms which also includes Azure and AWS. Citrix will continue to add support for additional cloud platforms based on customer demand.

Lastly, talking on the Key priorities for the year 2018 is on Future works and working with the strategic partners and customers, Citrix workplace is really a great opportunity.

It is all about how Future works.”

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INTERNATIONAL EVENT

Citrix helps organizations in the digitization drive In an exclusive interaction, Ravindra Kelkar, Sr. Director-Enterprise & Public Sector, Citrix India shares how India as a market fares for the company and the growth strategies it has zeroed down and in a customized manner. Organizations across sectors have their own cloud strategy that could be multi-cloud, private, public or hybrid; or a combination of all of these.

Irrespective of the approach, Citrix is capable of empowering organizations on their cloud journey with our set of offerings in a secure environment, moving away from traditional way of looking at point solutions.

What is your India strategy for growth?

Citrix finds itself to be favourably aligned with the government’s Digital India mission. Today, we are focused on fuelling the needs of public sector enterprises as well as Central and State Government agencies by leveraging IT for better customer service.

Improved workforce productivity and better efficiencies across the enterprise supported by modern IT architecture/infrastructure are outcomes we intend on providing, through our innovative solutions, by catering to their specific requirements. This also offers Citrix an opportunity to provide value through our digital workspace, networking and analytics portfolio. Citrix has dedicated teams and focused Go-To-Market to address both these market segments. We are also actively working with large System Integrators who are involved in addressing some of these large projects.

How the Citrix security alliance works for offering better user experience.

Adoption of technological solutions has been on the rise across the globe. However, this also creates room for new security threats to an organization. Malicious external bodies can easily penetrate an organization through internal systems. Therefore, organizations need to adopt appropriate security frameworks to protect data handled by employees, while

Super Session highlights

There were many sessions and every session was full of content and knowledge driven for the audience attending the summit. On its third day event, which was the last day, the keynote session was from Michael Monroe Lewis, who is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. He said that if human beings were natural statisticians, there would be much less opportunity to exploit it with better data.

Michael was explaining on how the enterprising analysts in baseball and on the trading floor found a way to leverage data to their advantage, making millions in the process—stories he told

What is your strategy for the year 2018?

Ravindra Kelkar

Sr. Director-Enterprise & Public Sector Citrix also allowing them the flexibility to work in this environment without disrupting the established momentum. Citrix simplifies this process by providing an expanded security approach that combines the capabilities of our Networking portfolio with Citrix Unified Endpoint Management and Citrix Analytics. This enables an organization to look at security posture from a completely new angle and have a secure digital perimeter for optimum visibility and control. Citrix Analytics in particular makes use of AI and machine learning to detect threats and anomalous behaviour.

Additionally, the Citrix Cloud offering also allows users to manage data seamlessly in Moneyballand Flash Boys and spoke about on how to leverage the power from autonomy and artificial intelligence.

Lewis’s research points out that “people who aren’t using analytics intelligently are making intuitive judgements—and they are flawed.” At the same time, he says there’s a limit to using algorithms alone to make decisions. Lewis explained that the work of finding a balance between data and people never really ends.

His most recent work, The Undoing Project, concedes that we are aware of our cognitive bias.

Overall, Synergy has been a valuable summit and it was absolutely a knowledge event not to

Citrix Synergy Final Night Party 30

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Given the massive adoption of technological solutions and shift in strategy across enterprises, cloud and cloud enabled SaaS apps will dominate above all other solutions in 2018. When combined with AI, machine learning, IoT and analytics, the capabilities of cloud are endless. Businesses are therefore focusing on revaluating their IT requirements to ensure accelerated growth.

While businesses are strategizing about their use of technology, security is also now a pertinent part of boardroom discussions.

At Citrix, we understand this shift of organizations and are aligning ourselves to offer the right mix of unified digitized solutions. Our cloud portfolio is enabling organizations to make the shift towards virtual datacentres. Further, our offerings in Networking and Analytics ensure the existence of a secure and digitized perimeter.

We at Citrix, are therefore focused at reinventing and simplifying our solutions to aid organizations in their digitization drive. be missed. The Final Night Party was celebrated in the House of Blues.

There was also an announcement for the next year Citrix Summit 2019 that is scheduled for January 7-9 in Orlando, Florida.

Deepak Kumar Sahu Chief Editor, VARINDIA

FACE TO FACE

Dell EMC’s CI model offers enterprises more simplicity and flexibility In a discussion with VARINDIA, Rajesh Ramnani, Regional Director CPSD, Dell EMC India talks about expansion of its converged infrastructure system with the addition of its next generation VxBlock System 1000, the targeted verticals it is focusing with this and much more…

Brief us on Dell EMC's Converged Infrastructure model.

Traditional converged infrastructure systems often require you to choose different systems for different applications’ performance, capacity, and data services needs. The VxBlock System 1000 breaks the boundaries of traditional CI by offering the industry’s first converged system designed for all workloads in the modern data center with unprecedented choice to mix, share, and adapt pools of market-leading storage, data protection, and compute resources for all workloads to maximize performance and utilization. It offers trusted life cycle assurance with a unique Release Certification Matrix and a dynamic Life Cycle Assurance Portal that provides proactive, customized recommendations to accelerate and simplify the infrastructure update process. And, NVMe-ready to ensure that the system is futureproofed to deliver on extreme performance requirements.

VxBlock System 1000 brings together leading technologies from Dell EMC (including Dell EMC Unity, VMAX, XtremIO, Isilon, Avamar, Data Domain, NetWorker, RecoverPoint, and VPLEX), Cisco, (including USC B-Series and CSeries servers, Nexus LAN, and MDS SAN switches), and VMware (including vSphere and vCenter). All system elements are preintegrated, pre-configured, then tested and validated before shipping. Turnkey integration allows you to operate and manage your system as a single engineered product, rather than as individual, siloed components. Ongoing, component-level testing, and qualification result in a drastically simplified update process. The result is significant time and resource savings throughout the system life cycle, allowing you to focus your resources on business innovation.

Kindly elaborate about Dell EMC's latest VxBlock System 1000 offering.

We have recently announced the expansion of our market-leading converged infrastructure (CI) system with the addition of the next generation Dell EMC VxBlock System 1000. The new system breaks the physical boundaries of traditional CI and

offers enterprises even greater simplicity and flexibility to help accelerate the IT and digital transformation efforts. The VxBlock 1000 is designed to support workloads of all types and includes a substantially broader choice of world class storage arrays, data protection and compute than previous-generation VxBlock Systems. This new system’s all-in-one, multipletechnology design expands upon CI’s promise by further simplifying IT infrastructure lifecycle management through extensive pre-validation.

This enables IT staff to be freed from timeconsuming administrative tasks, so they can focus on higher-value, business innovation projects.

What are the verticals you are targeting with this offering? How is it going to help the verticals?

Some key Verticals which will highly benefit this includes the Banking and Finance, IT/ ITES and Public Sector, as these segments have been early adopters of Converged systems of DELL EMC. However, with flexibility offered

by VxBlock 1000, new segments like Telecom, Retail and Manufacturing will be fresh target verticals.

What kind of value additions can Partners offer while selling Converged Infrastructure?

Partners today can leverage VxBlock 1000 platform and provide added services over and above the end to end solution offered by DELL EMC; it starts right from being an evangelist to a customer in their journey to cloud, but over and above it allows partners to offer services including, but not restricted to: • Migration from legacy to new environment.

• Offer services to help create Self Service environment for customer • Help customer create a charge back mechanism for resource usage on VxBlock 1000 • Create approval flow for automated cloud environment on top of VxBlock 1000 platform • In turn moving their own company move to different league of service provider.

The VxBlock System 1000 redefines the converged infrastructure market, so you can free up even more resources to focus on innovation and accelerate your IT transformation.

The benefits include • Greater business agility with the ability to choose the right mix of resources and data services that your evolving applications need, when they need them • Improved data center efficiency by pooling and sharing resources to maximize utilization, eliminate stranded capacity, and increase ROI • Better operational simplicity through a turnkey, automated engineered system experience and life cycle assurance that free up resources allowing you to focus on innovation rather than infrastructure management

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EMINENT CIO'S OF INDIA

The cyber threat environment is intensifying dramatically. Concerns about the misappropriation of financial and personal data, while important have been supplanted by the spectre of an even larger and more devastating threat. Management teams will be pressed, as never before, to address concerns from data protection authorities, supervisory boards and journalists about their state of preparedness.

According to the study, currently 85 percent of firms surveyed said they would increase the budget their company allocates for digital transformation by next year, with 37 percent indicating the increase would be by 10 percent or more. Further findings from the study include the following • • • • • •

Retail outperforms other industries across all three categories, setting the standard for creating innovative, digitally-driven customer experiences.

Banking firms are ease-of-use leaders, yet they face investment challenges, including slow economic growth, low interest margins, increased regulation, and changing consumer expectations.

Healthcare companies traditionally lag behind other industries in adopting business technologies that help with customer engagement. This is tied to intense regulatory requirements leading to a significant focus on security of customer data.

Insurance organizations are just beginning to digitally transform as the complexity of products and services, legacy technology reliance, and risk-averse cultures all affect how fast insurers can move forward with their digital transformation journeys.

Telco firms are shifting to customer-centricity, driven in part by low customer satisfaction and disruption caused by over-the-top (OTT) providers.

Media companies have the most ground to cover in digital transformation. They also represent the group least likely to increase investment in digital transformation.

The study also recommends that firms be customer obsessed by building visions for winning over executive stakeholders, establishing baselines to build digital transformation roadmaps, and putting innovation at the heart of their firms’ cultures to ensure greater digital transformation maturity.

Most of the companies are preparing to make digital transformation a priority, they have a long way to go before achieving any kind of mastery over the multiple disciplines required to effectively innovate. Firms that are obsessed with their customer’s experience can achieve significant operational efficiencies and put innovation at the heart of their respective cultures and are the ones that will see the greatest benefits from digital transformation. In today’s business climate, with industries being disrupted at every turn, companies must be able to quickly change their products and processes to take advantage of new market opportunities. As the study finds, improving digital maturity will be key to meeting the changing needs of customers in an evolving marketplace.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: In the age of the customer, empowered, demanding customers can exercise more choice than ever before in deciding which companies will earn their business, and which will fall by the wayside. To keep up, firms must invent or reinvent their businesses with technology at the core, or watch customers defect as their markets are disrupted. To move forward on digital transformation, firms must evaluate their current capabilities, and then plot a path forward accordingly. Furthermore, firms must move soon to keep up with the fast pace of digital change. In the age of the customer, firms must adapt or be swept aside.

MRUTYUNJAY MAHAPATRA

SUBROTO PANDA

PUNEESH LAMBA

T.G. DHANDAPANI

SUMIT SINGH

V RANGANATHAN IYER

RAJESH UPPAL

VIJAY SETHI

RP RATH

UMESH MEHTA

VIKAS ARORA

VIPIN KUMAR

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CIOs across the country are constantly evaluating on the opportunity of emerging technologies, business models, and economic movements being fired at them - Machine Learning, Blockchain, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, the Subscription Economy, Autonomous Everything, Digital Transformation and so on.

There were increasing number of security breaches across verticals in 2017. One company’s CEO, CIO, and chief information security officer lost their job as a result of a breach that resulted from the company’s failure to patch a known vulnerability in key systems, forcing it to spend millions of dollars cleaning up the mess. The fact is it is absolutely difficult for the companies to keep throwing money at this problem. Some say that cyber security is their companies’ No. 1 IT challenge, and that it’s the issue that’s most personally worrisome to them; their companies actually spent less money on cyber security in 2017 (as a percentage of their IT budgets) than they did in 2016; the year 2018 sees a newer approach towards cyber security by getting smarter and more efficient about how they protect their valuable data assets, especially the data they hold on customers and business partners.

Enterprises are seriously thinking to deploy new technologies such as Internet of Things devices, artificial intelligence, blockchain and more if they are to remain competitive in the marketplace. These technologies introduce new risks that will further test enterprises’ capacity to effectively and securely leverage technology. But no CIO can ignore the considerable business opportunities those technology-based advances present - lower costs; more efficient supply chains; more secure networks and data storage; more dynamic and reliable products and more personalized customer service. In an IoT world - there are expected to be billions of IoT devices globally by 2020 – traditional approaches to data management might not cut it to sustain value from your data.

It’s the hard fact that customers’ data could be more secure on their own premises, if they could manage it properly - suggestion is to go for the Hybrid model. Today, a complete workspace must include mobile applications, and IT must adapt to securely deliver them, in additional to virtual Windows desktop apps, SaaS and web apps, as well as file sync and sharing.

The Gartner 2018 CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey of 460 CEO and senior business executives in the fourth quarter of 2017 examined their business issues, as well as some areas of technology agenda impact. In total, 460 business leaders in organizations with more than $50 million in annual revenue were qualified and surveyed.

IT remains a high priority coming in at the third position.

Workforce has risen rapidly this year to become the fourth-biggest priority, up from seventh in 2017. The number of CEOs mentioning workforce in their top three priorities rose from 16 percent to 28 percent. When asked about the most significant internal constraints to growth, employee and talent issues were at the top.

CEOs said a lack of talent and workforce capability is the biggest inhibitor of digital business progress.

Digital business matters to CEOs; this positive attitude toward digital business is backed up by CEOs' continuing intent to invest in IT. Sixty-one percent of respondents intend to increase spending on IT in 2018, while 32 percent plan to make no changes to spending and only seven percent foresee spending cuts. More CEOs see their companies as innovation pioneers.

The most important is there’s so much data available today that the ability to understand your customer and connect with your customer in a fundamentally different way is now possible. The question is now what do you do with that? But the potential to shift business models and move into adjacent spaces is really unparalleled.

To summarize, many company like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Alibaba, IBM, Salesforce, oracle, SAP and Indian companies into Data center business SIFY, Netmagic, CtrlS, ESDS and BSNL is coming out with their various cloud offerings for flexibility, and that creates massive opportunities for their growth. Cloud computing finally gives CIOs the framework for that escape, as it offloads much of the maintenance/support heavy lifting to service providers that are better equipped to manage those tech workloads, freeing IT organizations to focus on creating digital innovations that truly deliver a competitive advantage.

KEY TAKEAWAY The challenge now for CIOs who have embraced cloud services is to move at least select employees out of their routines and comfort zones by setting up structured, ongoing processes for hatching, vetting, prototyping, and testing new ideas being offered by the vendors providing cloud/loud services.

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“Our investment plans will be based on customer requirements as most of our projects are customer driven and specific to the customer. Also I believe our IT landscape is strong enough to continue with our existing customers.”

“We will be focusing on basic AI, AR utility, blockchain technology usage in ocean logistic domain, enhancing Mobile Apps usage and cyber security enhancement. We already have significant usage of Mobile Apps and have a plan to extend its usage in all functional areas.”

“The new age technologies like AI, ML etc. are becoming more relevant and new skill addition will continue to be the biggest task for a few more years. With the plethora of new age technology options available, CIOs are much better poised to do so and they should take this opportunity ahead.”

Adoni Gururaja Rao Director - IT Services, Telenox Technologies

Anjan Deb GM-IT (CIO) The Great Eastern Shipping Co

Ashok Cherian Chief Information Officer Emami Agrotech

“The role of the CIO centres on motivating and developing agile teams which can partner with business to provide effective solutions. I ensure that my teams are constantly learning, reskilling, and training to take on new challenges.

The leader needs to assess the technologies and design an architecture that can manage complexity and the agility of the business.”

“The biggest challenge still continues in evangelizing the changes, educating the workforce and adoption of these technologies which can benefit the stakeholders. The depth of the changes happening in the technology field is too vast for any one individual to master in a lifetime and develop systems.”

“During current FY 2017-18, our focus was mainly on compliance and operational efficiency. To this extent, we spent our time, energy and budget towards creating a virtual data room, integrating our SCADA systems with IoT, carrying out feasibility study and then implementing a robust cloud-based compliance tool to cater for our business risk.”

Chief Technology Operation & Infrastructure Officer (CTOIO) Matrimony.com

Chandrasekar R

Chandra Mouli CIO & CTO Sankara Nethralaya

Col. K K Chaudhary Executive Director-IT & IS Lanco Group

“Allocating 50% or more budget to technology will not solve the problems we face in IT Security. I think by employing skilled people, we can save on the IT budget a lot and can do the same amount of work with only 50% of the total IT Budget. The IT policies have to be such that when any new changes are necessitated, they can be quickly adopted in our system.”

“As a technology enabler we are placing our bets on four key aspects namely digital engineering, smart manufacturing, pervasive technologies and perceptual engineering. Through these technology pillars, L&T Technology Services will be relevant today, tomorrow and the day after and become the global leader in engineering services in the years to come.”

“In the age of intensifying nationalism which can sometimes depress the competition, or dampen the growth, we aim to work to counter these roadblocks by promoting partnerships, encouraging innovations and leveraging service models with the concerned customers, governments and institutions.”

Deepak Kalambkar IT Head Marvel Datatech

Dr Keshab Panda CEO & MD L&T Technology Services

Faiz Alam Shaikh Director, Network Operations and Technology, Mastercard

May 2018

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THE EMINENT CIOS OF INDIA

“Skill augmentation, staff performance management, training and e-learning etc. are essential components on the path to success in the face of new challenges due to demands of the complexities of the requirements. Banking is going to be a platform for all other players to step in and do their business with the clients, not bothering to do the banking themselves.”

“While there will be new technologies taking shape based on the Fintech’s pushing large institutions to look at new ways to reach out to clients and inducing a millennial thinking into the technology deployments, it is how well the technology solutions and applications are deployed to be able to attract more clients and utility for the Business groups is the priority.”

“We are working towards consolidation, standardization, and digitization and adopting business intelligence as the next step. Besides using several traditional ways of advertising, we have got a strong e-commerce website that facilitates the modern, digital group of consumers to easily grab the products and services that attract them.”

Gagan Bihari Satapathy Asst. Vice President(IT) Bank of India

KRC Murty VP & Group CIO Function Safety and Soundness, Deutsche Bank AG

Manish Gaur Head of IT Patanjali

“SCM has become very challenging and complex due new business requirements and new avenues and demands. Architecture change to cater to future dynamics, SCM enhancements, collaboration platforms, API development, new age Interfaces, Analytics and its proper business impact are some of the plans for this year.”

“My recent focus has been towards strengthening IT controls and systems on the cyber security posture of our organization. As cyber security has become a clear concern at the highest levels, we are currently evaluating systems which help us to measure and quantify the cyber security posture of our organization against our organization-wide KPIs.”

“Companies need to be able to respond quickly and flexibly to market developments. We had collaboration with vendors to develop the Cloud Integration Center. We are planning to invest on SAP Upgradation, IoT, Business analytics tools, Robotics, Customer Portal, Social Analytics tools in Digital transformation project and upgrade the current security landscape.”

Meheriar Patel Group Chief Information Officer Jeena & Company

Naveen Gulati Corporate VP & Group CIO Fourth Dimension Solutions Ltd.

Paresh Goswami IT Head Chiripal Group

“With new responsibilities for incorporating digital change into strategy, some CIOs are being recast as 'Chief Digital Officers' (CDOs). For me digital transformation is to help and make customer experience better, online world have enabled organizations to achieve better, cheaper and faster if we are working with online platforms today.”

“Technology is fast changing and hence to adopt the latest technology more budget needs to be allocated. Unlike Research & Development nowadays Organization are forming a separate cell 'Technology/Innovation' for which separate resources/budgets are allocated. This is very much essential to adopt the new technology in a short of span of time.”

“It is important for C level leaders to bring in the specialist skills and deliver on the new technologies to the enterprise. It is incumbent upon especially CIOs to keep the enterprise competition ready. Some of the priorities going forward are to drive more online and digitalization and keep the organization nimble and ready.”

Rahil Sayed Director-IT Techyard Technologies

Rajeev Khade Asia plant IT Infrastructure Adient

Rajesh Batra VP-IT Kokilaben Dhirubai Ambani Hospital

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“We are investing into IoT products, and trying to implement technology in most of our products today; so our focus remains on technology and how do we use it to help Havells achieve its vision. That is my motto and that is what I do. As a matter of fact, technology is playing an integral part in helping Havells.”

“A micro segment is defined as that exact part of the general buying category that triggers the purchasing decision—not the category itself.

Going forward, organizations will need to know their micro segments. To put it another way, adopt a B2C (business to consumer) mindset even if operation is predominantly B2B (business to business).”

“Choosing the right resource with critical people skills will always be the key enabler to success. With this fast paced technology enabling disruption, skills and knowledge required over the next decade will hardly have resemblance to the skills and knowledge we have today; so all of us need to learn, unlearn and relearn to stay relevant.”

Sachin Gupta Sr. Vice President & CIO Havells

Sandip Pradhan Chief - IT Exide

Sanjay Mahajan CIO Satin Creditcare

“We have recently deployed a blockchain platform. We are working on deploying chat bots on our platforms. Also, we are working on Robotics Process Automation and would be deploying it soon in our environment. Continuous work is also going on in improving security levels for our applications and IT infrastructure.”

“IOT, mobility, automation, cloud, AR /VR are some of the technologies being evaluated for adaption or are being adapted. Like any other organization, we are also seriously considering these for adoption. IT should play a role in evangelizing these technologies within the organization, create use cases and educate business users.”

“It is true that it is the CIO’s responsibility to setup the IT landscape where you can integrate the best of the breed applications. It is very clear that there is no single application which can meet all Business need at the same time. In my case we have integrated applications like Bar code, Customer service, sales CRM, HR portal, Forecasting and replenishment and few more.”

Sunil Kumar CTO Mynd Solutions

Vilas Pujari CIO & VP ACG Worldwide

Virendra Bansal Group CIO SAR Group

“Banks and Financial sector players are traditionally cautious and many in India are critically vendor dependent. For example, the adaptation of cloud, simply a matter of time, could unrecognizably alter the procurement, provision and use of hardware. Datacenters of racks of servers will be rendered redundant with Capex turning into Opex.”

“Most evolved organizations have taken the route of Hybrid IT where the key services like the governance, compliance and strategy are kept in-house whereas development, testing and support are outsourced to partners. The benefit that this model provides is that they get access to latest/emerging skills on demand and get service level agreements as an addition.”

"We have already embarked on a journey towards providing enhanced customer experience to drive business growth. We are developing a new customer management system at dealer end to improve life cycle value to customers. The objective is to improve the customer experience to drive business value and maximize the customer acquisition, satisfaction and retention.”

Mrutyunjay Mahapatra DMD & CIO SBI

Puneesh Lamba Group CIO CK Birla Group

Rajesh Uppal Executive officer (IT) & CIO Maruti Suzuki India

May 2018

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THE EMINENT CIOS OF INDIA

“The priorities for us includes cloud adoption, thereby reducing on-premise DC foot-print and reducing Cost by deploying right-sized and right-fit solutions as per business needs.

We have taken various decisions to move our core services & platforms and different type of workloads to Cloud across geographies and will continue to work on this.”

“Present technological trends are just like a star filled night sky, you just cannot count the number of stars that makes this world shine.

Most importantly, to be future ready it is important to hire people with an analytical and creative bent of mind with traits of self-sustainability that highly self-motivated people to generate interest.”

“We at Wockhardt have been using HMIS quite extensively for over dozen years. Hence, to capitalize on the data we already have, we have started quite a few initiatives in the space of Big Data Analytics paired with AI techniques and BI applications. Currently we are looking into the clinical data to use AI/BI techniques.”

R P Rath CIO Quatrro Global Services

Subroto Panda CIO - CTO Anand & Anand

Sumit Singh CIO Wockhardt Hospitals

“I consider IoT as one of the best bets. Its helps in increasing productivity, improves quality by controlling process parameters and works to enhance compliance in environment, health and safety. Artificial Intelligence and Virtual reality are two other technologies that will be widely adopted to reap the right business benefits.”

“No department in any organization has undergone such profound change as IT. With IT operations largely automated, CIOs today no longer need to monitor and manage campus infrastructure at a granular level, which also means that the technology leaders have now more time to focus on the concepts that really matter - agility, innovation and business value.”

“The important activity as for new business is concerned is to give customer option. This will enable to get more value add to the customer so that customers can offload their activities to us. Technology which will increase the quality of the product produced increases the performance of the machine or process, which in turn will increase customer satisfaction.”

T.G. Dhandapani Advisor Sundaram Clayton Limited

Umesh Mehta Global CIO JLS Ltd. & President, CIO Klub

V Ranganathan Iyer CIO JBM Group

“The change in technology and customer demands is also leading to change in business models. You cannot be the same old person you used to be ten years back, running your IT or business in an obsolete way. It necessitates organizations to change their business models and IT has to ensure that it aligns itself to those business models.”

"Lean IT is what we focus on; we have seamless infrastructure around all our global offices.

Isolated processes have no spaces in large organizations; with collaboration tools like Office 365 and others, information exchange is very easy to implement. We use Office 365 for our information collaboration, using tools like Skype for Business, Sharepoint etc."

“As business models are getting disrupted/transformed with digital technologies, the CIO is expected to have good understanding of emerging technologies and their use cases for business transformation. We are currently working on many initiatives to enhance customer centricity, digital initiatives to expand reach of business and create new revenue streams.”

Vijay Sethi CIO Hero MotoCorp

Vikas Arora VP Global Security & IT Toluna

Vipin Kumar Group CIO Escorts

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May 2018

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FACE TO FACE

Arvind Kumar

Tally believes GST to have brought more focus towards digitization across industries

Chief of Engineering Tally Solutions Pvt Ltd.

In a chat with VARINDIA, Arvind Kumar, Chief of Engineering - Tally Solutions Pvt Ltd. discusses on its progress in the present economic reform, its evolvement to the cloud infrastructure, its R&D focus etc.

He also expresses his views on the GST and further talks about the challenges it faces in making complex technologies user friendly -

How is Tally technologically evolving with the recent economic reform?

The reforms that the country has seen in the last 1 year has brought in more focus towards digitization across different industries, in both the private as well as the government sector. At Tally, we have addressed the needs and expectations of the SMEs with every new software release, corresponding with the changes in the GST system both from an invoicing perspective as well as filing. Our latest Release 6.4 makes it extremely easy for users to be up-to-date with the most recent inclusions in the GST returns cycle, including e-way bill compliance.

Going forward, we are working extensively to offer connected solutions, keeping in mind some salient features like security, reliability, high performance and scalability. Being predominantly a technology and innovation company, this is a very exciting time for us, as we are evolving by addressing the needs of the various functions. Another area we are working towards is moving to the cloud. By leveraging the latest technology, our services will be available through cloud, where a user on premise can connect to the cloud to carry out his/her operations.

Tally has always been a front runner in delivering complex technologies in simplified way.

What are the challenges that you face while making complex technologies user friendly?

The simple design and ease of use is what makes our products loved by our 1.5 million+ customers.

However, designing for simplicity does come with its set of challenges. Our biggest challenge isdiversity. We work with the SMEs, who have the largest diversity in profile. So the question that continues to drive our development is how we cater to this segment with one product,while at the same time delivering an experience in a way that every user feels that the product was made for him/her, and doesn’t force them to change their way of running their business.

Fundamentally, the desire is to adapt rather than enforce and this guides us at R&D.

How important R&D is for Tally?

How big is your R&D team?

Tally’s R&D plays a huge role as it is not only the backbone of the company but also responsible for timely product development.

The last 1 year was the tipping point, with the department closely monitoring any changes proposed by the government and swiftly incorporating those changes to the software, to ensure the user experience is not compromised.

We are now on a journey of growth and are ready to scale newer heights. The R&D function is working towards releasing a new user interface which will solve various connectivity requirements. Our role also requires us to reflect time and again on how we can address the multiple functionalities, by keeping the Tally engineering principle intact.Currently, we have a team of 180 people and we are looking to grow this by adding a 100 more resources in the next 1 year.

How is Tally working to curb Simplicity lies and will remain at the core piracy of accounting software? of Tally’s philosophy; it is one of the guiding What is the total number of principles for development of all our products.

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licensed Tally software users?

We believe that piracy for any product or software exists for two reasons. The first one is the issue of reach, and the second is because the user is unaware of the value proposition that the software offers. At Tally, we will never curb piracy. We feel that users are pirating not because they want to, but because of one of the reasons listed above. Instead we are focusing on becoming accessible to our potential customers and increasing the levels of engagement with them. Similarly,by providing updated features in our software, we are bridging the issue of awareness. We currently have 1.5million licensed Tally software users.

How are you finding India market after introduction of GST last year?

Post the introduction of GST, the India market will be more and more regulated in times to come. Due to the structure of the GST cycle, adoption of technology has gained a lot of momentum. Many manual and semi-automated businesses have moved to a technologically sound solution to ensure that their day-to-day operations are not affected. While the initial period was of uncertainty and chaos, if we take a step back and look at the new reform holistically, it was an iconic move by the government. We are on our way towards a structured economy, which will keep tax evasion and corruption under check.

The emergence of this digital era has also given us an opportunity to expand our foray into innovation and we will be introducing our latest release this year which will be revolutionary for the SME industry as a onestop business solution.

FACE TO FACE

Offering niche technology and solutions is where Orva Network’s focus lies Orva Networks believes initiatives like smart city and digitization would bring a vast array of opportunities for the industry. Being in the integrated connectivity solution space, Neeraj Kumar, COO – Orva Networks tells VARINDIA of where he feels the next opportunities lie for the company -

Can you share a few details about your organisation and what are the efforts you are into the business of ICT,which shows promising growth?

ORVA literally means ‘chain of interconnected persons’. Orva Networks Pvt. Ltd. is a Network Integration Organization, providing solutions on Connectivity viz. LAN, WAN, Wireless, Audio -Video and Network Security. We have been assisting our clients in getting their IT infrastructure in line with the latest technology.

Our team of technology experts, system architects and project managers leverage their many years of experience to help organizations take control of the ever increasing pace of change and turn it into a competitive advantage. We do technology advisory in areas of Planning & Project Management; Business & Process Optimization; Marketing & Business Development; Integration and Facility Management.

The internet has become an integral part of every individual’s life and almost every organizations use Information and Communication Technologies to efficiently manage their operations.

We understand a client’s requirement from technical scalability and the perspective of cost and then design &execute an appropriate solution, meeting both cost and scalability. Our strength is our technical capabilities and we design networks which is available 100% of the time. The Networks would also adjust to changing traffic loads and maintain consistent response time.

With connectivity becoming Mobile, Wireless, Video and Network Security are the key areas in the IT Infrastructure.

What strategic plans do you have in 2018 to build on your Channel eco-system?

Partnering with the niche technology provider to address specific business requirements and gainingcompetitive advantage are the strategic plans for us in 2018. I also plan to enable the technical team to drive execution excellence and achieve client satisfaction.

What are the big opportunity you see in the country today for your organisation in the wake of a slew of growth initiatives like digital India and Smart city initiatives?

Digitization is a big leap for India; the Govt.’s approach to digitize financial institutions, education, irrigation etc gives a huge boost to an organization like ours. IoT being the buzzword today, everything can be interconnected and information can be available on the go. Smart cities would need huge IT infrastructure. With our experience in integrating connectivity solutions, we see good business opportunity to scale and grow.

How do you see the growth in small, mid-level businesses and start-ups in India today? What is Orva’s focus in each of these segments?

Opportunities for technically qualified companies are always available. It is important to be in line with the current technology and be aware and prepared for the futuristic technologies. The current market does not discriminate between a large and small company, as long as the client’s requirements are met. Clients would be happy to align with small companies, given the advantage of cost (due to low overheads), support (easy Accessibility) and timely action.

Neeraj Kumar COO Orva Networks

VISION

• • • •

Our vision is to – Design – our aim is to design technology that is optimum and unique Create – we create Technology Solutions that suits a specific need Support – Support is a key to continuous successful operations Enhance – we keep up to date with Technology changes to enhance solutions

We at Orva keep ourselves updated on the current technology and our engineers are trained and certified on the technology solutions we offer. We strive to be available to the client at his needed hour and work towards resolving his network issues on time, and ensure his productivity is not compromised.

In a competitive IT market today, how is Orva trying to innovate,incentivize as an established player with a difference?

Niche solution offering is the key of our product strategy. We are having global office in Singapore and US, and have access to certain technologies not available in India.This enables us to confidently position solutions that are more robust and cost effective at times.

This knowledge and access help us in getting noticed.

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May 2018

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COVER STORY

BEST CMOs IN

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are increasingly playing an important role in transforming organizations, not just in marketing functions but also in corporate affairs. The importance of a CMO in an organization can be evidenced from the fact that even the top heads of organizations take feedback from them about the Industry. CMOs are thus seen as the enablers of business. They drive successful marketing strategies and are responsible for designing various partner programs targeting VARs and partners that proves to be an asset for the growth of the channel eco-system.

They are considered as the role model and are the critical contributors to the broadening mission of marketers. The role of their marketing programmes and also their innovative approach in the organization with the changing times bring about resounding success.

However, in order to draw a better balance between brand vision and operational goals, it is becoming imperative that CMOS work closely with CIOs. It is evident that in the years ahead, an accelerating pace of change will continue to transform the role of CMOs and their relationship with corporates as a whole.

As a special feature, VARINDIA runs through the list of the top CMOs of the country and honours them by deliberating on how they are the most important asset of not only the company but of the entire industry -

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INDIAN ICT INDUSTRY

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May 2018

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COVER STORY

NVIDIA’s marketing strategy is to understand customer needs and align it with its value proposition

Data Management – the core expertise of NetApp

Vishal Dhupar Managing Director, South Asia, NVIDIA Graphics “NVIDIA believes in delivering value to its customers through PC, mobile and cloud architectures. A key element of marketing is to understand the end customer’s profile and needs in order to ensure how the brand’s value proposition meets these needs. Customer engagement while meeting the needs of the prospects is an essential part of the marketing strategy, which in turn ties in together with the company’s overall business objective. In today’s fast moving digital world, new opportunities have opened up for marketers, especially around engaging prospects and customers in content based communities, expanding outreach via social media virality and focussed portals, bloggers and influencers. All of these are part of NVIDIA’s marketing strategy, built on top of the strong product and platform offerings we provide.

Our business has evolved from focusing primarily on gaming products to broader markets, and from chips to platforms and complete systems, thereby expanding our avenues in the market. We leverage our partner network to integrate product features, performance, price and timing of new products for our platforms.

We believe that the depth and quality of our design support are keys to improving our partner network’s time-to-market, maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction and fostering relationships."

Parag Amalnerkar Director Marketing - NetApp India, South Asia & ANZ “Marketing is the headlight of an organization. So, the onus is on marketing to anticipate how the market behaviour is likely to change in the near and long term future and plough that back in the organisations thinking, so that our innovations and our ability to address the market needs are tailored to retain the advantage we have over others.

In the current technology market, while there are several players who are addressing the same geography and segments as us, we remain the only player to have identified data management as our core expertise.

We primarily focus on this core area of our expertise while letting the ecosystem take care of other requirements. With data at the core of everything we do, our positioning is quite distinct and focussed unlike any other player in the market whose portfolio offerings and focus scale a larger spectrum.

We have offerings which are tailormade for various different segments. Therefore our measuring would vary by segments. The positioning doesn't change but the value proposition and the targeting is distinct. Because the buying behaviour of each of this segment is different, our marketing plans therefore are devised accordingly.

The year has seen some dramatic shifts as digital transformation has become a key criteria in all industries from BFSI to healthcare, from large enterprises to start-ups. At the BFSI front, banks are digitally transforming and we are helping our customers in their transformation journey, given our expertise.”

Fitbit successfully establishing the brand as India’s popular culture

Innovation, Product portfolio and Experience – the three things that define Prysm

Alok Shankar Country General Manager, Fitbit India “India is a key market for us in the region and has been successful as we have continued to see great response for Fitbit products ever since our launch in 2015. We would be completing three years in India in August 2018. The category is poised to grow and with the introduction of our smart watches, we are buoyant about potential of this market. Currently, Fitbit has one of the most robust sales and distribution network across online and offline channels in the category we are present across online partners – Amazon India and Flipkart, the biggest e-commerce players in India, and amongst offline stores of Reliance Digital, Croma, Helios and other major retailers. We are available across 1000+ stores in 100 cities, while customers from over 500 Indian cities have bought Fitbits.

We are extremely happy with our journey in India and are pleased to have driven the growing trend towards personal fitness and health in India. With some of the country’s leading celebrities and sporting icons/teams wearing Fitbit, it has helped in successfully establishing the brand as part of the popular culture in India. We are excited with the reaction to our first smart watch – Fitbit Ionic and the queries around the new Fitbit Versa, post launch.”

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GB Kumar VP, APAC, Prysm Inc. “There are numerous companies that provide basic collaboration capabilities but Prysm offers a unique and innovative environment, enabling its users to access various content and data at the same time; while many traditional systems allow its users to only bring up one piece of content for review at a time, when in a group setting. It combines live applications, content, video conferencing, live sources and the web into a touch-interactive visual workspace where teams can simultaneously create, edit, share and store content to maximize productivity, regardless of device or geographical location. Robust, yet easy to use due to its intuitive user interface, Prysm Digital Workplace makes business teams more efficient from the first meeting.

The differentiating factor for us as compared to our competition is three fold 1) Constant Innovation, 2) Extensive Product Portfolio 3) Experience.

We provide a standardized experience across form factors. We offer a platform that allows the users to do all of this, from video conferencing, applications, live sources to content sharing on the same platform. The most important feature of our solution is that. Our solution allows everybody to simultaneously add, edit, move and annotate the content without passing out controls to each other. For us it is important to focus on ‘global collaboration’, enabling enterprise workers to work across boundaries and borders and to experience the same collaboration experience across devices, time and places.”

Tech companies need to sync with the evolving customer demands

Sunil Kumar Mohapatra Director, South Asia Region - Adobe “At Adobe we believe, understanding customer needs and aligning solutions to address people’s need is a key aspect in making brands digital ready. Today’s tech companies are under constant pressure to innovate to appeal to an increasingly complicated audience; the tech capabilities needed to meet these constantly evolving needs are themselves constantly evolving — and the tech companies that succeed are the ones that evolve in sync. Smart utilization of technology to leverage human connect is the correct approach to innovation. Also customization of solutions to suit every customer’s demands and needs is going to gain prominence. As digital becomes increasingly available, customer counts will only continue to rise and meeting their demand is key to a successful future.

Adobe products have infiltrated nearly all aspects of business and daily life. Companies are investing in digital technology in order to better position their brands in the marketplace.

Market leaders are increasingly focused on the people, processes, and tools required to integrate technology across their enterprises, resulting in a digital maturity effect that impacts everything from differentiation to conversion rates. Digital transformation has made its way to every aspect of our lives, especially work environment. Digital transactions, usage of cloud computing to ensure seamless work experience are all examples of how technology is helping create a more conducive and efficient work environment."

Digital Marketing Communication – a priority for Inspira to strengthen its brand

Manoj Kanodia CEO - Inspira Enterprise India “At Inspira, we have now decided to strengthen our digital marketing communication for the coming year with clear focus on brand positioning along with our COE’s (Center of Excellence). Marketing strategies like content marketing, social media, search engine marketing & search engine optimization play crucial role for successfully building the brand Inspira.

Overall, apart from organizing events with OEM Partners, Inspira focuses on digital marketing. The key objective is to promote brand, build preference, engage with customers and increase sales through various strategic digital marketing initiatives.

Our marketing strategies are now getting much focused, as we have now started working towards the future of marketing concept i.e. B2ME. All our marketing communications are getting personalized to an extent that would positively impact the decision maker of any organization.

We are more focused in our approach now and have designed GTM strategies basis on the target industries. Inspira Enterprise marketing communications are now completely focused on Account based marketing, which will be replicated on all our social media platforms.

At Inspira we always believe in futuristic innovative and disruptive technologies that will make difference to our clientele overall business positively. We will be catering to all verticals – Government/ PSU, Defence, BFSI, Healthcare, Enterprise and Smart Cities.”

Digital and marketing analytics helps Netmagic (An NTT Communications Company) to grow

Prasenjit Roy SVP & CMO, Netmagic (An NTT Communications Company) “With technology becoming so pervasive and customers becoming more globally connected, marketers today wear multiple hats - supporting employee engagement, advocating for the customer experience and driving the growth.

I place significant emphasis on the importance of digital and marketing analytics that will help us to shape, execute and support the growth agenda while delivering on our customer promise.

Our digital marketing strategy drives a successful lead-generation tactic that is targeted to meet several criteria. Our actionable leads are primarily generated through search engine marketing (SEM), Social media advertising, email marketing, direct email, events or trade shows, and so on. Few of the key ones are – Generating and tracking a large numbers of qualified leads for the company; Reaching a specific audience of our target customers; Measuring the costs and ROI. We have been growing at a CAGR of over 35% for the last 4-5 years.

With further expansion of our data center footprint and addition of international data network services to our service portfolio, we also aim to meet the growing market needs for mobility, e-commerce, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, and big data. We plan to add 150 professionals to our existing team of 1,270 employees to support expansion.”

Data is at the core of every innovation taking place in Dell

Srihari Palangala Director and Head of Marketing - DellEMC India “The role of marketing professionals has experienced significant change over the last couple of years due to the consumerization of technology.

Large volumes of data is being created, distributed and tracked; also there has been the rise of digital media which brings in a new dimension to consumer outreach.

Our ongoing transformation revolves around three avenues – Messaging, How we deliver our message and Driving the impact on business.

Some of the best practices that we have adopted to achieve current goals include: • Driving Engagement: As marketers, our marketing channels and tactics focus on participation and driving those two-way conversations with prospects.

• Bring customer voices into conversations: It is important to make the messages “REAL” for our prospects. We pride ourselves in offering the 'Best of Breed' products and solutions and always make technology conversations real by actively bringing customer references and cases forward to strengthen our position.

• Co-Marketing initiatives: Selecting the right choice of partners is always on the top of our list. We open up conversation avenues, show broader solution potential and drive that impact of technology on the business when we partner with other technology providers.”

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May 2018

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COVER STORY

For Suse, market trends and technology remain as key factors for its success

Dahua aims to contribute towards the safety and security of India

SonicWall eyes the enterprise market after making a successful inroad into the SMB space

A unique brand positioning helping D-Link retain its market share across products

Deepti Sharma Head of Marketing - SUSE “The role of a CMO is very broad now a days. As a CMO, I am presently leading the Marketing function at SUSE across four countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. I have successfully driven marketing operations, marketing ROI, budget management, strategies across multiple channels, branding, lead generation, digital presence and other customer/prospect outreach programs.

I have overseen the expansion of the company’s business through strategic alliances and partnerships with leading global brands.

At SUSE, we believe in the power of the digital world and have orchestrated a broad strategy to maximize our presence on the digital platform. We are also reaching our prospective customers through various new age marketing tools apart from the direct sales approach. We always work towards evolving customer needs. Keeping an eye on the market trends and technology have been two key factors to achieve success for the organization. Conceptualizing new and diverse marketing innovation has worked as a mantra for us to make our customers satisfied.

We at SUSE, work closely with our client's management, stakeholders and customers to analyse and condense gathered intelligence into descriptive messages that embody the company and brand's meaning.

In India, SUSE is growing by double digits, and with open source being at the heart of the Indian government’s IT Policy, SUSE is expanding at a significant rate."

Vaishali B Shivshankar Head Marketing & Communication - India & SAARC, SonicWall “SonicWall has transformedsignificantly in regards to our overall solution capability, client base and routes to market. We have moved swiftly to increase our presence in the Enterprise segment, and have had a very solid success rate. A few of our Enterprise clientele who are key reference customers in India areNDTV, Wonder Cement and Super Cassette Industries Limited (T-Series).

SonicWall is a 100% channel driven organization and our channel partners play a very prominent role in reaching and influencing the market. We maintain a global approach for messaging and branding, and a regional GTMstrategy that is being implemented and followed, allowing for local market variances and requirements.

SonicWall solutions are applicable across all verticals. We have clients that fit all the major verticals, but we have gained a lot of traction across Asia Pacific in Education, Retail & Hospitality, Financial Services, Healthcare and the Public Sector. We will continue to work to solve problems and provide solutions across these verticals and increase our set of global reference customers and case studies that help support this.

We continue to grow YoY, and are market leaders in the SMB sector and making very strong inroads into theEnterprise market.”

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Balasubramanian Jayam Head of Marketing - Dahua Technology, India & SAARC Region “We have spearheaded various initiatives across the countries. This includes our ‘Safe City’ campaign in association with our National Distributors Aditya Infotech in our Channel Partners’ Offices across 22 cities in India which was a great success; launching many important security solutions;introducing latest technologies; participating in major exhibitions; organizing roadshows; regularly interacting with all our stakeholders; training; educating and familiarizing with many helped us to gain more visibility and respectability which are important to win customer’s ‘trust and confidence. Being a global player, we understand the Indian market and meet customers’ needs ahead of others. All these significant initiatives empowered and enabled our dynamic management and dedicated team to take Dahua to the current leading position.

Our best practices adopted to achieve current goals include our total commitment to innovation, quality, international standards, outstanding customer service, prompt delivery, building excellent relationship with all our stakeholders and coordinated approach by our dedicated team across all departments.

Our road map for the next twelve months is to contribute consistently and immensely toward increasing the safety and security of India and grow in its security landscape."

Anoop Jarial VP Product Marketing, D-Link (India) Limited “In my opinion the role of marketing in any organization is more aligned towards business growth. While marketers continue to reach out to their market place through traditional medium, it is imperative to also adapt to newer trends which encompasses use of digital platforms which has almost become ‘voice of the customers’ these days. Technology and more specifically internet is a change agent, with customers thoroughly researching on the products beforehand and then deciding which one to buy.

At D-Link it is our unique positing and brand reliability that has helped D-Link retain market share across different product segments. We continue to be undisputed leaders in Wireless and Switching. D-Link is certain to carry forward the success in future. The present government focus on driving the country's economy and digital infrastructure has broadened the horizon for brands like ours, and we look forward to being a part of the nation building process in this digital era.

D-Link helps both businesses and customers Connect to More. Our enterprise solution enables organizations to connect to their customers.

We have a gamut of innovative products that address the growing demand of end-customers. So be it high speed portable 4G devices, Whole Home Wi-Fi Solution like COVR or Smart home solution based on IoT technology like Smart Plug, Motion sensor, the Mini HD Camera etc .

D-Link has it all.

COVER STORY

Check Point to continue its focus on new technologies to combat fifth-generation attacks

Marketing to be a keystone for Brightstar in 2018 to bind business growth with equity

Marketing for LG starts from its products and its consumers

Marketing for Tally plays a key role in creating the brand’s relevancy

Prateek Grover Marketing Manager - Check Point Software Technologies “Marketing needs to be relevant and add value as we are all emotional beings looking for context and connection.

In today's world where fifth generation cyber-attacks are lurking at every corner, many enterprises still harbour the mindset of denial such as 'It won't affect us' and is playing into the hands of cyber criminals.

The fifth generation cyber-attacks which are played as large-scale, multi-vector mega attacks that inflict major damage on any business and its reputation.

We work closely with the sales team, creating lead generation and awareness campaigns towards achieving sales objectives. Channel marketing gives us insights into a partner eco-system and help us create strategic programs from enablement, certifications and joint marketing.

Check Point’s marketing is a data-driven function where we leverage on data from CRM and marketing automation platform, together with web analytics and historical data to build our marketing strategy. Regardless of the size of a company, marketing needs to be viewed as a business critical function and one that collaborates closely with sales in order for an organization to be successful and eventually thrive.

We continue to focus on our new technologies and drive the message on fifth-generation cyber-attacks through all marketing channels."

Amit Gujral Head – Corporate Marketing, LG Electronics India “The core concept of LG marketing is “Outside- In”, meaning the brand does not want to satisfy basis only what it thinks. The ‘Outside’ context here is consumers, who are there in the market, their needs and demands, what do they perceive etc.

Marketing for LG is just not marketing communication; it starts from the product.

The whole phenomenon revolves around the consumers primarily.

LG has a very innovative product strategy in place. Products are built through its core DNA - ‘Learning From You’ i.e.It continuously and consciously reaches out to customers to know what they want from the products. It also tries to understand the Environmental changes happening over time and how not just people but even Governments are aligning for Health conscious and Environment friendly products and practices.

Talking about R&D at LG, there are two approaches. One is the pure research and development for new innovations and products based on consumer studies with utmost Quality Control and the second is the production R&D. LG Electronics India has launched an emotional yet inspirational campaign themed #CelebratingTheNew. The launch of the video coincides with LG’s 21st anniversary celebrations in India, where it is further stepping up efforts to design and manufacture innovative products and solutions that satisfy the specific requirements of Indian customers.”

Sameer Misra General Manager - Marketing & Corporate Communication– Brightstar India In 2017 Beetel Tele Tech became Brightstar Telecommunications India Ltd and a new era began for us. One key challenge was to reconcile local businesses with global standards and cross-segment brand consistency. The challenge in front of us was not to lose the goodwill built in years but at the same time start creating a brand equity in the market for Brightstar India. By far we have seen success with the support that we got from industry be it new OEMs joining hands with us or the publications covering our story across channels. What’s critical for a company is how is one defining the growth. It was an inflection point for us as we decided to adopt the new strategy from being a traditional distribution and manufacturing company to a product and service providing entity. In 2017 the task was unique, numbers were important but it was also important to expand laterally by extending into new business lines. All our marketing efforts were focussed on staying relevant with the audiences at all points in time. As marketing function our focus is to play a critical role in developing data-management tools and processes that help business verticals to maintain a consistent brand image and to support it despite growing complexity. New business opportunities were created by entering in to Security & Surveillance, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Firewalls, Cloud platforms (Contact Centre, Video Conferencing, Security – as a Service) Device protection, Buy Back & Trade In etc. So, 2018 is going to be quiet action packed for us here in Brightstar India.

Jyothsna Pai Global Head, Marketing, Tally Solutions Pvt Ltd “For Tally, a brand is not just an advertising campaign but an experience that we deliver to our customers. Tally is the country’s leading business software provider, adopted by 1.5 million businesses. We have partners and customers who have been with us since the company’s early years.

Transitioning to the GST regime was a tough period for SMEs. Tally’s key role as a brand was in engaging with SMEs through over 7000 GST camps across the country and educating them to understand GST and stay prepared to change. We also provided free webinars and engaged on social media and through blogs for a larger outreach.

Marketing plays a key role to position a brand and create relevancy in a customer’s life. And a powerful brand is made more successful by its loyal users by becoming its advocates. We are happy that Tally enjoys this status and are grateful for trust bestowed by millions of businesses globally. A successfully marketed brand also ensures that it constantly innovates not only on product and experience front, but also in the way it uses its channel mix and messaging to remain preferred in a changing environment.

Innovation is at the heart of our technology and has also been responsible for the impact our products and solutions have created.

With our future roadmap of connected solutions, R&D is our core focus over the next few years. We have recently begun research operations as a specialized function.”

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COVER STORY

ESDS markets itself on every platform to drive presence across horizons

Komal Somani Chief Marketing Officer, ESDS Software Solution “My belief is in the mantra of ‘Make good the enemy of great’.

Pushing the envelope to think differently, innovating and creating are my benchmarks and I like to take things a notch higher by adding E2 effectiveness combined with efficiency. I always challenge the status quo as there are no traffic jams when travelling that extra mile.

Our first bull’s eye was Internal Marketing because we had 500+ brand ambassadors to drive the goal on full speed. Our people marketed ESDS, rather we would say VIRALIZED ESDS on every platform. That’s one of the initiatives we undertook to drive our presence across different horizons. My approach of getting all the eyeballs on us was by elevating our social media presence, giving the audience what they want and kept feeding them with all the knowledge and captivating content.

Not just entertain them but also enlighten and engage our people.

FY-18 is definitely going to be a breakthrough phase for ESDS; we had achieved double digit (38%) growth in terms of our turnover and our profit doubled as well. Our total traffic growth on our website through various platforms is 39.69% and we have seen a remarkable Social Media Traffic hike, almost 102.32%. We also enhanced our customer experience, customer relationships and corporate partnerships. We have managed to acquire 500+ clients across all verticals. Most of the important initiatives of Central government and PMO are hosted with us."

Forcepoint’s Human-centric products with right marketing strategy brings value to organizations

Vinny Sharma Marketing Manager - Forcepoint India “Forcepoint has completely changed the paradigm from threat-centric security to understanding users, their behaviours and intent. It is reinventing cyber security by creating human centric security solutions that enable customers to understand the rhythm of their people and flow of their data. This human-centric approach, backed by right marketing plan, accentuates our value proposition for the companies.

In the face of changing threat landscape, organisations require unified security solutions that will protect against threats from insiders and outsiders, rapidly detect breaches and minimize “dwell time” – the period between compromise and remediation – and stop data theft.

Forcepoint does that by providing a unified platform that focuses on insider threat protection, cloud data protection and network security. We simplify and strengthen security as part of a holistic strategy that includes people, process and technology and is far more compelling value proposition than a simple point solution.

Verticals that are impacted by digital transformation such as IT/ ITeS, Banking and Finance, Telecom, Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare are some of the sectors that would need protection from emerging cyberattacks. Government is another focus area for us as they use technology to deliver services to citizens..”

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100% indirect channel model brings incremental business for RAH Infotech

Jagadish MN Director Marketing Communications, RAH Infotech “From being a Value Added Distributor (VAD) sighted as a competition by some of the channel partners to a completely channel friendly VAD was a huge transformation for RAH Infotech.

But it also took a lot of planning and immaculate execution to achieve this.

RAH Infotech’s shift to 100% indirect model was communicated to channels in the most effective manner which not only strengthened our relationship with channels but also resulted in incremental business.

RAH Infotech not only is an extended marketing arm of its OEMs but also for its channel partners who don’t have a marketing setup of their own. We have been working with our channels on some of the joint marketing campaigns to achieve our goals.

We are strongly focusing on BFSI as a vertical and have been working on increasing our market share. We have lined up several campaigns targeting this vertical including organising /participating in BFSI specific CXO meets.

FY17 was a good year for us and we hope for better results in FY18. We have consistently achieving double digit growth and in FY17 too, we achieved 34% growth.”

Fujitsu focuses on creating strategic narrative for all market interactions

NS Santhosh Head of Marketing & Communications, Fujitsu “Fujitsu is a customer centric marketing organization. We are in process of building Fujitsu brand and maintain consistency across all customer touch points. We are focused on developing a strategic narrative for all market interaction and create customer messages to align all our communications and maximize market impact.

We have been able to build customer credibility by listening and engaging from a business perspective. We have commissioned many surveys like ‘fit for Digital’, ‘Managing Security in the Digital Era’ and many others to help our customer to understand the digital journey since Digital Transformation is a board level issue. Fujitsu’s reach and interaction with prospects and customers has increased through digital channels and our marketing approach itself is going through digital transformation as we are investing more time in digital technologies and marketing automation. Digital Co-creation: Fujitsu co-creates digitally with our customers. This year we would like to have more Customer references as we believe that we should aim for new customer when we have a satisfied customer.

For India we are focusing on select verticals like Automotive, manufacturing, Public sector and BFSI at the moment and our focus for the coming year is to improve Growth, reputation, efficiency and be innovative. We have already planned in growing our digital marketing capability and Marketing Automation."

TOP 25 BRANDS IN INDIAN ICT INDUSTRY 2018

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16th INFOTECH FORUM 2018 Disruption - A New Reality Friday, 25th May 2018, New Delhi

Branding is an image, how customers think of a brand and one must identify with its uniqueness and exceptional quality. Customers make irrational decisions all the time. In the world of technology, digitalisation has created tremendous opportunities. Consumers are increasingly empowered by new technologies, rich information resources and a wide choice of brands and are demanding digital innovation from businesses as a result, new products, processes and techniques have emerged, but has also created threats, as new ways of employment pose new challenges to employers and employees. It has a strong impact on enterprises, both in manufacturing and services industries and is radically reshaping business landscapes and the nature of work, as well as redefining the boundaries of production, distribution and consumption. www.varindia.com

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Channel partners driving business growth for Kaspersky In an exclusive interaction with VARINDIA, Shrenik Bhayani- General Manager, South Asia, Kaspersky Lab discusses on the brand’s R&D investment, growth, strategy and much more…..

W

ith IoT gaining momentum and becoming a reality, a lot of connected devices have become more prone to cyber attacks.

Commenting on the current trends in the Indian security landscape, Shrenik says, “As per our 2018 analysis, the number of malware that is detected every day is close to around 310k. 20 years back, this figure corresponded to the number of malware detected in a year.”

This increase in attacks has led to the rise in the number of security offerings from various companies, which is further leading to a stiff competition among the vendors.When asked about how Kaspersky tries to be at the cutting edge, Shrenik states, “I and my team’s position with the customer is that we are a company that can be a part of your process; we have offerings which will complement your environment. It doesn’t matter if you have a Symantec endpoint solution or MacAfee endpoint solution.

We want to bring some value to the overall process that you have for your organisation in terms of ensuring that you are securing your company. So, this opens a lot of doors for us in terms of what we want to convey and If I would potentially go and talk to them and say that – ‘ok I am here to tell you that we are the best antivirus on endpoints’, and then customer will say – ‘it’s fine I already have something deployed and I am happy with it, why should I change it?’ So, the messaging which I and my team take to the market, to the partners and customers, is how we can be a part of your journey and you pick and choose where you think we are relevant to you and then we deliver it via our partners.”

R&D and Stratagems...

Talking on its go to market strategy, Shrenik comments, “Kaspersky Lab has always been a channel partner-centric company in India; it is because of our channel partners that we have been growing year on year. Our go to market strategy also involves activities with our channel partners, more frequent meetings with them, channel partner trainings and giving an equal growth to our B2B part of the business.”

Speaking on the significance of R&D, Shrenik tells, “R&D is one of the most important piece for Kaspersky. I believe it’s the strong pillar on which our organisation is currently standing, becauseif these guys don’t deliver quality stuff then eventually we can’t have the right products and right services in the market. There is a specific percentage of Investments that go into R&D every year for the organisation, out of the total turnover.

We have a framework on how much we invest into R&D.” The number of Kaspersky Lab employees rose by 6.5% in 2017 to

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more than 3,800 professionals worldwide; the R&D department grew by 12% to about 1600 people.When asked about the plan to add R&D department in its newly launched office in Mumbai, he says, “We don’t have an R&D unit in our Mumbai office, but basis the country’s potential and the way the business is shaping up for us we have a concept of what we call as a great team which is nothing but our resource, which is apart of the R&D. They participate in industry forums, industry seminars, talk to government agencies, nodal agencies and can bring the perspective on what is happening in the whole R&D department and the value that we can bring to those agencies and so on so forth. So, our plan is to have someone in the team in Mumbai office in 2019. It is under discussion and under review if business grows enough in 2018.”

Further commenting on the business’ growth he asserts, “We grew our business last year in 2017. From an India or South Asia specific standpoint, we were at a flat growth. One of the reasons of this flat growth was also around how we have structured our B2B business.

In the last quarter of our business, which is Q4 in 2017, we delivered to our commitmentof delivering 105% growth, which is very close to the target we set in Q1 2018. The way we are growing and the waywe forecast for the rest of 2018, we will grow almost around 12%.

This is obviously one specific aspect in mind that we are doing a major correction on how we have to handle our B2C inventory, so that we will slow down on our selling to the distributor in this segment. But that doesn’t mean we will stop selling more to the market. So, it’s about taking the right position on ensuring that our distributor also is not overburdened and at the same time we do the business in the best possible way, where we drive the demand and the market on the specific portfolios that we want to sell.

Overall we will grow in our South Asia business by 10%,” he concludes. n Abha Singh abha@varindia.com

“India is expected to be among the top cloud markets in the world by 2020, with $4.1 billion market opportunity. By making our digital core all-pervasive through cloud with SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, our market leadership in ERP space is poised to be replicated in the cloud as well.”

SAP launches SAP S/4HANA Cloud in India powered by ML and AI capabilities SAP SE’s intelligent cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution SAP S/4HANA Cloud is now available in India. In a media event in Mumbai, the SAP SE leadership announced how SAP S/4HANA Cloud is an Intelligent ERP with builtin machine learning and AI capabilities and helps to streamline business processes with a simplified user experience, thus helping organizations transform into “Intelligent Enterprises”.

The solution combines automation of mundane tasks with preemptive decision making, to increase overall business agility. With the S/4HANA Cloud, businesses will be notified of the latest innovations through quarterly updates, granting them access to the latest innovations in areas such as predictive analytics.

With conversational AI platforms being the next big paradigm shift in IT, SAP has integrated SAP CoPilot with the SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

The solution is the first true voice-activated digital assistant for enterprises that enables users to get their work done more quickly and efficiently, while increasing teamwork across business processes. Powered by machine learning and AI, SAP CoPilot is aware of business contexts, driving efficient collaboration, quickly recognizing and connecting to business data and offers in-context chat.

The SAP S/4HANA Cloud serves customers in various productcentric and service-centric industries to help them achieve instant value, cost savings and improved efficiencies across project management, manufacturing, sales order management, inventory and supply chain management, finance and procurement.

Over and above these functionalities, SAP S/4HANA Cloud has been localized specific to India to support – • India-specific master data, such as GST Vendor Classification, Invoicing Party (required for calculation of taxes), field enablement to maintain GST Registration Number • Tax and pricing procedures, including the ones introduced with GST taxes • Journal Voucher – Tax adjustments for the GST incoming invoices • Invoice generation for logistics scenarios, such as Procurement for Direct Materials and Services, Subcontracting, etc.

Deb Deep Sengupta, President & Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent

“India is expected to be among the top cloud markets in the world by 2020, with $4.1 billion market opportunity. By making our digital core allpervasive through cloud with SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, our market leadership in ERP space is poised to be replicated in the cloud as well.”

Melissa Di Donato, Chief Revenue Officer, SAP S/4HANA Cloud

“SAP S/4HANA Cloud will be swiftly taking Indian enterprises into the digital age. The intelligent cloud suite will support large and midsize Indian companies to further accelerate innovation. Our aim is to enable organizations to ‘Automate’ processes, gain ‘Assistance’ in focusing on missioncritical applications, and eventually ‘Act’ based on context-aware decisions.” www.varindia.com

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Gionee seeks to ramp-up its retail strategy with online expansion In a chat with VARINDIA, David Chang, Global Sales Director, Gionee discusses on the plans and strategies to further expand its foothold in India and how he views the market vis-à-vis the many challenges Gionee kick started the year 2018-19 with launch of its two latest products - F205 & S11 Lite and considers India as an important market for them. This year Gionee intends to offer the latest technology at affordable pricing to every smartphone users in India.

Business model and strategy……

Commenting on the current market size the brand enjoys and its strategy to obtain a strong pace of growth, David Chang, Global Sales Director, Gionee says,“With a firm focus on our strategy and marketing plans this year, we are ready for a big splash in the India market. Additionally, we have also adopted a new business model, under which, key distributors have been empowered to do their own marketing for the brand. Talking about our market size we boast of 1.45 cr customers right now. Apart from that we boast of a retail presence in more than 42,000 retail outlets across 2200 cities PAN India that we are looking to grow to further.”

The brand has doubled its marketing budgets to INR 500 crore and invested in a big way in celebrity engagement with Bollywood and sport stars for better consumer connect.

On this David adds, “This year though, we have shifted our marketing strategy with a BTL approach and will focus on consolidating the brand.

With a significant marketing budget, 60% of the budget will be focused on BTL promotions. Apart from that we also intend to focus on further building our brand loyalty and focus on customer service.Furthermore considering the popularity of Gionee smartphones in Tier II cities, we will be spending on promotions in Tier II cities along with Metros. Customer connect activities are consistently conducted by the brand like the Smile Squad initiative and college activities.”

Gionee is further looking to grow its retail presence to 75,000 outlets. By focusing largely on offline retail in India, it currently has a channel network of 15,000 promoters and aims to double promoters in the coming year to increase conversions at the counter. Primarily functioning as an offline brand, it has now decided to adopt a mix of offline and online strategy. It has decided to showcase its bestselling models online, with no difference in pricing.

Discussing on the strategy around service support, he reveals, “In the current scenario, where smartphone makers are struggling to establish a reliable after sales service with customers, Gionee on the other hand promises a turnaround time of 72 hours. We have 531 active Service Centres at the moment (477 Excusive Service Centre + 54 Multi Brand Service Centre).

Gionee’s brand loyalty is 33 per cent and we intend to ride on that and further grow our brand loyalty. In order to take better care of our customers, we are also going to invest in our customer service centers and make them better equipped.We plan to expand to 650, primarily focusing on after sale networks with the customers.”

R&D investment and challenges…

Speaking on R&D, David states, “From a dedicated initial team of 12 people at Gionee, we are investing in a big way in our R&D division. We

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David Chang Global Sales Director, Gionee ramped up our endeavors and currently we have doubled the team. With technology playing the central role this year for us, we have invested a sizeable amount in global R&D center which is in Shenzhen, China. And plan to continue to grow the budgets with the passing quarters.

Talking on the challenges, he tells, “One of the foremost challenges was realizing and understanding that India as a market is very different from China and replicating products and strategies designed for the latter could be unfavorable for the brand in India. However, realizing the differences, we shifted our strategy and built a whole new portfolio to cater to the local consumers.

Secondly, the mobile market in India is constantly evolving and the real challenge for all smart phone players lies in keeping up with the evolution through continues innovation, not only in terms of design but also in terms of user experience and features. Suggestive of growing faith in our brand, we have secured a consumer base of over 1.45 crore in India and are motivated to adopt a more bullish approach towards innovation and expansion in India market.”

Furthermore, when asked about its future plans David reveals that the outlet expansion plan is in the pipeline, while also the brand intends to make all phones that it sells in India, locally. The brand has increased its marketing budget and 60% of it would be channeled to BTL promotions this year.

He further concludes, “Having established a strong base here with around 1.45 crore loyal customers, in the next five years, we at Gionee are optimistic about expanding our customer base in the country now. The brand is aiming to secure a position among the top five smartphone brands in the second half of 2018. In the first half of 2019, Gionee India will target to be among the top three players in the Indian smartphone market." n Abha Singh abha@varindia.com

VAR MOBILITY

Realme 1 launched at INR 13,990

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ealme, the new e-commerce subbrand of smartphone giant OPPO has launched Realme 1, targeted at the

youth of the country.

The phone comes with the World’s first 12nm AI CPU MediaTek Helio P60 together with AI Shot Technology and a huge 6GB RAM+128GB ROM storage version, offering the highest cost to value product in India. The 6.0” FHD+ Full Screen of

Realme 1 is complemented by an ‘Art of Light’ design in Diamond black, with exquisite details crafted for young users.

Realme 1 will be exclusively available from May 25th, 12 noon on India’s largest marketplace, Amazon.in, with the 3GB RAM+32GB ROM version priced at INR 8,990 and the 6GB RAM+128GB ROM version price at INR 13,990 in Diamond Black and Solar Red. A third variant of Realme1 with 4GB RAM+64GB ROM, available in Moonlight Silver and Diamond Black priced at INR 10,990 will go online for sale in June this year.

Realme 1 buyers will be offered a No Cost EMI on Amazon.in with exciting offers for SBI cardholders, 5% cash back, and for Jio customers a cashback of INR 4850/-. Realme 1 buyers will also be offered Amazon Prime deliveries.

Coolpad unveils its first India exclusive offline product “Note 6”

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oolpad has announced the launch of Coolpad Note 6 in India. India is the first country where Coolpad Note 6 has been launched.

The smartphone is offline exclusive and extension to the Coolpad Note series in India. Coolpad Note 6 has a dual selfie camera with additional flash with a capability to capture 120-degree wide angle selfies, making it the first

selfie-focused smartphone from the brand.

Coolpad Note 6 will be available in two variants in India – 4GB + 32 GB and 4GB + 64GB. These have been competitively priced at Rs.8, 999 and Rs.9, 999, respectively.

Note 6 is equipped with an 8MP + 5MP dual front camera for 120-degree wide angle selfies and has a beautiful arc style design with a 5.5-inch Full HD display with a 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution to ensure a great viewing experience and has Android 7.1. It has a super battery capacity of 4,070mAh and standby time of 350 hours and weighs only 170g.

Coolpad Note 6 will be available in gold colour variant. The smartphone will be available for purchase at 300+ multibrand stores across 8 states: Delhi NCR, Haryana, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

LG unveils G7 ThinQ smartphone with deep AI integration

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G Electronics (LG) has introduced its latest premium smartphone, the LG G7 ThinQ, focusing on bringing useful and convenient AI features to the fundamental consumer smartphone experience in Ney York.

Powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform, the LG G7 ThinQ offers 4GB/6GB of RAM and 64GB/128GB of internal storage to run even the most demanding tasks and apps with ease. Equipped with a stunning 6.1-inch bright display has is nearly half an inch larger than its predecessor but not a hair wider, the LG G7 ThinQ is sized perfectly to be used with one hand.

Sporting a new design aesthetic for the G series, the polished metal rim gives the LG G7 ThinQ a sleeker, more polished look, complemented by Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and the back for enhanced durability. Again rated IP68 for dust and water resistance, the LG G7 ThinQ was designed to meet the requirements of MIL-STD 810G tests designed by the United States military to evaluate the performance of equipment in harsh environments.

The LG G7 ThinQ has been upgraded with an 8MP camera upfront and 16MP lenses on the back in both standard and Super Wide Angle configurations for higher resolution photos with more details.

LG’s signature wide angle camera now captures even more beautiful landscapes with less edge distortion and selfies are clearer and look more natural compared with previous LG phones.

Gionee India unveils F205 and S11 Lite smartphones

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ionee has announced the launch of two new products – F205 and S11 Lite. With an aim to making smartphones with premium features more affordable, the company has launched the devices F205 and S11 Lite, at a price point of Rs.8, 999 and Rs.13, 999, respectively.

Tapping the increasing demand for better cameras in smartphones, with focus on selfie cameras, F205 boasts of three in-vogue camera features, Bokeh selfie, Group selfie and Backlight.

Endowed with 5PM selfie camera, the Bokeh selfie mode is coupled with Face beauty mode, with 100 Level Face Beauty and 7 Level Bokeh effect. These features allow for an artistic selfie, even in a cluttered background, blurring the

clutter. Elaborating on its group selfie feature, F205 is backed by real-time processing technology to enlarge the image. It can accommodate more

people in a selfie with the panoramic effect comparable to that of the wide-angle lens. Last but not the least, the backlight feature of the smartphone entails multi-frame HDR synthesis, it can enhance dark details and reduce exposure.

Talking of another leading-edge feature, Gionee flaunts a Full View Display body.

Ziox Mobiles launches Astra Curve Pro Smartphone

Z

iox Mobiles has rolled out Astra Curve Pro Smartphone that comes with a stunning allscreen display, fascinatingly curved edges and farfetched user-interface.

The smartphone features an all-glass and glossy design with a beautiful 5.5” HD display and a curved 3D glass. The sleek design and narrow b o r d e r s reflect the spectacular frequency of style.

With a dynamic aspect ratio to deliver immersive viewing experience, the picture quality brings vivid splashing detailed colours.

Powered by the large capacity Li-ion battery of 2,800 mAh, one can enjoy the Stamina-mode

and power-efficient performance to operate your every command, smoothly and quickly with its Quad-core processor.

Moreover, Astra Curve Pro guarantees a superfast processing; credits

to its 1GB RAM which skilfully carries out every command before the blink of an eye. The rear camera comes with optical image stabilization, deeper pixels and an enhanced processor to capture all-appreciated pictures and videos.

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Movers & Shakers

Quick Heal Technologies ropes in Manu Parpia to Board of Directors

Qualcomm ropes in Rajen Vagadia as its Country Manager for India

Quick Heal Technologies Limited (“Quick Heal”) has announced the appointment of Manu Parpia as Additional Director (Independent Director). Parpia’s appointment is subject to shareholders’ approval at the ensuing Annual General Meeting.

With the addition of Manu Parpia, the Board strength of the company has increased to nine which includes five independent directors, including Parpia.

Parpia holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from McGill University, Canada; an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, USA, and a Diploma in Finance & Accounting from England.

Qualcomm Incorporated has announced the appointment of RajenVagadia as country manager of Qualcomm India. Vagadia’s appointment will be effective immediately and he will be reporting directly to Jim Cathey, Senior Vice-President & President of Asia-Pacific and India.

Vagadia has more than 26 years of experience in the telecom industry, covering diverse areas in manufacturing, business development and sales, supply chain and strategy. He joined Qualcomm in 2011 and during his tenure he has played a key role in driving the LTE growth for India and expanding opportunities for adjacent business in-country.

Andy Elder appointed as the new chief sales officer at Riverbed

Intuit names Sanket Atal as VP and MD of India Development Center

Riverbed Technology has announced the appointment of Andy Elder to Chief Sales Officer, succeeding Paul Mountford, who was recently named Riverbed’s new CEO. Elder joined Riverbed in March 2017 as SVP EMEA Sales and during the last year he transformed the EMEA organization providing strong leadership and achieving significant growth in the region as Riverbed continued its evolution into a multi-product platform company that delivers a modern IT architecture for today’s digital enterprise. Today, Riverbed has a total addressable market surpassing $30 billion and more than 30,000 customers.

Intuit Inc. has announced the appointment of Sanket Atal as Vice-President and Managing Director of the India Development Center (IDC).

Sanket will play a strategic role in Intuit’s mission of powering prosperity around the world, strengthen IDC’s position in India and ensure it is future ready to take advantage of game-changing opportunities. In this role, he will also be working closely with Vijay Anand who has expanded his role to lead Intuit’s Global Development Centers (GDC).

In his previous role with Oracle Corporation, he was responsible for the R&D organization in Bangalore, NCR, Pune and St Petersburg in Russia.

VMware India appoints Ramkumar Narayanan as new R&D Site Leader

Nitin Bawankule named as new business head for Google Cloud, India

VMware announced the appointment of Ramkumar Narayanan as the Vice President and Managing Site Director, India. In his new role, Ramkumar will be heading VMware’s R&D Center in India.

Based out of Bangalore, Ramkumar Narayanan is a global leader focusing on data driven, digital product innovation spanning consumer and enterprise markets. Before joining VMware, he was the General Manager of eBay Product Development Center, India and Global Head of Monetization Products, responsible for generating the revenues for eBay.

Google has appointed Nitin Bawankule as the country head for Google Cloud India that offers cloud platform services to Indian businesses in India. Nitin, who has been with Google India for over six years as the Head of Sales for multiple verticals, including e-commerce, retail, classifieds, education, will report to Rick Harshman, Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, Google Cloud.

An IIM Bangalore and VNIT Nagpur alumnus, Nitin brings with him over 20 years of experience and understanding of the digital, technology and consumer industry.

Madhavan Satagopan joins Virtusa as Executive VP for Non-Linear Business Strategies

MediaTek names Anku Jain as Chief Representative of its India Operations

Virtusa Corporation has announced the appointment of MadhavanSatagopan as Executive Vice-President for Non-Linear Business Strategies.

With over 24 years of experience in techno-domain specialization, MadhavanSatagopan brings a remarkable track record in establishing specialist groups comprising of solution incubators and subject-matterexperts in tech communities, leading them to becoming value realization partners and technocrats in the industry.

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MediaTek Inc. has announced the appointment of Anku Jain to the role of chief representative of MediaTek India. According to the company, since joining MediaTek 14 years ago, Jain has played an important role in developing MediaTek’s operations in India. He most recently served as senior director and head of MediaTek’s office in Noida. In his new role, Jain will oversee the operations of MediaTek’s office in Noida and the company’s domestic government relations programs. With more than 25 years of experience, Jain has held a variety of senior management, site operations and engineering roles at Sprint, RiverRun, Network Programs and Pixtel Communications.

INDIA 2018 Inspire the Extraordinary

Are You Ready to succeed in the Analytics Economy?

Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning | Cognitive Computing | IoT Data can have an extraordinary impact on the world, from humanitarian issues to complex business challenges. With this year's theme on Inspire the Extraordinary, you can only expect speakers with extraordinary influential aura who have leveraged cutting-edge analytics to achieve extraordinary outcomes.

Join us at SASÂŽ Forum India 2018 India's largest analytics event, where leaders take center stage.

Date: Tuesday, May 15th 2018 Time: 8:30 am to 5:30 pm Venue: Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre, Powai, Mumbai For further information : Ms. Desere Pereira Desere.Pereira@sas.com Register: www.sasforum.com/in #SASFIN18

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RNI - NO 72399/1999 Printing Date 18 & 19

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Reg. No: DL-SW-01/4030/18-20

56 pages including cover

Date of Posting 20 & 21 every month