sme channels october 13

PLUS

VOLUME 04 | ISSUE 08 | PAGES 54 | OCTOBER 2013 | RS. 20/-

indias first IT magazine for sme business

01

TE Connectivitys Partner Summit in Tier 1 Cities /22

A successful channel relationship has become vital for todays business environment and vendors are following best practices to turn them from just channel partners to trusted sales partners /30

CHANNELBEST PRACTICES

SME TREND /42Quantum: Growing focus on SMBs

SECURITY CORNER /46Trend Micro: Focus on 3Cs

SME TREND /44Netapp: Add cloud capability in an enterprise data center

cover.indd 1 23/10/13 9:16 AM

DS-Advts.indd 2-3 23/10/13 8:52 AM

DS-Advts.indd 3 23/10/13 8:53 AM

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PLUS

VOLUME 04 | ISSUE 08 | PAGES 54 | OCTOBER 2013 | RS. 20/-

www.smechannels.com

IMPORTANCE OF CHANNEL BEST

PRACTICES

EDITORIAL

SANJAY [email protected]

ORGANISATIONS CANT do without channel partners. No matter a business is big or small to establish foothold in the market partners come to play a pivotal role. Partners can take their product and services to the remotest of the places and to the customers hitherto inaccessible to vendors. It is their reach both in terms of physical and personal relationship which endears the vendors to reach out to them.

But a partner-vendor relationship is a fragile one and to make the bonds stronger and last longer it has to be nurtured and cared for. There need to be genuineness in the relationship, based on trust and loyalty and yes, profitability too.

This is what our cover story is based on: the channel best practices that vendors follow to keep their partners in good humour. It does make sense; its the partners who are ultimately the face of the prod-uct or the company. They way they handle the products, take it to the market, the rightful customers can make to break the image of the company.

This is where channel enablement, training, educating on the products, enabling them with the right sales and marketing tools come in handy.

But the fact of the matter is like any business the main driver for the channel partners or for that matter any business is profitability. In these hard times with the shrinking margins everyone is looking for ways to differentiate themselves in the market.

The partner programs that are launched in the market to help partners make sales should be formu-lated keeping the mind whats best for both of them; and not just one sided. One do keep hearing from the partners how these program are nothing but vendors dumping their stuff on them in the garb of helping them make sales.

Trust is a two way road. Some partners also rue to the fact that vendors do not trust them and this further discourages the partners.

Committing to this relationship is not just the vendors or the partners job; both sides need to give their best to make the relationship a success. Vendors need to be committed to the responsibilities and not stray from what they promised to their partners; and partners in return need to fulfil their part of the agreement only then will this marriage work.

ZyXEL UAG4100 Unified Access Gateway

MY EXPERIENCE

OVERALL RATING

SPECIFICATIONS

The UAG4100 also adopts a management

platform that can handle up to 300 wired or

wireless users simultaneously.

FINAL WORDING

This can become a significant burden for

the owners if they do not have the right

equipment.

ZYXEL Communications UAG4100 Uni-fied Access Gateway is a new hospitality gateway which delivers best-in-class services and achieves high customer satisfaction for businesses in the hospitality industry.

The UAG4100 supports dual radio fre-quencies, 2.4GHz and 5GHz, to serve two times of users than legacy Wi-Fi gateways. The design of dual radio automatically switches to 5GHz when 2.4GHz band is fully occupied, and digests traffic flow to avoid unstable data transmission due to the shortage of bandwidth.

SECURITY CORNER /26HID: Securing Identity

GUEST TALK /52Panasonic: Trends in Digital Signage market in India

SME TREND /48BPE: Engaging the Partners

SME CHANNELSOCTOBER 2013

6

Edit.indd 6 23/10/13 9:19 AM

Advts.indd 8 23/10/13 8:45 AM

OCTCOVER STO

RY

Channel Best Practices /30A successful channel relationship has become vital for todays business environment and vendors are following best practices to turn them from just channel partners to trusted sales partners

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra

Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra

Assistant Editor: Karma Negi

Reporter: Aparajita Choudhury

Executive Editor: Smruti Chaudhury

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Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan

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Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary

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Marketing Executive: Rajat Kumar

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Editorial ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 06

Snippets ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~10

SME Trend ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 32, 45, 54, 56, 64

Partner Corner ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 57

Products ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 62

more insideSME CHAT

Cisco Capital /36Expanding Coverage with Focus on the Channel

V.S.Traders /41We Have Maintained a Yearly Growth of 20%

Trend Micro /47Focus on 3Cs: Consumeriza-tion, Cyber Threats & Cloud

SECURITY CORNERHID Global /26Securing Identity

contentsVOLUME 04ISSUE 08 2013

COLLABORATING ON VIDEO /38

FEATURE


8


Contents.indd 8 23/10/13 10:40 AM

Advts.indd 5 19/09/13 8:45 AM

Kaspersky Lab Wins Lawsuit Against Patent TrollKaspersky Lab has emerged victorious from a lawsuit initiated by Lodsys, a company located in Texas that operates as a Patent Assertion Entity, more commonly

known as a non-practicing entity or Patent Troll, known for initiating patent infringement lawsuits against a variety of companies.

Kaspersky Lab, along with

54 other companies includ-ing Atari, Symantec and Estee Lauder were originally named in Lodsys lawsuit. Of the 55 total companies named as defendants

Tri-Ed, North Americas indepen-dent security distributor, and Aditya Infotech have together formed The International Alliance of Indepen-dent Security Distributors.

New Delhi, India, based Aditya Infotech with its channel partners in India (& SAARC Countries), Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal &

ASEAN countries offers products and services that are similar to those Tri-Ed in the U.S. and Canada.

This collaboration will allow Tri-Ed and AIL to share informa-tion on new trends and market insights within their areas of operation, resulting in a sharing of knowledge that will help all

members increase their market share through Best practices. Tri-Ed and Aditya Infotech will be inviting other key distributors from other parts of the world to join The Inter-national Alliance of Independent Security Distributors.

The Alliance will serve as a high-level focus group, and be very ben-

eficial to both our vendors and our customers, explains Pat Comunale, President and CEO, Tri-Ed Distri-bution. Both organizations will be sharing the best trade practices and systems to value add their channel and employees; thereby setting new quality benchmarks in the industry, in respective domain.

in the lawsuit, only Kaspersky Lab refused to settle out of court with Lodsys, and instead demanded the case be brought to trial announced the press release.

On September 30, seven days before the trial was to commence, Lodsys withdrew its claims rather than facing the verdict of the court, and its lawsuit was dis-missed with prejudice. Kaspersky Lab paid no money to Lodsys, and did not agree to any settlement terms.

Our position is firm. No con-cessions to the trolling scum and IT racketeers. We call on all other IT companies to keep on fighting and not give up. Only then will it be possible to get rid of the patent parasites once and for all, said Eugene Kaspersky, Chairman and CEO, Kaspersky Lab.

The business of Patent Trolls around the globe is very large scale, and has been attributed as a hindrance to innovation, development, and implementa-tion. Rather than incur the cost of litigation and time required to fight these frivolous lawsuits, most companies will pay these Patent Trolls their requested fees.

TRI-Ed and Aditya Infotech Form Alliance


10

SNIPPETSfor more log on to smechannels.com

PRODUCT | CHANNEL | CONSULTING | SERVICES

Snippets.indd 10 23/10/13 9:32 AM

Advts.indd 2 23/10/13 8:43 AM

NETGEAR Extends Rea-dyNAS Product FamilyNETGEAR has released ReadyNAS 3220 and ReadyNAS 4220, as new additions to the award-winning ReadyNAS product family.

The new devices are the latest network-attached-storage (NAS) products to run on the revolutionary ReadyNAS OS, introduced in March 2013, that delivers high value, high performance storage with enterprise features to small and medium-sized businesses (SMB).

Available for the first time in 2U rackmount form with 12-bay capacity, the new ReadyNAS 3220 and 4220 enable easy storage for businesses supporting up to 500 concurrent users.

Commenting on the product, Subhodeep Bhattacharya, Regional Director (India & SAARC), NETGEAR, said, These cutting-edge rackmount devices are designed as storage made easy and are built on a custom platform that lets you do more with your vital business data than you ever thought possible. With ReadyNAS, youre getting the most storage value for your IT budget.

SMEs are a critical growth engine for

jobs and economies today. Our objective is to help more SMEs

transition to, and benefit from, modern

IT. KARAN BAJWA, MD, MICROSOFT INDIA

MY POINT

Sanovi has effected few changes at its senior managerial levels, with the aim of consolidating its leadership in the DR space and to focus on strategic growth areas and new businesses in the India/SAARC region.

Ashis Guha, President- Global Sales, Sanovi Technologies, said, Our goal is to rapidly increase our market base in India, and expand into the emerging markets, with an empowered

team of functional leaders and clearly defined focus areas.

In the first of these promotions, Amarjeet S. Gill, takes on the role of VP, sales for India and SAARC. Sankara Krishnan has assumed the posi-tion of VP, Alliances and New Initiatives for India and SAARC region and Narayana Menon K has taken on the position of Director, Marketing for India, ME and APAC markets.

Antec India Strengthens BP Series PSUsAntec Inc has added BP 400PX PSU in it more popular BP series PSUs. BP 400PX comes with ATX12V v2.3 and ErP Lot 6-compliant solution which is designed to render good quality, high performance and incredible value to the user informed the release. It features 400W Continuous Power, reduce 82% of electricity bill, 120 mm Silence, thermal manager, CircuitShield, Heavy-duty Caps, ErP Lot 6 and Active Power Factor Correction (PFC). Kevan Li, Business Head, (India), Antec Inc, said, After the success of BP300P Power Supply in India, we are excited to introduce the BP400PX PSU which promises to deliver on quality, performance and value which are ideally suited to the mainstream PC users requirements.

SAP Simplifies Adop-tion of SAP HANASAP AG has announced a new offering that sim-plifies adoption of the SAP HANA platform for customers running SAP Business Suite software. Rapid database migration of SAP Business Suite to SAP HANA enables IT professionals to replace their conventional relational database with the SAP HANA.

The offering automates the migration process through a series of preconfigured software, implementation services, standardized content and end-user enablement. The rapid database migration of SAP Business Suite to SAP HANA is available for all customers and partners. SAP Consulting offers a fixed price and scope imple-mentation that helps reduce the risk of delays, downtime, overriding costs security violations and integration challenges.

Bernd Welz, EVP and global head (Solution & Knowledge Packaging), SAP, said, SAP provides a tested and reliable migration package that takes doubt and uncertainty out of the equation. By removing these obstacles, we are making it easier for SAP Business Suite customers to supercharge their business dealings with the power of in-memory data management, whether deployed on-premise or through the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud service.

AWS Activate for Startups LaunchedAmazon Web Services has released AWS Activate, a structured package of resources for startups, including AWS credits, training, developer support, a special startup community forum and special offers from third parties.

AWS Activate bundles resources in packages, designed to enable startups of different types to easily and quickly get started with AWS and successfully use the AWS platform to help grow their businesses.

AWS Activate helps address startups needs for technology, support, knowledge sharing and additional resources that make it even easier to use the cloud to grow their businesses announced the press release.

AWS Activate is organized into two packages a Self-Starter package, which any startup can apply for, and a Portfolio package, which can be applied for by startups in select accelerator, incu-bator, venture capital seed funds or entrepreneur organizations.

Sanovi Strengthens India SAARC Region Team


12

SNIPPETS


Advts.indd 10 23/10/13 8:47 AM

Unistal Offering Trial PackUnistal is providing 30 days free trial version for its recently launched Activity Reporter for Android for Tablets.

Alok Gupta, MD, Unistal Systems Pvt. Ltd., affirmed, We are offering trial pack so that the users can use the product and get actually feel of the functionalities to realise its effectiveness. With Activity reporter, parents can relax as they are getting the complete activity log on their mail. In a nut shell Activ-ity Reporter acts as perfect parenting software when it comes to working on tablets. We have similar software for windows based laptops also.

HP Launches MPS Resell Program HP has released the next phase expansion of its all-new HP Managed Print Specialist Resell program. India is the first country in Asia to launch this program. The program is designed to precisely meet the unique demands of customers in India.The HP Partner MPS program offers customers a cost-per-page agreement, fleet optimization and solutions, coupled with differentiated services for maintenance and supplies replenishment. The HP Managed Print Specialist Resell program is designed to provide resellers with greater differentiation in the high-growth market of Managed Print Services (MPS) among Indias SMBs and enterprises. HP has launched a new affordable A3 multifunc-tion printer (MFP) developed for Indian busi-nesses the HP LaserJet Pro 400 M435nw - and two new HP LaserJet Enterprise M800 series flow MFPs that come with near field communications (NFC) touch-to-print and wireless direct.

KONICA MINOLTA FORAYS INTO TIER 1 & 2 CITIESKonica Minolta has started entering into tier 1 & 2 cities. After the launch of its A4 printers in places like Gurgaon, Bangalore and Kochi, it has now launched some of its new A4 category products at Jalandhar (Punjab). Konica Minolta has partnered with PK International of Jaland-har for Punjab distribution.

This new range of printers by Konica Minolta has been launched under three categories: Pagepro which is mono series, Bizhub which is mid-range mono series and Magicolor which is colour series.

In partnership with established distribution companies in Tier 1 & 2 cities, we would like to take our products into the interior parts of the country to be able to provide printing solutions to a wider customer base, said Tadahiko Sumitani, MD, Konica Minolta Business Solutions India.

The USP of Konica Minoltas newly launched range is the remarkably high image quality and consistent results through the entire print run. These models featuring compact size and high reliability easily integrate into any small office or home setting announced the press release.

PK International was established in 2009 and is well connected as a distributor/ retailer with a turnover of 30crore. Rajeev Bansal, Director, PK International, commented, We are glad to be associated with an international brand like Konica Minolta and we will help the company in expanding their range in Punjab market.

These A4 range printers by Konica Minolta are available in the market and are priced between 5,000 INR and 40,000 INR.

Google to Get 50,000 Gujarat SMEs Online Google India plans to get 50,000 small medium businesses in Gujarat online by the end of 2014.

The initiative is part of Googles national campaign titled India, get your business online which offers free websites and hosting to small medium business in India. The campaign is aimed at bringing down the barrier that prevents small medium businesses to get on the Internet.

Giving a head start to this project, Google also unveiled the details of a special project wherein Google India & HostGator went to popular traditional markets in Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot and built websites for 5000 small businesses making them accessible to the world.

In addition to creating the websites, Google India also created Google maps listings and Google+ business pages for these businesses. All these 5000 businesses can also use 24X7 customer support to manage their websites and get free online advertising credit that can be used on Google search to promote their business online.

ECS Rolls-out Diwali OfferElitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) has announced a marketing promotion to appreciate the partners efforts by launching a Diwali Special Scheme where lucky partners stand a chance to win Samsung 32 LED TV. Along with the grand prize ECS with Rashi Peripherals provides a chance to win 2 Nokia cell phone,15 cash voucher and 30 backpacks. The promotion began on 21th Oct and end on 15th Nov. 2013. This scheme is point based scheme where the partner has to earn points on the basis of sales done of ECS Motherboards all over India.

QNAPs New Rack-mount VioStor NVRQNAP Security has launched new business-class 4-bay, 1U rackmount VioStor NVR VS-4100U-RP Pro+ series, available in 8, 12 and 16 channels featuring high reliability.

Powered by Dual-core Intel processor and 4GB DDR3 memory, the new series deliver qual-ity performance with up to 250 Mbps throughput to ensure steady recording of multiple megapixel IP cameras. Moreover, the HDMI output and hardware decoder provide the ability to deliver up to 200fps Full HD local display.

ASRock 8 Series Mobos Global motherboard manufacturer ASRock released the 8 Series Motherboard line at a launch event in Mumbai.

ASRock has divided its Z87 motherboards into three tiers Z87 Formula, Z87 FATAL1TY and Z87.These motherboards feature home Cloud, Purity Sound and 802.11ac WiFi and HDMI-In.

The company said that Z87M OC Formula has been used to break several world records in both CPU and memory overclocking since its debut in early June, 2013.


14

SNIPPETS


Advts01.indd 12 20/08/13 9:45 AM

ZYXEL ANNOUNCES NEW RANGE OF INTERNET ACCESS SOLUTIONS

ZyXEL has released its new performance-driven VDSL2 gateway product range (VMG4325/4380/8324/8924). With the future-proof 802.11ac wireless technology in combina-tion with advancements such as Vectoring, Bonding and Combo WAN functionalities, the new fleet of Internet access solutions once again manifests ZyXELs long-standing leadership in DSL broadband technology and application developments announced the press release.

On top of the 802.11n wireless technology built into the entire range, the VMG8924 exceptionally features the cutting-edge 802.11ac concurrent dual-band technology for additional power of performance. It enables not only the astounding throughput of as high as 1300 Mbps, but also operates with a specifically efficient dual-band mechanism.

With the capability to perform concurrent packet transmission over both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, the mechanism alleviates traffic congestion and cross-interference within a single band to a great extent when numerous electronic devices are accessing the network simultane-ously. The bandwidth performance, such as data throughput, coverage range and resilience to interference, is enormously boosted to secure high-quality transmission for high-definition multimedia applications.

To equip service providers with the capability to provide optimal bandwidth performance through network deployments, the gateways have incorporated two additional state-of-the-art technological breakthroughs Vectoring and Bonding. Vectoring is a technique that revives the performance of decade-old DSL copper wires for rejuvenated networking efficiency; by cancelling out the noise or electromagnetic interference on VDSL2 lines in a bundle, vectoring enables higher speeds as if a leased line exists the bundle and it also doubles the bandwidth for better throughputs. With the improvement, service providers can enlarge service coverage for over three times.

EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT

Quick Heal has named Rajesh Ghonasgi as chief financial officer of the company. He will help guide and oversee the companys continued

market leadership and financial growth.

Fortinet has appointed Jason Nadar as the national sales manager for wireless technologies in India and SAARC.

VMware has appointed Sanjay Mirchandani to the post of senior vice president and general manager to lead the VMware Asia Pacific &

Japan (APJ) business, effective October 14, 2013.

ADC India Communication has appointed S. Devarajan as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company and J N Mylaraiah as the managing director of the company.

Avaya Strengthens Collaboration Solu-tions for Midmarket

Avaya has unveiled new software designed from the ground up to streamline the way midmarket companies collaborate and communicate. At the center of the Avaya strategy is Avaya IP Office 9.0, a single software platform for collabo-ration with highly flexible deployment options for companies up to 2,000 users that is capable of being deployed in as little as an hour announced the press release. The release further added that this introduc-tion is part of the $2.5B investment Avaya has made over the past six years to transform from a telecommunications provider to a software and services led company focused on delivering collaboration and communications solutions that are open, mobile and centered on the cloud. An Avaya IP Office midmarket collaboration solution supports the broadest range of end points analog, digital, IP, and soft phones; PCs, MACs; Android and iOS smart phones and tablets.

GLOBAL PC SHIPMENTS DIPS 8.6% IN Q313WORLDWIDE PC SHIPMENTS TOTALED 80.3 MILLION UNITS IN THE Q3,2013, AN 8.6% DECLINE FROM THE SAME PERIOD LAST YEAR, ACCORDING TO PRELIMINARY RESULTS BY GARTNER, INC. THIS MARKS THE SIXTH CONSECUTIVE QUARTER OF DECLINING WORLDWIDE SHIPMENTS.PRELIMINARY WORLDWIDE PC VENDOR UNIT SHIPMENT ESTIMATES FOR 3Q13 (UNITS)

Source: Gartner (August 2013)

Q3 2012Q3 2013

HP

DellAcer Group

Asus

Others

Lenovo

15.7

17.6

15.4

10.59.8 7.2

17.1

11.68.3

6.1

39.2

41.4

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks but not media tablets such as the iPad.


16

SNIPPETS


neoteric Conducts Xplore & Evolve for Intelneoteric infomatique limited conducted Xplore & Evolve events for Intel in Jammu & Guwahati.

Previously, neoteric had successfully conducted similar events for Intel in Surat, Coimbatore and Patna. The objective of these events is to generate product awareness for Intels state-of-the-art products amongst the partner community.

As part of the Xplore & Evolve programme, there were live demonstrations on both days, focusing on how businesses can be benefitted by the latest Intel Core processor platform through a multitude of devices including Ultrabook devices and all-in-one PCs.

The partners got a hands-on experience of the look and feel of the demo products on display, viz., the 2nd Gen Intel Core processor and the 3rd Gen Intel Core processor families.

Eaton Unveils 9145 UPSEaton has launched Eaton 9145 UPS for BFSI, IT, SME and SMB segments which is a double-conver-sion online UPS, which protects mission-critical applications from downtime, data loss and corruption.

The 9145 comes with an inbuilt over-voltage cut-off device (OVCD) in all 1 3 kVA models, protect-ing UPS and other critical loads. It is optimized to operate in very wide input voltage range, reducing the number of transfers to battery power.

9145 allows smart thermal management to operate in high temperature environments up to 45C. Unlike other UPS in this segment, 9145 brings its users a compact product that delivers perfect sine wave output with high frequency technology. Eaton has designed this high-performance product with an output factor of up to 0.9 on 6 - 20 kVA models, thus offering 28 percent more power than other competitive products in this segment.

CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap Released for SMEsCA Technologies has released the availability of CA Nimsoft Monitor Snapa free, feature-rich version of its CA Nimsoft Monitor solution. It enables resource-constrained customers to quickly achieve enterprise-class visibility into the health of the diverse IT resources that support delivery of their business-critical IT services announced the press release. It further emphasized that unlike existing freeware, freemiums, time-limited trials, open-source tools or mid-market commercial products, CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap can be up and running in as little as an hour and is free for up to 30 monitored devices each with unlimited monitorsnot a limited time-trial.

Until today, under-resourced customers faced an unacceptable choice between non-integrated point monitoring tools, technically challenging open-source code, and conventional enterprise-class technology that cost too much and took too long to implement, said John Smith, GM (Infrastructure Management), CA Technologies.

DIGESTSPS DIAMOND D20 CAPACITY UPGRADEDSilicon Power has announced a capacity upgrade of one terabyte on its Ultra-Slim portable hard drive Diamond D20. It comes with built-in 7mm slim hard drive and features a solid aluminum metal structure and the anti-scratch surface.

Combining with USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface and slim structure, D20 is the ideal selection for those who are looking for portability and maximum performance announced the release.

GENIUS NEW ENERGY MOUSE Genius has introduced its new innovative Energy Mouse which combines a 1200dpi mouse with a 2700 mAH power bank feature.

The mouse comes with a Li-polymer battery for charge control and four LED Lights to indi-cate battery capacity as well as charging status. The bi-directional 2.4GHz anti-interference technology ensures a reliable working distance of up to 10 meters.

The Genius Energy mouse is available at the price of USD 29.9 and comes with the warranty of 1 year.

ZEBRONICS 7.1 CHANNEL GAMING HEADPHONEZebronics has unveiled four new gaming headphones the Zebronics Iron Head, Colt, Rattlesnake, and Stingray, with volume control, mute button, mic on/off and inbuilt microphone.

The Zebronics Iron Head is the first from Zebronics to incorporate 7.1 channel simulated sound effects for powerful, immersive PC gaming audio, it delivers superior sound isolation announced the press release.

It further has dedicated microphone and volume controls and is easily connected via USB and built-in sound processor and featuring a 3-meter long cable.

EDIMAX ROLLS-OUT HIGH PER-FORMANCE ROUTEREdimax has launched AR-7286WnA/B a high performance router. It provides full ADSL2+ capability and superb reliability as a cost-effec-tive networking solution for homes and small businesses announced the press release.

The AR-7286WnA/B is a wireless router with a built-in ADSL2/ADSL2+ modem combining a high-performance router, modem and switch into a single device. It saves desk space, the hassle of extra cords and cables and the cost of leasing a router from DSL service provider.

SANDISKS FASTEST 256GB

COMPACT FLASH CARDSanDisk has released 256GB SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash memory card, which it claims is the worlds fastest and first high-performance 256GB CompactFlash card with the latest Video Performance Guarantee (VPG-65)2 specification.

It also announced a faster speeds across all other capacities of the SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash line of memory cards.

The card delivers minimum sustained write speeds of 65MB/s2, optimized to capture 4K and Full HD video3.

ESCAN UNVEILS SPECIAL OFFER FOR END-CONSUMERS

eScan has introduced an offer for the end-consumers which will bequeath the buyers with free eScan Mobile Security Solution for six months along with the purchase of eScan Internet Security Suite for home users.

With its specially designed offer for end users, eScan aims to leverage the Desktop and Smart-phone users with real-time protection against evolving cyber threats. eScans special offer for end-customers is valid for IT users pan India till November 30, 2013. IT users can reap the benefit of this offer on a direct purchase from the resellers. The offer will not be viable if the purchase is made from the website directly.

According to Anil Gupta, AVP (India Sales), eScan, We have IT users around the globe that are successfully using eScan, and these offers will definitely enable them to stay with us for longer period. With our prolific clientele across India who are successfully using eScan, this offer will ensure that we enhance our buyers with utmost customer satisfaction.


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Advts.indd 6 18/06/13 10:23 PM

India SMBs Server Market Grow-ing at 12 percentThe India SMB server market is presently experiencing a healthy growth rate of 12%.

Small and medium businesses (SMBs, companies with fewer than 999 employees) play a significant role in driving the all-India server demand. The current India SMB server market amounts to approximately $300M and is expected to grow to over $500M by 2017. These are some of the key highlights of AMIs soon to be published 2013 India SMB Server and Storage Study.

India SMBs operating in the manufacturing and IT/ITeS space continue to be on the watch list of major server vendors as they are expected to fuel the demand for servers.

Kingston Completes 26 YearsKingston has completed 26 successful years in the industry. The

announcement was made by Kingston along with an innovative activity at a gadgets exhibition in Bandra Kurla complex, Mumbai.

REX, the superhero from Kingston, has been transforming over the years and is now a renowned symbol of the worlds independent memory leader. He was the highlight of the exhibition activity wherein the company showcased four of his upgraded superpowers HyperX Nitro boosters, USB 3.0, Branded RAM and Solid State Drives (SSDs).

Speaking at the event, Vishal Parekh, MD (India), Kingston Technology, said, We are the leaders in Memory and are elated to complete 26 fruitful years in the industry. Taking cues from the fantastic response received from the markets, we will continue to build a better experience for our network and end users.

Buffalos TeraStation TS3400D for SMBsJapan headquartered Buffalo has launched Ter-aStation TS3400D, a high performance corporate network storage solution for small businesses, branch offices, home offices, and power users, at an affordable price.

The dual-core Marvell ARMADA XP 1.33 GHz processor and 1 GB DDR3 RAM of TeraStation provide faster transfers and backup of data-intensive files and stall-free imaging and recording with IP cameras the press release announced.

TeraStation TS3400D comes in 4TB and 8TB capacities which provide plenty of storage even for huge amounts of data. It has been priced MRP at Rs. 91,000 for 4 TB and Rs. 1,18,000 for 8 TB.

With a transfer speed of over 90 Mbps, the users of TeraStation has to spend less time waiting for transmissions and backups while enjoying better quality video and vastly enhanced overall performance. This also increases the efficiency of operations and improves the business.

This TeraStation comes with different RAID modes that can be selected for optimizing failure resistance, speed, capacity, or a combination.

CEM Systems, part of Tyco Security Products, has installed CEM AC2000 security management system at Saudia Aerospace Engineering Industries (SAEI) main base at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah.

SAEI joins leading airports and aviation maintenance facilities around the world where the CEM AC2000 system is providing paramount security announced the press release.

Saudia Aerospace Engineering Industries is the maintenance arm of Saudi Arabian Airlines, the flag carrier of Saudi Arabia. SAEI maintains the entire fleet of Saudia which includes Boeing B777-200 & -300 & Airbus A320 and A330 families and provides maintenance handling at all in-Kingdom airports and over 27 international stations.

CEM Systems Boosts Security

at SAEI

COMGUARD AND GATEPROTECT HOLD DELHI PARTNER MEETValue added distributor, ComGuard recently conducted partner meet on Extreme Security for The Next Generation in Delhi.

The event served as an opportunity for both, ComGuard and gateProtect to galvanize partners to join them and work for mutual benefits. gatePro-tect utilized the platform by giving the brief and technological specification to the partners. Further, ComGuard highlighted the market scenario and opportunities available in India. About 80 partner organizations attended the event announced the press release.

Speaking on the occasion Harish Rai, Country Manager, ComGuard India, said, As we expand and penetrate into the Indian IT market, it becomes important to keep our network strong and stringent. We would like to express our gratitude to all our channel partners who have put in efforts to maintain and add value to our network. We are organizing this series of partner meets so that our partners get this platform to exchange knowledge and frame a business oriented approach.

Speaking on the occasion Meiling You, VP (APAC), gateProtect, said, India is a proven, large market for security on. Our recent decisions have focused on the value we can deliver in India together with the opportunity to grow in one of the largest markets globally. We would like to express our gratitude to all who are part of this partners meet.

Harish Rai, Country Manager, ComGuard

India


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Sophos Holds Partners Meet at ChandigarhIT security and data protection firm Sophos successfully concluded its Sophos India Channel Partner Meet 2013, with the theme Cyber Security: a new approach.

Aimed at enhancing its channel connect and understanding the market requirements and needs from a partner standpoint, Sophos used the Meet which took place at Chandigarh, to enable, equip and recognize its best Indian channel partners. Around 46 members of the channel community participated in the Channel Meet. The Channel Meet came as Sophos readies to expand its operations in India, with the starting of regional offices in Mumbai and Bangalore, in addition to the country head office in Delhi.

TRENDnet Delivers Travel RouterTRENDnet has announced the availability of the N150 Wireless Travel Router, model TEW-714TRU, which is designed to share a single internet connection with multiple users while on the go.

The TEW-714TRU comes in a compact form factor which plugs directly into an outlet. It has three replaceable electrical plugs - an America, European, and British style plug to accommo-date electrical outlets in almost every location.

Set the TEW-714TRU to Router Mode and plug in an Ethernet cable, with an internet connection, to convert a single wired internet connection into a wireless resource for all colleagues or family.

The TEW-714TRU is designed to meet the needs of the road warrior, said Sonny Su, Director (Technology), TRENDnet. It plugs into outlets on every continent and offers handy USB share and charging ports.

SMBs and Marketers High on Cybercriminals ListCybercriminals targeted SMBs and marketers who were trying to increase their online presence in second quarter of the year, revealed Trend Micro Q2 2013 Threat round-up report. Influence in social media depends largely on the number of followers an entity has. Cybercriminals created sites which lured users by the idea of acquiring a huge number of followers in a very short amount of time, and with almost no effort at all announced the press release.

These sites offer not only followers, but also re-tweets and likes for particular posts indicated by the customer. The required payment would depend on the number of followers, re-tweets, or likes preferred, said Dhanya Thakkar, MD (India & SAARC), Trend Micro.

PNY Brings Facebook ContestPNY has announced a Facebook contest as a way of rewarding its Indian fans. The company will be giving away two HP v234r 8 GB USB 2.0 flash drives via lucky draw.

To enter the contest one will have to follow the PNY Technologies India Fan Page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PNYIndia and can then head over to the Giveaway page at http://goo.gl/Izu8K1 and login using ones Facebook or email address to register for the contest.

The contestant will be then entered into a lucky draw in which two winners will be declared to win the prize. The contest has started from 18 September and will run till 30 September.

Gigabyte Pi is Returned Contest EndsGigabyte has announced the conclusion of its latest overclocking contest at HWBOT.org, Pi is Returned. Running from August 16th until September 16th 2013, all HWBOT members were invited to pit their overclocking skills against each other using the classic SuperPi benchmark. Several cash prizes totaling $5,000 were on offer as well as Gigabyte and AMD hardware.

TE Connectivitys Partner Summit in Tier 1 CitiesTE Connectivity hosted a multi city partner summit for its channel Partners, with an objective to further strengthen its relationship with its partners.

The multi city summit this year had the theme of Experience How Fiber Comes Alive with TE. The summit was held at multiple Tier 1 cities across India. The summit discussed insights on the latest industry trends, market growth and technological developments around Fiber in India.

TOSHIBA TAKES PARTNERS ON DUBAI TRIPToshiba along with Rashi Peripherals recently concluded the Dubai programme. This was part of the scheme that partners achieved for Toshiba External HDD business.

In all, 21 partners from all over the country and few Rashi branch heads travelled with the team.

One of the highlights of this trip was the limousine ride for all the partners for an hour, which replicated the rich lifestyle lead by sheiks and elite people of Dubai announced the press release. The release further emphasized that this trip proved that Toshiba Storage along with Rashi Peripherals is going an extra mile by making a gesture to interact and casually enjoy with the partners and what better place than the exotic locations of Dubai with an efficient team.

Commenting on the grand Tour Polad Garda, Manager, Toshiba Storage, said, We are very pleased to see partners commitment to Toshiba and their reciprocation of the same towards our business. I am also very happy to see partners satisfied with the tour. Rashi team put in a lot of effort to bring this to reality. I take this opportunity to thank all our partners and Rashi team for the continued support and commitment towards Toshiba Storage business.


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DIGISOL Launches CCTV SolutionsDIGISOL has announced its new range of CCTV products with include a series of Dome cameras, Bullet cameras and DVRs smart features and Smartphone integration for live viewing over the internet.

Bimal Raj, CEO, Smartlink Network Systems, said, Today, Security of people and assets in the society is high on agenda for companies, builders of residential and commercial complexes etc.To meet this high level of security demands coming from all across, we have launched our next generation of CCTV products.

Iris is Lenovos Disty SMB Biz West India

Lenovo has appointed Iris to handle its con-sumer market entailing - Lenovo PCs, Desktops, Laptops and LFRs for all partners in Mumbai.

Iris expects a business worth Rs 3-4 crore per month to be generated from this current venture with Lenovo in Mumbai. It has also been appointed as Lenovos distributor for its western India division for SMB businesses.

A stock & sell plan for Lenovo desktops and laptops to SMB market (below 500 people) has been put in place, which would generate a busi-ness of about Rs 5 crore per month.

Matrix to Attend IISE-2013Matrix Comsec is set to participate in 16th IISE-2013. Matrix will showcase its complete portfolio of security products encompassing range of access control and time-attendance solution, video surveillance solution and fire alarm panel.

At the event, Matrix will also launch a range of new door controllers which include COSEC DOOR PVR and IP65 compliant COSEC PATH series. These products have a cutting edge advan-tage over others COSEC DOOR PVR, a palm vein reader based door controller provides the highest security and eliminates hygiene concerns as it is a completely contactless device announced the press release.

This device is most suited for hospitals, chemi-cal organizations, mines, factories, corporate houses and many others. COSEC PATH is a range of IP65 compliant compact door control-lers with inbuilt PoE.

ESET Reports Major Rise in Filecoders MalwareESET HQ Malware Research Lab is reporting an unusual spike in the activity of Filecoder malware - trojans that encrypt user files and try to extort a ransom from the victim in exchange for decrypting software. ESET LiveGrid technology- the companys cloud-based malware collection system - has shown a rising weekly number of Win32/Filecoder detections by over 200% since July 2013 from aver-age numbers in January - June 2013.

Strontium Debuts NITRO Range of MicroSD CardsStrontium has launched NITRO range of MicroSD cards in India. According to the press release these UHS-1 Class 10 cards are an ideal storage option for smartphones and tablets and deliver superior app performance, better phone gaming experience and high speed data transfer.

They offer up to 85MB per second read speeds and are compatible with all android and windows phones. They come with a free copy of My Backup Pro app which costs Rs.314 in Android app store.

Strontium High Speed NITRO UHS-1 MicroSD flash cards will be available in 8GB to 64GB capaci-ties with price ranging between Rs. 990 to Rs. 5,990 with the authorized distributors of Strontium and they come with a lifetime limited warranty.

Unistals Incentive Schemes for Partners ExtendedUnistal Systems has extended the special incentive schemes for the partners. With purchase of 25 boxes of Protegent Security Solutions, partners are entitled to get complementary Protegent Internet Security key for their own usage. This scheme is valid till October 31, 2013.

Apart from this, there are series of ongoing incentive schemes for their direct gold partners, resellers and end users. These schemes are valid on making the purchases of Protegent Antivirus, Internet Security, Total Security & Complete Security software and solutions.

CANON INDIA OUTLINES STRATEGY FOR IMAGING SOLUTIONS DIVISION Canon has revealed its growth plans to expand its Office Imaging Solutions division (OIS) by the end of 2015. The division is aggressively tapping the SME market specially the manufacturing units in C, D and E class where the print volume is around 1-2 lakh a month. Canon is working with its channel partners in these cities who will be focusing on SMEs and PSU segments. Canon plans to enable the SME community by introducing cost effective work-flow solutions and Managed Document Services offering. The division is also targeting cities like Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Cochin, Patna and Bhubaneswar.Speaking at the occasion, K. Bhaskhar, Senior Director Office (Imaging Solutions Division), Canon, said, Organizations of all sizes from SMEs to large enterprises are looking at growing their business and expand rapidly into tier III and IV markets. We want to be a part of this growth journey and take care of their printing related requirements by offering customized and best in class technology from Canon. This is in-line with our strategy to target customers from C, D and E markets and expand our service reach to 700 locations across India.He further announced that they also plan to increase its customer base for MDS to 100 by the end of 2013. Further elaborating on Canon OIS plans, Bhaskar Joshi, Senior Marketing Manager, Office Imaging Solution, Canon India, stated, We want to empower our customers with best-of-breed technology which helps them to evolve and grow their business with a competitive edge.


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Advts.indd 7 23/10/13 8:45 AM

SECURING IDENTITYAs the adoption of security moves from enterprise to mid-level, secure identity solutions provider HID Global is also charting an aggressive strategy for the smaller cities.

With the rising security risks and breaches organisations, be it government or enter-prise, are implementing technologically advanced

security solutions. The physical security market has been forecast to increase at CAGR of 9% over the next five years, increasing from a value of $55.59 billion in 2013, to reach a total of $85.51 billion by 2018.

According to Ranjit Nambiar, Director, IAM, South Asia, HID Global, Physical security market is worth $600 million which is divided between video surveillance, CCTV, access control, intru-sion and fire detection. Video surveillance con-tributes 40% of the overall market, access control contributes 20%-25%, intrusion would be 5%-6% and the rest is the fire detection.

He further says that physical security market is witnessing growth as access control and security have now started getting integrated within IT infrastructure or the IT backbone of the organiza-tion and further says the management of both will soon be moving towards cloud based application. Besides, the identity management is also moving towards cloud.

US headquartered HID Global operates in more than a hundred countries. Its parent com-pany is ASSA ABLOY which is a large conglomer-ate in the door opening solution.

HID Globals enterprise part of the business contributes 60%-65% of the business and SMB contributes 35%-40% of the business. The com-pany considers SMB as a significant part of its business and to address this segment, there is a very strong footprint on the distribution part of the channel business. The national distributors of

HID Global are Westcon and ADI who through their branch operations cater to almost about 20 cities in India and the regional distributors cater to 15-20 cities. So the distribution structure is not only restricted to tier I cities but also to tier II and III cities.

HID Global has two types of partners: global and national integrator. National Integrators com-prise of 15-20 large companies like Honeywell, Siemens, Tyco, etc; besides there are also 5-6 HID Connect Partners in India for different applica-tion. While Honeywell, Lennon, BOSCH are global OEM partners, Indian OEM partners are Matrix, Spectra and Smart-I, whereas Software Workshops and Telematics develops solution around canteen management and applications around vehicle traffic solutions respectively.

Overall, HID Global has 1500 channel part-ners under the distribution structure. In order to empower these channel partners, the company conducts product training, sales training, hands on demo training, certification training program. In terms of margin, physical security industry offers 15-20% margin to channel partners.

It has also launched product with respect to its new platform called iCLASS SE readers which are NFC enabled which means that smartphone can be provisioned with the access control data and it can be used instead of a plastic card for the access security, so IP architecture and the SIO (secure Identity Object) based or the NFC enabled smart-phone for provisioning of access control and third is the cloud based application for identity management.

As Nambiar says, One of the biggest changes we are preparing for is that, as we move to the next evolution of physical and logical access control,

identity no longer must reside on a plastic card. Instead, it can now become transportable and media-independent, and can be embedded into smartphones and other mobile devices that fea-ture NFC capabilities. In this new environment, mobile access control will complement traditional plastic cards as an additional way to provide identity to individuals. Users can open doors by holding their phones close to a reader so they can present the digital key or card inside.

But he also adds that the industry wont see plastic cards going away anytime soon, though. At the end of the day, the mobile access control infrastructure will augment what already exists for plastic smart cards in the typical physical access control system (PACS). Many organiza-tions will still want their employees to carry tra-ditional cards because they are used as a means of photo identification.

In terms of verticals HID Global targets IT/ITeS, multinational banks and technology com-panies. In addition, the company also focuses on some of the emerging verticals like airports and metros, oil and gas, energy vertical, power verti-cal, Indian banks, Indian telecom as large enter-prise projects happen in these verticals.

HID Global further focuses on IT authentica-tion solutions with the availability of two factor authentication or converge security authentica-tion because Nambiar mentions that this part of the business is small for them in India which is around 7%-8%; whereas secure assurance con-tributes 30%-35% of the business and the rest is physical access control.

Its also starting to see tremendous growth in sectors such as government, defense and trans-portation, as well as the power and energy sectors,

BY: APARAJITA [email protected]


26

SECURITY CORNER

Security corner_Ranjit Nambiar of HID Global.indd 26 23/10/13 9:34 AM

second-tier cities such as Hyderabad, Pune and Calcutta and tier 3 cities such as Ahemdabad, Kochi, Coimbatore, Vizag, Jaipur and Lucknow.

One of the strategies it focuses on is to develop

apart from the early adopters of access control sys-tems in India - IT and BFSI segments.Meanwhile, rapid urbanization in India has created the demand for security equipment and services in

value-added services for its customers. Nambiar says they maintain a strong focus on customer sat-isfaction excellence, ensuring that its customers receive complete support and that Genuine HID solutions optimize the cost of ownership benefit.

The balance in the customer value equation (cost, security and convenience) is achieved as we add new technologies and solutions to our port-folio that extend customers existing investments, he adds.

FinallyHID Global is strong in both enterprise segment and mid segment of the market. The go-to-market strategy of the company is to engage with the channel partners, large integrators and global accounts. The company has a separate team to address the regional structure under distribution and manages the channel partners in 12 to 13 cities from the sales management point of view. Besides, the company works with the consultants in terms of managing the specification work with the end customers, and in order to increase the awareness of end customers, HID Global con-ducts lots of seminar, road shows and briefing session for them.

Physical security market is of 600 million dollar which is divided between video surveillance, CCTV, access control, intrusion and fire detection.RANJIT NAMBIAR, DIRECTOR, IAM, SOUTH ASIA, HID GLOBAL

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DS-Advts.indd 4 21/08/13 10:15 AM

DS-Advts.indd 5 21/08/13 10:16 AM

Channel partners are the Brand Ambassadors of todays organisa-tions. They are the ones who go out in the market, sell the prod-ucts, and do the marketing; in

short they are the face of the company. They can make or break a company.

We all are well aware of the role they play and its importance for the organisations to take their product and message forward; and hence the need to make them more effective. In this story we bring to you some of the Channel Best Practices followed by the organisations.

Channel Team To successfully manage the channel ecosystem every organisation need to have a separate team to manage the channel partners.

Juniper has dedicated partner mangers to manage its Elite partners, global alliances, broad channel and distributors. Quick Heal has appointed Managers to head specific product ver-ticals. It has also created new and dedicated teams in the current financial year that have started working.

Account management for Tallys partners is

handled by a field force stationed at its regional offices across the nation. This team is in regular touch with the partners and works with them to develop their businesses. This dedicated team helps partners analyse their business performance as well as identify the right areas of focus and growth.

Gigabytes sales team members, designated as area sales managers, are based across all major centers, as well, as the upcountry markets, in India. The area managers are consistently in touch with value partners, almost on a daily basis. Similarly, the regional managers communicate regularly with its Premier Partners. In this sce-nario, we ensure speedy delivery of our partners requirements and also nip any grievance in the bud itself, says Sunil Grewal, Sales Director India, Gigabyte Technology (India).

While Schneider Electrics channel team is based out in 21 locations in the country; they are goaled on business generated through the partners.

Channel EnablementVendors who want more from their channel partners have to make sure that the partners are

imparted with the relevant knowledge and moti-vation to play an effective role in their overall market strategy. Its here where channel programs, trainings, education play an imperative role.

A joint go-to-market and consistent enable-ment is very important says industry; one should constantly strive through channel partner pro-grams to build value based relationships, so that end customers derive true benefit of this partnership.

In the case of Gigabyte, it has three focus areas Channel Profitability, Product Innovation, and After-Sales Services. It says its focus is on work-ing for a common cause of knowledge-sharing among customers and partners alike. Consolida-tion among Premier Partners gives us an excellent opportunity to offer better support, carry out effective training/education, and also ensure more profitability for both our partner categories - Pre-mier and Value, informs Grewal.

To make the marriage work both the ven-dors and the partners have to work in tandem. Strengthening the business relationships with existing partners and aligning the partners core competencies with the business requirements should be followed. Enablement help partners dif-

A successful channel relationship has become vital for todays busi-ness environment and vendors are following best practices to turn

them from just channel partners to trusted sales partners

BY KARMA [email protected]

CHANNELBEST

PRACTICES


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Cover_Story.indd 30 23/10/13 9:48 AM

TO SUCCESSFULLY MANAGE THE CHANNEL

ECOSYSTEM EVERY ORGANISATION NEED TO HAVE A SEPARATE

TEAM.


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ferentiate themselves in the marketplace through better understanding of product portfolio and todays market opportunity. Empowering and enabling partners with relevant sales and market-ing tools give them the competitive edge. Training help partners become more customer centric and match the right solution to the right customer

Tally deters from using the term Channel and instead regards them as its Partners. The logic is inlaid in the sentiment with which we operate, wherein the partner network is not used as a route to deliver our products to the customers; but that we work together towards mutual and collective growth, explains Mukesh Khanna, Associate VP (Sales and Marketing), Tally Solutions.

Quick Heal believes in stepping into the shoes of its channel partners. Clear communication that includes addressing grievances and concerns, training etc. go a long way in promoting a healthy channel partner ecosystem, advices Kailash Katkar, MD and CEO, Quick Heal Technologies.

ComGuards country manager Harish Rai says that vendors have much deeper knowledge about

the technology or product. For better and finer marketing strategies it is necessary for channel partners to understand the specifications and USPs. We organise events where vendors and channel partners participate and exchange knowl-edge. This serves as a platform for direct interac-tion and boosts marketing skills, he adds.

Schneider Electric IT Businesss Channel Partner Program aims to help partners build a solutions-focused power and cooling practice with increased knowledge and expertise. We believe a well-trained, knowledgeable partner will always deliver better value to the customer, says M Gurudutt, Director (Channel Business), Sch-neider Electric IT Business, India.

Industry agrees that channel readiness and partner empowerment are critical forces for busi-ness success. Its vital to adopt an apt approach in channel practices and business plans should be chalked out with channel partners on the basis of their strength and vendors need to make efforts to make them being realistic in order to obtain ideal business hygiene.

NEC has a Market Development Fund spe-cially created to motivate and boost the partner ecosystem to drive better performance and empower them to reach out to a larger customer base through co-branded marketing activities. This fund is made available to the best performing select partners on a periodic basis.

Trust and ProfitabilityWith the shrinking margins vendors are making sure that their channel partners are profitable.

We treat channel partners as our extended family members. As almost all our business comes from partners, we leave no stone unturned to ensure their profitability. Channel Profitability is ensured by coming out with attractive schemes, says Grewal.

THEIR LEAD GENERATION EFFORTS ARE TAKEN TO RESPECTIVE CHANNEL PARTNERS BASED ON THEIR EXPERTISE AND REGIONAL FOCUS. IN ADDITION, WE ALSO HAVE AN-HOUSE TEAM OF TELE-CALLERS TO GENERATE LEADS FROM INTERNAL CUSTOMER DATABASE. SUNIL SHARMA, VP (SALES & OPERATIONS, INDIA & SAARC), CYBEROAM

CONSOLIDATION AMONG PREMIER PARTNERS GIVES US AN EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY TO OFFER BETTER SUPPORT, CARRY OUT EFFECTIVE TRAINING / EDUCATION, AND ALSO ENSURE MORE PROFITABILITY FOR BOTH OUR PARTNER CATEGORIES - PREMIER AND VALUE. SUNIL GREWAL, SALES DIRECTOR INDIA, GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY (INDIA).

CLEAR COMMUNICATION THAT INCLUDES ADDRESSING GRIEVANCES AND CONCERNS, TRAINING ETC. GO A LONG WAY IN PROMOTING A HEALTHY CHANNEL PARTNER ECOSYSTEM. KAILASH KATKAR, MD AND CEO, QUICK HEAL TECHNOLOGIES


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We treat our channel partners as natural partners-in-profit. We work towards fortifying our relationship with them and nurture a long - lasting bond that is mutually beneficial, says Sudhindra Holla, Country Manager, Axis Com-munications India.

Zubair Alam, GM (Sales & Marketing), NEC India, adds, It is very essential to maintain cama-

raderie with the partners to have a long term busi-ness relationship therefore we make all the efforts to maintain the same. We have always encouraged the concept of keeping the channel partner on good humour for the betterment and smoothen-ing the work process.

Trust is other component of the vendor-partner relationship as Ajay Kaul, Director & GM (Global Commercial Channels), Dell India, says, Channel Partner Relationships, like any other relationship, is based on mutual trust. We keep them in good humour by not crossing the bound-aries of this trust at any point. We ensure that we maintain a healthy competition between our channel partners. We also believe in involving our channel partners in our strategic decision making processes as well.

Other than a yearly partner conference Emer-son invites partners zone-wise to plan business together with them every quarter. And what sets us apart from other organizations is the personal touch we add to these meets and trainings. This direct interaction doesnt just build partner trust in us, but also reassures them that they can pro-actively reach out to us for anything they need to

improve their skills or gain knowledge about our products says Sanjay Zadoo, Country Manager (India Channel Business), Emerson Network Power.

Gurpreet Brar, Director (Commercial Chan-nel Sales), PPS HP India, says, To ensure that our partners grow their revenues and profits, we are constantly working on new initiatives and introducing channel and marketing programs designed to achieve profitable growth for our partners and for us. Our new partner engagement model is based on three key pillars of Simplifica-tion, Profitability and Innovation.

Lead Generation Lead generation is vital to any successful pro-gramme. Ranjit Nambiar, Director, IAM, South Asia, HID Global says that the most effective lead generation activities are achieved from an inte-grated marketing approach constituting online and offline, outbound and inbound activities, across multiple media.

Enabling and incentivising our partners to generate leads with us and to register them early to gain additional benefits really helps keep the momentum going. We offer our partners the abil-ity to grow their business and benefit from our innovative solutions, he adds.

Juniper Networks global opportunity registra-tion program rewards partners for hunting and qualifying new opportunities. Beside this we have our in-house team of tele callers, they help us in generating leads from commercial patch and those leads are directly share with our Elite partners and we help partners through inside sales engine in terms of solution design , joint calls and preparing competitive analysis, says Jitendra Gupta Director, Partner Sales (India & South Asia), Juniper Networks.

Some use social media, advertising to help in building leads. Data collected by inbound call centre is also collated and analysed to be utilized

WE ORGANISE EVENTS WHERE VENDORS AND CHANNEL PARTNERS PARTICIPATE AND EXCHANGE KNOWLEDGE. THIS SERVES AS A PLATFORM FOR DIRECT INTERACTION AND BOOSTS MARKETING SKILLS. HARISH RAI, COUNTRY MANAGER, COMGUARD

THE PARTNER NETWORK IS NOT USED AS A ROUTE TO DELIVER OUR PRODUCTS TO THE CUSTOMERS; BUT THAT WE WORK TOGETHER TOWARDS MUTUAL AND COLLECTIVE GROWTH. MUKESH KHANNA, ASSOCIATE VP (SALES AND MARKETING), TALLY SOLUTIONS

WE ARE ALSO FINALIZING AN INSIDE SALES REPRESENTATIVE MODEL WHICH SHALL FOCUS ON PROVIDING MORE LEADS. ASHOK NAIR, DIRECTOR SMB - LENOVO INDIA


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COVER STORY


WE BELIEVE A WELL-TRAINED, KNOWLEDGEABLE PARTNER WILL ALWAYS DELIVER BETTER VALUE TO THE CUSTOMER. M GURUDUTT, DIRECTOR (CHANNEL BUSINESS), SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC IT BUSINESS, INDIA

AND WHAT SETS US APART FROM OTHER ORGANIZATIONS IS THE PERSONAL TOUCH WE ADD TO THESE MEETS AND TRAININGS. SANJAY ZADOO, COUNTRY MANAGER, INDIA CHANNEL BUSINESS, EMERSON NETWORK POWER

TOP FIVEBEST PRACTICES

Gigabyten Consistent and attractive incentive schemes for T2 partnersn Prompt and efficient after-sales services through Gigabyte Exclusive Service Centers, which work in tandem with our 23 ATR centers and 86 Accel Service Providers (Accel Frontline is our service partner)n Regular SI meets to share technology knowledge; n Loyalty program for Premier Partners that also includes special holiday packages;

n Ensuring utmost Channel Profitability under any circumstances.

Tally Solutionsn Partnering relationship focused at collective growthn Adopting policies that allow partners to operate in line with their key strengths n Processes to encourage and coach partners to adopt proactive approach in their businessn Equipping and enabling partners

with the right tools to generate and close leadsn Continuous improvement in providing the right systems and processes to partners to help them in automating their business operations

Quick Healn Maintaining consistent and sustainable relationshipsn Creating win-win situationsn Case lockingn We have a fair price policy

n Free of Cost trainings

QNAPn Channel Friendly n Always Connected with Partner n Regular Trainingn End Customer

Juniper Networks n Joint Marketingn Lead Generationn Opportunity Registrationn Regular sales, pre-sales and post

in the right way. There are also third party lead generation agencies at work. In addition existing customers also helps in providing referrals.

ComGuard has a dedicated department that generates leads and coordinates with its market-ing team. Cyberoam has a dedicated senior Business Development Managers (BDMs) at key metros to chase and identify prospect customers.

Their lead generation efforts are taken to respective channel partners based on their exper-tise and regional focus. In addition, we also have an-house team of tele-callers to generate leads from internal customer database, adds Sunil Sharma, VP Sales & Operations, India&SAARC, Cyberoam.

Lenovos tele-calling agency helps them in lead generation. These leads are then shared with the channel partners. We are also finalizing an Inside Sales Representative model which shall focus on providing more leads and also supporting the Channel partners in closure of customer require-ments. We also have a Feet on Street team which works closely with the Channel partners in iden-tifying and closure of leads, informs Ashok Nair, Director SMB - Lenovo India.

Juniper has an online educational portal called Juniper learning Academy. This portal is freely available to all of its registered partners and their

team. It offers trainings for all functions like sales, pre-sales and post sales.

Hrishi Parthasarathy, Director (Channels and Strategic Partners), Avaya, India, says, With each major new launch we provide in depth solution training for our channel partners both web-based and face-to-face. We have regular com-munication vehicles, including newsletters and a monthly webinar series to provide updates and sales support. And through our channel account managers, we have regular one on one contact with our major partner representatives.

Zadoo adds that in short, then aim is to help elaborate on a partners skills, and scale him up to become a solution provider of choice and not just a product channel.

Technical Support For those not technically sound providing techni-cal support to partners and end customers is also vital for the business. From forums to toll free numbers, to technical sales representatives have been put in place to handle all technical enquiries.

QNAP has its own forum for technical discus-sion which is available to everyone across world. QNAP Sales teams are highly qualified and tech-nically sound, so we are able to handle all techni-cal enquiries even sometime we do cross verified

our solutions VS enquiries by Product manager, quips Sanjay Biswal, Sales Manager (India), QNAP Systems.

Gigabyte recently moved its Toll-Free Helpline Number in-house, to ensure improved support to both customers and channel partners. It is open to any kind of pre-sales and post-sales queries regarding its motherboards, including service and technical support. It also caters to


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COVER STORY


IT IS VERY ESSENTIAL TO MAINTAIN CAMARADERIE WITH THE PARTNERS TO HAVE A LONG TERM BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP THEREFORE WE MAKE ALL THE EFFORTS TO MAINTAIN THE SAME. ZUBAIR ALAM, GM (SALES & MARKETING), NEC INDIA.

sales trainings n Rewards for partners on Achievement of the mutually assigned targets

ComGuardn Regular Training Programmesn Pre sales, implementation and post sale supportn Live events & Networkingn Analysis & Planningn Vendor Engagement

Schneider Electric IT Businessn Uniform Pricing Policyn Channel Programs n Training and enablement n Specialisation (3Phase and Datacenter)n Dedicated Channel team to manage partners across 23 locations.

Axis n Educating and retraining

n Enhanced margins n Demonstration equipments n Collaborating with partners n Enabling our partners

NECn Recognizing our channel partners strength and structuring the business plan accordinglyn Organising regular training sessions to familiarize our partners with the productsn Regular performance reviewsn Trained engineers for handling

technical queriesn Establishing a Market Development Fund for the growth and empowerment of the partner

Delln Investing in our channel partners successn Focus on their profitability and they will focus on yoursn Provide Product Supportn Leveraging Partner Strengthn Continuous education programs for channel partners

enquiries related to product information and availability.

Through its partner certification program Avaya enables its channel partners to provide much of the technical support required for end customers. We have a very well developed self-serve web tool which covers the vast majority of queries. We have a partner help desk operating out of APAC providing critical support to our

channel partners. And we have critical escala-tion staff on hand to trouble shoot any major issues with our partners around the clock, adds Parthasarathy.

Cyberoam has 15+ dedicated and experienced pre-sales teams across the country to address technical queries.

Axis offers technical support through both phone and chat services. The new facility in India is in line with the companys global standards and includes an exclusive testing and demo centre to enable superior customer and partner support. In addition, Axis authorized distributors are available across India to provide sales & technical support, informs Holla.

Channels The channel community also has some expecta-tions from the vendors and wants them to have full faith in their channel partners. Salimath, MD, SVNT Infotech Pvt Ltd, says, Every vendor should have full faith in its channel partners and system integrators and should avoid having mul-tiple partners for a specific region. Having more

than one partner reduces the overall value of the product.

Santhosh Kamble, MD of Nexgen Integrated Pvt Ltd. comments that any vendor should follow good CRM techniques and Return Materials Authorization (RMA) mechanism in place.

Partners say that vendors often concen-trate more on the product performance rather than designing a whole solution for specific requirements.

Security and surveillance industry still lacks the general awareness in the Indian market. India being a price sensitive country, the major problem faced by us is in terms of price of these premium products. Other challenges include unavailability of demo machines and weak customer support techniques, says Kamble.

FinallyIn this ever growing competitive world partners can bolt before we can think cultivating relation-ship and demonstrating that you are watching their back is what vendors need to follow as part of their channel best practices initiative.

BESIDE THIS WE HAVE OUR IN-HOUSE TEAM OF TELE CALLERS, THEY HELP US IN GENERATING LEADS FROM COMMERCIAL PATCH. JITENDRA GUPTA DIRECTOR, PARTNER SALES (INDIA & SOUTH ASIA), JUNIPER NETWORKS


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COVER STORY


EXPANDING COVERAGE WITH FOCUS ON THE

CHANNEL

Vendor financing is picking up in the market. Brief us on Cisco

Capital.We are wholly owned by Cisco and were estab-lished in 1996 basically to help end-user custom-ers purchase Cisco kits and help channel partners with profitability.

We have three lines of business: End-user financing, Extended terms which is basically just extending the net 30 day payment (the term that Cisco has) to 60 or 90 days, and Cisco pre-owned equipment business. The last business includes when a lot of equipment comes off the financing structure or lease, it gets returned to Cisco Capi-tal and we refurbish it, certify it and load it with proper systems and software and sell them as Cisco certified refurbished equipment.

In India, we have been offering this finance since 2006 and have pretty much in-country pres-ence wherever Cisco operates in APAC region.

For the financing in most parts we use Cisco balance sheet, as the company has lot of cash on the balance sheet, we put that in use to help customers afford Cisco equipment and to help partners offer that to their customers.

What are the criteria for provid-ing finance to channel partners

or customers?Unlike some financing companies like GE capital which finance white and yellow goods and so forth, we are sales enablement arm for Cisco and its partners, hence we mostly finance Cisco equipment.

We have a deal in which a lot of case we have

complementary partners, and equipment is part of the solution and we finance that as well. Mostly we focus on Cisco solutions hence the conditions will differ based on the customers credit worthi-ness. We have an in-house professional credit evaluation team that performs credit assessment on the customers, size of the deal whether or not that customer has entities in multiple countries or branch offices etc. Hence lot of factors go into how we assess the eligibility of the customers and what their needs are.

Who all partners avail this facil-ity from you?

We work across all our partners and all our part-ners can avail of Cisco capital financing. To name a few top tier 1 partners include Wipro, Dimen-sion Data etc. Its also available for tier 2 partners as well; any set of partners which have a customer that wants to finance any Cisco partner with a valid Cisco partner agreement can avail it.

We have a long relationship with these bigger partners and are starting to expand our coverage through our in country resources thats focussed specifically on the channel. In US we have a chan-nel focused Cisco capital team for a number of years, then we established the same in Europe two years back and last year we put some resources in place in APAC.

What are the benefits of vendor financing for the channel part-

ners vis-a-vis banks?Since the global financial crisis particularly smaller companies havent had the access to credit

sources that they had prior to the financial crisis. And its lingering even though there has been a bit of global recovery. Therefore, on the global level its pure access to finance for the Cisco partners.

Another benefit to our customer is another line of credit; we allow them to purchase more immediately.

This helps in building a better relationship with the end-customer by introducing them to sorts of financing, and capital can help their profitability.

How cheaper is your financing compared to others?

We dont advertise on rate as the calculation of the rate part again depends on the partners credit rating. What we do is we deduct certain residual value of that equipment which is a price that we think we could get three years down the road for that equipment upfront; for example a solution costs a thousand dollars and we might say okay we will take 200 dollars of the top because we know that equipment sits on our balance sheet and three years down the road we own that equipment, then customer can repurchase or can upgrade it.

We have the refurbishing capability on our equipment business and we know we are going to be able to sell that, hence its different then what an independent financier or bank would be able to do with that equipment. We advertise we are market competitive in terms of rate but we do have benefits over banks and we know the market value of equipment.

Do the credit rates differ for dif-ferent partners or are they the

SCOTT GRIGGS, SR. MARKETING MANAGER AND HEAD - PARTNER MARKETING,

CISCO CAPITAL, APJC

Scott Griggs, Sr. Marketing Manager and Head (Partner Marketing), Cisco Capital, APJC talks to SME Channels on how vendor financing is picking up.


36

SME CHAT

SME Chat-Scott Griggs of Cisco Capital.indd 36 23/10/13 10:25 AM

same across the board? The difference in rates for tier 1 and tier 2 partners depends on the term and the credit worthiness. If its a very big well established partner with a lot of cash on their balance sheet, long credit history of prompt repayment and so forth, they will have a very strong credit rating.

However, a partner with limited cash on bal-ance sheet, had to borrow from other sources and had been delinquent in the past, they will have a lower credit rating. And that difference in credit rating will be reflected in the price that is being given to the customer.

In addition, the term would also be an indica-tor. If we are lending over a period of three years we take the prevailing rates into account, the interest rates in the country we are lending in, our

costs of funds, the overheads etc. hence, there are innumerable factors and we need to evaluate it on a case to case basis.

The minimum duration for which we lend is three months and actually greater than 12 months and for maximum we can be somewhat flexible; for most part we lend between the periods of three to four years, sometimes five but most of the partners and customers borrow for three to four years.

How do you deal with partners who default on payment?

We have very low delinquencies that go back to the fact that we mostly lend on Cisco solutions and through established Cisco partners. But if such a situation arise we deal with them similar

to banks like giving them a notification period, we would work with them to try to allow them to payback overtime.

What are the risks in vendor financing and the precautions

that you undertake? The biggest risk is credit worthiness of customers we are lending to, and we try to have a balanced portfolio so we dont want to concentrate risk too much in either a particular country or with one particular customer or partner.

Its said that vendor financing is a way to increase the sales

number inn short term? Please comment.I disagree with it; we have been around since 1996 and in our case we are mostly a sales enable-ment arm and since Cisco has more than 50 bil-lion dollars in its balance sheet there are a lot of things that we were just looking to make money on money.

We were established to help customers afford Cisco equipment and help partners sell Cisco equipment. Its not a short term proposition where we are trying to pump up numbers its very much a long term proposition and Cisco capital has grown quite substantially. And we will be around for a long time. If a customer needs option to finance and they want to buy Cisco there is no question that it helps us competitively but if a cus-tomer wants to buy Cisco but cant afford it then we want to make sure they do.

Which are the verticals with higher traction for borrowing?

Its hard to pick one. We finance across all the verticals that Cisco and its partners target from manufacturing to education, public sector, oil and gas etc.

We did a survey with Forrester on this which was based on end-users who qualify on financ-ing and related topics. The survey revealed that the manufacturing and IT sector have a lot more respondents who were familiar with financing.

Tell us more about this survey?The study revealed that in India 38% of

businesses use their own balance sheet fund-ing. We also wanted to see how important the role of CFOs in technology purchase decision is and in India CFOs across 43% of companies are primary decision makers. This we messaged to our partners that we need to talk to the finance folks too and not just the tech folks, and how important they are when it comes to vendor selection.

...IF A CUSTOMERWANTS TO BUY CISCOBUT CANT AFFORDIT WE WANT TO MAKESURE THEY DO.


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SME CHAT

SME Chat-Scott Griggs of Cisco Capital.indd 37 23/10/13 10:25 AM

The video conferencing market in India is growing by leaps and bounds; thanks to the competitive business environment which demands instant

collaboration. And SMEs are not far behind in embracing the virtues of collaboration to further their business. In addition, the growing market opportunities provided by them are enormous.

According to an IDC report (SMB Telephony: Current/Planned Telecom Resource Use, 2013) 30 percent of midsized firms are currently using some videoconferencing resources beyond simple Web cams.

It further reveals that the number of SMBs

using video collaboration is clearly set for signifi-cant

sme channels october 13

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