digit channel connect june 2009 issue

DIGIT CHANNEL CONNECT 3 JUNE 2009

E D I T O R I A L

The changing economic

environments have cleared the fog on industry verticals that are unaffected

Show me the RoI.” I am sure that most of you have heard your clients say this more than often. Selling IT services and hardware has always been about cost

advantage. Times are tough, projects are less, margins

are bleak and budgets are belt-tightening. While having a conversation with your SMB client, it is important that you go with a bottom-line value proposition rather than the technology and ben-efits of the solution. The business approach will be the best fit way to sell in these hard times.

And when you do change the focus of your selling strategies, you will see that there are plenty of opportunities out there.

Customers, specially the SMB players, who are new adopters of technology and have named, limited IT budgets, are more focused on cost avoidance. But if you probe further – having the right conversation – you will see that they are willing to put their monies into projects that yield immediate or near-term cost savings.

It is extremely important for you to re-look at your sales strategies – that will discuss cost and RoI value proposition with the small and medium businesses. Focus sales meetings on the customer’s business concerns rather than how technology works and the inherent benefits. Talk about adoption from the perspective of mitigating risks, improving competitiveness and business growth. This will ensure your good foot into your customers IT departments.

The customer will appreciate more, if you can actually demonstrate short-term, mid-term and long-term RoI with IT services approach. Internal adoption of web and presentation technologies can help great deal here to visually articulate this. Customers would rather partner with tech-savvy solution provider than a mere technology pusher.

Smarter solution providers already know about the technologies that provide cost savings to IT services customers – the SMB ones. It is high time you put that know-how and turn your expertise into real-time opportunities for more service engagements in a shrinking economy. This will also help as the launch pad for higher business growth when the economy turns around.

Another trend that we see in the channel market is the changing focus towards vertical alignment. The changing economic environments have cleared the fog on industry verticals that are unaffected. These businesses, which reside in vertical markets such as healthcare, telecom, government, education, etc. are high-growth areas for channel professionals who can effectively market, deliver, and manage technology services.

SUJAY NAIREditorial DirectorDigit Channel Connect

In defence of the RoI

Write to the EditorE-mail:[email protected]

Snail Mail: The Editor, Channel Connect, KPT House, Plot 41/13, Sector 30, Vashi, Navi Mumbai 400703

[email protected]

S O U N D I N G B O A R D

DIFFERENT AND INTERESTINGDear Editor,

Though Digit Channel Connect is an interesting magazine to read in terms of content, layout as well as the print quality, I would like to suggest you to be a bit different from rest of the channel magazines that comes to us every week/month. You can consider do-ing case studies with elite members from the channel community along with providing some of the best practices that can help the channel sail through this current economic slowdown.

Regards,

PK SHARMAProprietor, Computer Associates, Punjab

GREAT INITIATIVEDear Editor,

The thought process of having eminent channel partners and association heads as the editors of your July issue is a great initiative. It stands to prove that it truly is a magazine that is the voice of the channel partners.

Regards,

TRADE ASSOCIATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYMumbai

3

E D I T O R I A L


The Indian economy is becoming truly global. The new mantra for the channel community is to break boundary barriers and look at opportunities worldwide

PRODUCT REV IEW

COVER STORY

Transcend StoreJet 320 GB External hard disk .........6

Acer Aspire One Netbook .......................................10

HP D2568 Deskjet Printer .........................................12

1515 ARTHUR LIU, SUPERVISOR, SALES DEPARTMENT-ASIA SALES DIVISION,

GIGABYTE AND PRAMOD VYAS, COUNTRY HEAD, GIGABYTE INDIA

EDITORIAL ..........................................................................03

TRENDS ............................................................ 06, 08, 10,14

CELEBRITY CONNECT ........................................................31

ANALYST-SPEAK ................................................................32

R E G U L A R S

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 7

Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj SinhaPrinter & Publisher: Kanak Ghosh

EDITORIALEditorial Director: Sujay NairSr. Correspondents: Maneka Tanwani, Charu Khera DESIGNArt Director: Rohit A ChandwaskarChief Designer: Abraham K JohnIllustrator: Shrikrishna PatkarPhotographer: Jiten Gandhi

BRAND COMMUNICATIONHead: Kabir MalkaniTeam: Thomas Varghese, Jayant Varade, Nilanjan Ghosh, Subodh Dalvi

Product Manager: Ankur Agarwal

SALES & MARKETINGVP Sales & Marketing: Navin Chand SinghNational Manager - Events and Special Projects: Mahantesh Godi (09880436623)Business Manager (Engagement Platforms) Arvind Ambo (09819904050)National Manager - Channels: Krishnadas Kurup (09322971866)Asst. Brand Manager: Arpita GanguliCo-ordinator - MIS & Scheduling: Aatish MohiteBangalore & Chennai: Sanjay Bhan (09341829285)Delhi: Pranav Saran (09312685289)Kolkata: Jayanta Bhattacharya (09331829284)Mumbai: Ganesh Lakshmanan (9819618498)

PRODUCTION & LOGISTICSSr. GM Operations: Shivshankar M HiremathProduction Executive: Vilas MhatreLogistics: MP Singh, Mohd. Ansari, Shashi Shekhar Singh

CHANNEL CHAMPSSr Co-ordinator - Events: Rakesh SequeiraEvents Executives: Pramod Jadhav, Nitin Kedare, Johnson NoronhaAudience Dev. Executive: Aparna Bobhate, Shilpa SurveEvents Programmer : Vijay Mhatre

OFFICE ADDRESS

Nine Dot Nine Interactive Pvt Ltd., KPT House, Plot 41/13, Sector 30, Vashi, Navi Mumbai - 400 703 Phone: 40789666 Fax: 022-40789540, 022-40789640

Printed and published by Kanak Ghosh for Nine Dot Nine Interactive Pvt Ltd.C/O KPT House, Plot 41/13, Sector 30, Vashi (Near Sanpada Railway Station), Navi Mumbai 400703

Editor: Sujay NairC/O KPT House, Plot 41/13, Sector 30, Vashi (Near Sanpada Railway Station), Navi Mumbai 400703

Printed at Silverpoint Press Pvt. Ltd,TTC Ind. Area, Plot No. : A - 403, MIDC,Mahape, Navi Mumbai - 400709

A D V E R T I S E R S I N D E X

COVER DESIGN: KABIR MALKANI

HP ...............................................................................................................................................................................Cover On Cover

Seagate ..........................................................................................................................................................................................BC

Hp ............................................................................................................................................................................................. IFConC

Cubix ..............................................................................................................................................................................................IBC

Gigabyte .......................................................................................................................................................................................... IFC

Topnotch ...........................................................................................................................................................................................4

Neoteric ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 7

Microworld ........................................................................................................................................................................................9

Quickheal – FPC ..................................................................................................................................................................................11

Pushpam ..........................................................................................................................................................................................32

C O N T E N T S

Q&A“Consumers are delaying

buying decisions, hitting channel growth”

GOINGGLOBAL

2121

T R E N D S


Study findings show 63 percent of Indian IT organisations have deployed Green server rooms to

increase energy efficiency or have a pilot project underway

According to a global s tudy jointly released by IBM and InfoTech Research Group, even in a very diffi-

cult economic environment, Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are eager to actively invest in initiatives that reduce the environmental impact of their information technology.

The study is based on a survey of more than 1,000 information technology executives at companies with between 100 and 1,000 employees across industries and in a dozen countries including the India, United States, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The findings show that more than 55 percent of Indian compa-nies are going to, or have already commissioned third-party environmental audits, purchased emission credits, or have made improvements in their supply chain efficiency to reduce energy consumption. 63 percent of Indian IT enterprises have completed a retrofit of existing server rooms to increase energy efficiency, or have a pilot project underway.

Almost two-thirds of all companies globally are currently, or are planning within the next 12 months, to add virtualisation technology to their servers, consolidate storage systems, or retrofit their server rooms. Saving electricity requires the measurement of IT electrical consumption, something many companies cannot do. However, the survey finds that more than 50 percent of companies have imple-mented some form of energy measurement for their information technology infrastructure, and about one-quarter plan to do so in the year ahead. About 60 percent of the total respondents weigh the importance placed on business benefits against environmental benefits, suggesting that IT initiatives to help improve energy effi-ciency must yield financial returns in order to get the green light.

Countries with some of the highest fuel prices in the world have not, up to this point, turned to remote conferencing and telecom-muting initiatives to reduce both cost and energy consumption. The survey found that 50 to 60 percent of Indian, Brazilian, North American and British businesses are up and running with telecommuting and virtual conferencing capabilities, Germany, France, and, to a lesser extent, the Nordic countries have been slower to adopt these technologies.

Initiatives intended to reduce travel are clearly receiving the most attention from geographically “big” countries over the next 12 months. From Brazil to Canada, more than 30 percent of busi-nesses will aggressively pursue remote conferencing and telecom-muting strategies.

The Indian marketplace boasts of more than 35 million small and medium businesses and is now competing globally. They will need to gain a competitive edge to win amidst global competition and technology provides them this edge.

McAfee announced a definitive agree-ment to acquire privately owned Solidcore Systems for approximately

$33 million in cash up front and with an earn-out of up to an additional $14 million if certain performance targets are met

Solidcore uses dynamic whitelisting to protect against vulnerable or malicious applica-tions and ensure that only pre-authorised soft-ware and code can run on servers, endpoints, fixed function devices and mobile devices. Following the completion of this proposed

acquisition, McAfee expects to couple Solidcore’s whitelisting and compli-ance enforcement technology with McAfee compliance mapping and policy auditing to deliver an end-to-end compliance solution. Customers will benefit from centralised management and reporting of the integrated technologies through the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) console.

Solidcore currently protects more than 200,000 endpoints from malware and unauthorised changes with its patented whitelisting software, which includes systems such as ATMs, POS systems, process control devices, mobile devices, servers and workstations. Its customer base is geographi-cally diverse, with customers in more than 40 countries, at more than 100 financial institutions and across more than 15,000 retail stores.

Following the closing, the Solidcore team will be incorporated into the McAfee Risk and Compliance business unit, headed by George Kurtz, Senior Vice President and General Manager, McAfee.

The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2009. McAfee expects the impact of the acquisition of Solidcore on second quarter 2009 results to be slightly dilutive to non-GAAP earnings per share and more dilutive to GAAP earnings per share. Jefferies & Company acted as exclusive financial advisor to Solidcore in connection with the transaction.

Indian SMBs lead in Green IT initiatives McAfee to acquire Solidcore Systems

The Transcend 320 GB External hard disk is very competitively priced and stylish in design. In Meghalaya it sells for approx imate l y

Rs 3700. It is only 2.5 inches in size and w e i g h s around 200 grams. The only complain customers have about this product is its missing FireWire support. Other than that, this product is very easy to use and is powered by USB.

Sanjay Agarwal, Proprietor, Sajjan Electrical, Shillong, Meghalaya

REVIEWTRANSCEND STOREJET 320

GB EXTERNAL HARD DISK

Canon India reaches out to regional market

Canon India reinforces its focus on regional markets by announcing the launch of the Canon Print City project

in Ahmedabad. The project will largely focus on connecting better with the local customer and generate acceptability in the market by regionalizing all communication and promo-tional activities. Canon is investing Rs 2 crore on this project and aims at securing 33 percent of the Indian printing and imaging market.

Last year the first phase of Print City was launched and executed very successfully in six cities namely Guwahati, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Cochin, Indore. The Print City campaign aims at adding regional flavor to its activities in specific cities. This is done to encourage consumers to own a Canon in these cities.

The attraction for channel partners in this campaign will be a host of exciting incentive-

based schemes including gifts, movie tickets, cricket matches, along with the launch of a range of new products in laser printers and all-in-ones. Special training programmes will be designed for the channel partners to help them better understand and address local customer needs, concerns and sentiments. There would also be exciting mystery shopping schemes, branding and merchandising initiatives to encourage more footfalls.

T R E N D S


Fujitsu has announced the launch of a new resource—ServerView

Resource Coordinator VE, which enables enterprises to create dynamic infrastructure from virtual and physical serv-ers in datacentres and cloud computing environments

This server management software also harnesses all physical and virtual resources within complex IT server topologies – including cloud computing environments – providing simplified, unified management and ensuring that resources are dynamically optimised to deliver best performance at all times.

As server virtualisation has gone mainstream, so it has added a new dimension to datacentre management, as arrays of virtual machines are hosted by individual physical servers, all of which must be managed. This has led to increasing complexity and management cost for IT administra-tors, including patch management, routine maintenance and break-fix. Furthermore, effective server farm management demands that that opti-mal system resources are automatically allocated at all times.

The new offering also solves this challenge by offering the simplified, uniform, automated management of diverse, heterogeneous pools of virtual and physical servers, and providing intuitive server lifecycle management from a graphics-based management console. In addition to PRIMERGY blade servers, RCVE supports PRIMERGY rack and tower servers as well as x86 servers from other vendors. It also integrates leading virtualisation hypervisors including VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V and Xen.

By securing entire arrays of productive systems with one or a few standby units, RCVE provides cost-effective high availability for entire server pools. As a result, organisations can enjoy large savings in hardware costs as well as greater system utilisation without increasing downtime by offer-ing this “N plus 1” option instead of shadowing every single productive server with a hot spare.

GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard receives Windows 7 logo for an Intel P45-based motherboard guarantee-

ing complete compatibility and the enhanced user experience

Gigabyte has put the GA-EP45-UD3P through its paces, with a rigorous evaluation and test-ing process in order to ensure complete compatibi l i ty with Microsoft Windows 7. By receiv-ing the Windows 7 Logo, GA-EP45-UD3P is guaranteed to deliver the best possible Windows 7 experience, enabling users to witness first hand new improvements on ease-of-use, performance, power management, compatibility, and a multitude of other exciting new features that only the Window 7 OS can deliver.

WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Lab) certification sets a high bar for quality and reliability, and is considered essential by many home and business users. This certification demonstrates the company’s ability to deliver the stability, incredible 3D game performance and smooth multimedia playback needed in order to help bring the new features of Windows 7 to life.

Leveraging an already advanced set of specifications and features, the motherboard’s has the revolutionary Ultra Durable 3 technology, a consumer desktop motherboard design to feature two ounces of copper for both the power and ground layers, delivering dramatically lower system temperature, improved energy efficiency and enhanced stabil-ity for overclocking.

Gigabyte continues to work closely with Microsoft to test a number of its motherboards in order to offer customers feature-rich Windows 7 solutions.

Gigabyte receives Windows 7 logo for socket 775 motherboard

Fujitsu launches unified datacentre and cloud computing management software

Tirupati Enterprises-the Kolkata based distributor, has extended its reach to Central India with a branch office in Indore, Madhya Pradesh that will cater to the markets of

Bhopal, Jabalpur, Gwalior and Indore, among others According to Abhishek Kejriwal, General Manager, Tirupati

Enterprises, “We were missing our presence in the Central India market and with this branch we are now happy to have presence in this crucial market as well. We plan to add more branches to our network and at the same time add more new brands to our portfolio of products”.

Dheeraj Parwani would be heading the operations at Indore as Regional Manager. Parwani is an experienced and known face in the Channel community and is renowned for his strong sales and aggressive approach to the market along with deep knowledge of components.

Currently Tirupati Enterprises, is head quartered at Kolkata, and operates directly from its 12 other branches in addition to its countrywide network of C&F agents and partners. The prod-uct portfolio includes the entire range of MSI products namely motherboards, graphic cards, notebooks and server solution; ABIT motherboards; Powercolor ATI-based graphic cards; Corsair range of memory products including desktop, notebook, server, gaming and flash memory, power supplies, etc.

Tirupati Enterprises expands its footprint to Central India

Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has opted for Procall, a Digital Radio Trunking service in India featuring Motorola’s iDEN (Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) for use among the

umpires officiating in matches held in Karnataka, the ground’s men and other officials, to coordinate more smoothly and efficiently. With this KSCA becomes the first association to adapt the digital radio with the PTT facility (Push-To-Talk). The new digital technology gives the umpires, ground’s men and other officials easier, swifter and effective communication gadgets that will ensure smoother proceedings in all matches.

Commenting on this development B K Ravi, Honorary Assistant Secretary (Tournaments), KSCA, said, “We were earlier using analog walkie-talkies which our umpires found too bulky to carry – especially because they need to constantly move around and even run during a match. When we took Procall’s Digital Push-To-Talk service the umpires and ground staff found the handsets sleek and easy to carry around. They are now more flexible and agile and are happy with the technology. We have already used the Digital PTT for Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy held recently here.”

Procall has acquired the Digital Public Mobile Radio Trunking (PMRTS) license for the circles of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Maharashtra & Goa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and plan to make it a pan India operation soon.

KSCA becomes technology savvy

T R E N D S


HCL Infosystems to implement ‘System Integration Project’ for BSNL

HCL Infosystems has been selected to implement ‘System Integration Project’ worth Rs 240 Crore for state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL). The contract involves the imple-

mentation of over 60,000 ERP licences, making it the largest rollout in terms of licenses issued for any single project in the country.

As a part of the BSNL’s business transformation programme, HCL will migrate the company’s finance, commissioning and operations functions onto a single ERP system. The project rollout includes setting up of the main datacentre at Hyderabad and the disaster recovery data-centre at Kolkata. Installation and commissioning at these centres will streamline these business processes, provide a single view of the busi-ness, aiding compliance to storage system, security system, enterprise management system, network management systems, access manage-ment system, etc. of existing datacentres. The decision to cover the whole organisation countrywide by investing in ERP licenses clearly communicates BSNL management intent to create a single seamless platform all over the corporation.

The project contract is for seven years, including configuration, business process reengineering, hardware, networking, operations and maintenance customisation, training to BSNL employees and program management. This will enable BSNL to deliver services in a more cost-efficient way. In addition to replacing legacy systems, this BPR & ERP transformation program will yield better efficiencies for BSNL, due to creation of standardised platforms and common infrastructure, along with lower cost of integration and maintenance. BSNL has also selected HCL to provide ongoing support services for the project.

“This project for BSNL is in line with our focus on the System Integration business. There is no better endorsement than being chosen to provide ongoing ERP support services for BSNL, as this demonstrates the value that we bring to implementations of this kind in the system Integration arena. We believe that a countrywide ERP solution is criti-cal to capture and map various business processes and management of work flow in order to provide better decision pathways in organisations with major footprint across the country” said JV Ramamurthy, COO, HCL Infosystems.

As demand for higher capacity stor-age continues to increase due to large video applications, includ-

ing high-definition video, WD expanded its WD AV-GP line of hard drives to include a 2 TB capacity. WD AV-GP hard drives with WD GreenPower

Technology provide cooler and quieter operation and lower power consumption.

Designed to withstand the stringent environment of the surveillance and security markets, the WD AV-GP line of hard drives for audio and video applications reduces power consumption by as much as 40 percent over standard drives in their respective classes. The new hard drive is perfect for applications such as DVRs (digital video recorders), media centers, media servers, as well as surveillance video recording that demand a higher capacity hard drive and exceptional reliability.

The features of this line of hard drives include long-term reliabil-ity, minimised noise levels, reduces power consumption, compat-ibility with a broad range of AV products, etc.

The WD AV-GP 2 TB hard drive (model WD20EVDS) is available from select distributors outlet. Maximum suggested retail price (MSRP) is Rs 15,500.

Airtel launches cloud computing service on broadband

Bharti Airtel announced its entry into the cloud computing space with the launch of Airtel Net

PC – a low-cost online computer for its broadband customers. The Airtel Net PC is a ready-to-use computer - inclusive of a 15 inch LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse and Nivio companion. It is available at Rs 7999 exclu-sively for Airtel broadband customers in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida.

The Airtel Net PC – powered by Nivio and Microsoft claims to provides a friendly operating system with the Windows-based online desktop, 10 GB space to store documents, photos, presentations, etc. at a central location and 100 percent data security assures no loss of data or computer crash

Now is the time to prepare for business growth, says Gartner

While the recession is still under way, now is the time for IT leaders to prepare for business growth, and organisations should aim to complete these plans by July 1 of this year.

Gartner acknowledged that many countries are experiencing ever-increasing levels of unemployment, rising home mortgage payment delinquencies and business bankruptcies while also seeing reductions in consumer confidence, business earnings and overall economic performance.

However, in recent months, many organisations are reporting that their staffs are working at near-or full-capacity levels. This demand level will almost certainly increase when businesses start detecting resur-gence in demand from customers, a more stabilised economic climate and a far-healthier lending environment from which to access credit.

“As these improvements translate into new IT project demands to help businesses identify new revenue and profit opportunities, compa-nies will need a way to manage the already high project load with a new wave of projects,” said Ken McGee, Vice President and Gartner fellow. “However, waiting until that new demand arrives will be far too late to appropriately meet it, and we are recommending that companies start preparing for business growth now with a view to having these plans completed by July 1, 2009.”

WD expands its line of hard drives by including 2 TB capacity

The Acer Aspire One is a very affordable and compact – perfect for the home segment. It is very popular among students. The major plus point is its low pricing without any compromise on the features. The various colours that it is available in make it even more attractive. The keyboard is a comfortable size with wide gaps between buttons and doesn’t feel cramped. The netbook is 245mm x 165mm x 25 mm (WxHxD), but has everything you’ll really need for basic purposed packed inside. For connectivity, it has three USB ports and an SD card reader.

Ronak Meghani, Proprietor, Hiya Infotech, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

REVIEW

ACER ASPIRE ONE NETBOOK

Corsair Memory announced a 97 percent increase in India opera-tions revenue in 2008 in spite of the economic slowdown

Corsair’s growth reflects the rapidly developing marketplace in India for high quality, performance PC components. The highest growth areas wherein product areas catering to India’s PC enthusi-asts and gamers. Corsair’s XMS gaming series of high speed memory experienced volume growth of 152 percent and Corsair Gaming Power Supply (PSU) growth exceeded 140 percent. USB drives and Value Select memory achieved growth 130 percent and 47 percent respectively. Corsair also forecasts exciting growth in 2009 with further expansion of the Gaming market as well as an imminent India launch of Corsair SSD’s and Gaming Casings.

“This outstanding growth in the face of very challenging economic times show that consumers have really embraced the Corsair brand since it diverted focus on India over one year ago” commented Scott Thirlwell, Corsair Sales Director-APAC. “We are particularly happy to see the explo-sive growth in Corsair XMS Series Gaming Memory and PSUs”

“2009 growth looks to be exceeding even 2008 marvelous result with Corsair distributors and their customers reporting very healthy profit margins on Corsair products” commented M.A Mannan, Corsair India Country Manager. “By focusing on the premium end of the PC component market Corsair partners are able to avoid the cut-throat pricing at the low end.”

Corsair sales revenue jumps 97 percent

Transcend announced its alliance with Trend Micro to offer advanced Trend Micro USB Security software preloaded on its newest USB flash drive, the JetFlash V15. With this powerful combination of

Transcend hardware and industry-leading Trend Micro software, users can now share, store and manage valuable data

more safely and securely than ever. To combat against a rise in Autorun malware

that infect removable drives and then spread across corporate networks that Trend Micro threat

researchers discovered last year, a unique software program called Trend Micro USB Security was devel-

oped specifically to protect against malicious content

in files transferred to a USB flash drive. With its easy-to-use interface and simple one-step activation process, Trend Micro USB Security protects the JetFlash V15 from the first moment it is plugged in. If threats are discov-ered, users will be alerted and all infected files will be quarantined.

When the JetFlash V15 is plugged into a computer with Internet access, Trend Micro USB Security will automatically download and install the latest security updates directly onto the drive. This product can freely be used in any computer without having to worry about malicious data hitching a ride while transferring files. Transcend’s capless JetFlash V15 flash drive comes with three years warranty. Four GB capacity is prices at Rs 1500 and eight GB at Rs 2900

Transcend launches antivirus USB flash drive

NVIDIA and Lenovo advance mobile computing

NVIDIA ION Graphics provide advanced capabilities in small laptop from Lenovo by introducing a laptop that delivers up to 10 times faster graphics performance than today’s

small laptops. Lenovo used NVIDIA ION’s design to create a thin, lightweight, low-power laptop with a 12-inch screen and improved application compatibility. The Lenovo IdeaPad S12 has the graphics horsepower to support high definition media and many PC games which will not run on most low-cost small PCs. NVIDIA ION enables these capabilities with the industry’s best graphics performance for low-power CPUs.

“NVIDIA ION is one of the latest technologies available for the PC indus-try for small, low cost laptop PCs, and we’re excited to be among the first to use it,” said Stephen DiFranco, VP and GM of consumer and commer-cial channels, Americas Group, Lenovo. “With its 12-inch display, full-size keyboard and rich multimedia options powered by ION, the IdeaPad S12 balances an improved computing experience along with the size and afford-ability many consumers are looking for today.”

NVIDIA ION graphics support all versions of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7, HD video including 1080p and Blu-ray movies, video through an external monitor via HDMI, popular games including Spore and Battlefield Heroes and direct X 10 graphics with advanced digital display connectivity Girish TG, Branch Manager, Positive Systems, Calicut, Kerala

REVIEW

The HP 2568 Deskjet Printer is an entry level printer and economi-cally priced at Rs 2000. The printing output is of high qual-ity, both in black and colour. It is very user friendly. It prints

around 2000 pages bringing the cost per page to Re one – making it a preferred choice.

HP D2568 DESKJET PRINTER

T R E N D S


Quick Heal Technologies acknowledges its channel partners

Pune based Quick Heal Technologies-an antivirus vendor in India had conducted its All India Premier partner meet ‘Dhamaka Night’, where it rewarded its performing

partners. The company ran the Dhamaka offer for its partners from November 2008 to January 2009. This initiative was aimed at increasing their market share. Some of the notable winners were NCS Computech (Kolkata), Reliable Infotech (Kolkata), Insat Lynx Computer (Pune), Amity Software (Surat), Sujata Computers (Pune), Data Care (Pune), Radiant Technologies (Mumbai) and KK Software (Delhi).

On this occasion Quick Heal also appraised its partners with its latest enterprise security offerings and its roadmap to tap the enterprise segment. Kailash Katkar, CEO, Quick Heal Technologies said, “We have rewarded all types of partners from small to big players under this scheme. We will continue to carry on such schemes in future also.

The company has given away cars (two Maruti Suzuki SX4, two Hyundai I10 and seven Maruti Alto), 20 motor bikes, and many LCD TVs, mobiles phones, washing machines, digital cameras, premium watches and shirts. In all quick Heal gave gifts to more than 600 partners across India under this scheme.

T R E N D S


Fluke Networks organises workshops on efficient network management

Fluke Networks is organising workshops that aim at providing network engineers and managers of enterprise networks the best of technical know-how required to manage networks efficiently.

The workshop will also also reaches out to heads of departments of engineering colleges who would like to enhance their curriculum with lab sessions in network engineering studies.

“Today’s network engineers and managers are faced with the chal-lenge of doing more with less while providing high levels of service and user satisfaction. Through these workshops our aim is to educate these network engineers and managers to maximise the performance of their networks and avoid unnecessary network upgrades thereby improv-ing productivity and reducing the downtime of their networks,” said Alamuri Sitaramaiah, General Manager-Sales, Fluke Networks India.

The sessions will be conducted by Ted Chiou, a Fluke Networks trainer. The series of two day workshops will be held in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, New Delhi and Kokatta

Simmtronics launches 2GB memory modules for desktop and notebook users

Simmtronics has announced the launch of 2GB DDR3-1333 MHz 240-pin DIMMs for both desktops

and notebooks, targeted towards power users including gamers, animators, graphic designers, etc.

DDR3 is the successor to DDR2 Memory, and is expected to soon become the industry standard for PC Memory Modules. Compared to DDR2, it offers faster transfer speeds and better band-width with an 8-bit as opposed to 4-bit prefetch buffer, and is a perfect match for modern systems using dual or quad-core processors.

DDR3 Modules can transfer data at a rate of 800–1600 MHz using both rising and falling edges of a 400–800 MHz I/O clock. In compari-son, DDR2’s current range of data transfer rates is 400–800 MHz using a 200–400 MHz I/O clock, and DDR’s range is 200–400 MHz based on a 100–200 MHz I/O clock.

The operating voltage of DDR3 Memory Modules reduces actual memory power consumption by 20-30 percent as compared to systems with DDR2 Memory. Simmtronics’ DDR3-Modules are currently available in 2GB capacity with five years warranty and is priced at Rs 3400.

HDS brings in enterprise-class storage innovation

Hitachi Data Systems launched the Hitachi High Availability Manager - an open systems storage array clustering technol-ogy – which according to the company, delivers 100 percent

accessibility of business-critical data assets and offers customers future-proofing of their storage investments over time.

In the current climate of economic slowdown and capital constraint, the need for an efficiency optimised storage infrastructure has become paramount. Compounding this challenge is the significant operational risk associated with data migrations as legacy storage systems come off lease, or as a result of extended or unexpected downtime.

By consolidating, increasing utilisation and improving data mobility through Hitachi virtualisation technologies, customers can maximise the investment return and protection of their storage assets and save money.

The Hitachi High Availability Manager’s architecture enables local and remote clustering for seamless, transparent movement of stor-age pools from one USP V storage platform to another system, with zero disruption to business operations. Its failover capabilities, helps customers protect data assets during both planned and unplanned outages, and eliminate the potential risk of data inaccessibility from the host to primary storage.

Claus Mikkelsen, CTO of Storage Architectures, Hitachi Data Systems said, “Application downtime, for any reason, is one of the highest priority concerns of customers that can cause billions of dollars in lost business opportunity. Clustering is a critical feature of an integrated virtualised storage strategy and Hitachi is the only storage company that is delivering this type of innovation in the market today.

Hitachi is extending its leadership in providing innovative capabili-ties for customers, which translates into storage investment protec-tion and the assurance that critical data assets are optimised and protected.”

Di g i c a r e, t h e s e r v i c e a n d support divi-

sion of D-Link India inaugurated a service center in the busiest IT market of Mumbai – Lamington Road.

Digicare had planned to locate its RMA centers closer to the IT hubs in all major cities, with primary objective of making its warranty support infrastructure more accessible to partners and customers. In last few months it opened the RMA centers at Nehru Place in Delhi and at S P Road Bangalore.

By far, Digicare has added 24 service centers across India to its basket of offerings and plans to reach the count of 50 soon.

Digicare inaugurates service center in Mumbai

MAIT welcomes new ministers at Ministry of Communications and IT

The Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) has issued a press statement welcoming the UPA govern-ment on its historic win. Welcoming A Raja, in yet another

innings, as the Union Minister for Communications & IT, Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT said, “We are confident that continuity with A Raja and the further strengthening of his team with Sachin Pilot and Gurudas Kamat would ensure concrete steps towards realisation of ‘Goal- 511’ set by him in his earlier term. “

He further said that this goal envisages transformation of India into a knowledge economy and connecting the unconnected 500 million Internet users, 100 million broadband connections and 100 million connected devices in India by 2012.

With lower than expected sales of IT products in the financial year 2008-09 owing to the global economic meltdown, expectations in the IT industry are high and it hopes that the new minister will take adequate measures to boost the consumption of IT in the domestic market.

Elaborating further on the industry expectations, Mehta said, “It is essential to roll out mission mode IT projects in sectors such as educa-tion, SMEs, households, e-governance, telemedicine and for rural India. These will go a long way in contributing to our national goal of ‘inclu-sive development’.”

MAIT also said that Pilot and Kamat, the two new Ministers of State for Communications and IT will bring in a healthy blend of youth and freshness with experience.

T R E N D S


?Q&AQ&A

DCC: What has been the impact of the reces-sion? How badly has the IT industry been hit? How has your business been affected?

Pramod Vyas: The recession has certainly been detrimental to growth not only in the IT sector but other verticals like pharma, telecom, retail, etc. as well. To put it simply, companies have not achieved the growth rate that they predicted say, eight months ago. But there has certainly been some growth even after the slowdown.

The OND (October-November-December) quar-ter last year was very challenging for us and we need not meet numbers as were expected. This is because end-consumers are delaying buying decisions and the channel business has been hit because of it. But we are moving very aggressively in the Indian market. Last year we saw more than 45 percent growth over the previous year in spite of the recession.

DCC: What measure are you taking with the help of the channel community to see that both stakeholders are not adversely affected by the economic situation?

Vyas: Most importantly we are trying to promote a linear buying pattern. We have been education our channel partners about providing value-adds to customers. We are also exploiting opportunities

in non-metro cities. We found out that the scare of recession, stock level constraints, etc. was limited only to the metros. Tier II cities still are showing a lot of potential that we can tap. We have a total of 300 partners who are helping us do the same.

DCC: When we become the voice of the channel community, we often witness an unresponsive behavior from the vendors on consumer complaints. Why does that happen?

Vyas: Being unresponsive and aloof it is not the right way to go. It gives out a perception that the company does not care. Ideally the vendors and channels should partner and come together to resolve problems. It is critical that both parties understand that they benefit from each other’s success. But to answer your question, from a vendor’s perspective, the most common reason to stall such problems is that the vendor - could be HP or Gigabyte – does not have a concrete solu-tion that they can bring to the table. Being global organisations, decisions on sensitive issues need to come from the top. Bureaucracy could be a reason for delay. Another reason would be attrition of the concerned people. In such scenarios it is not clear as to who would take the responsibility or blame for things gone wrong. These are some of the issues that vendors face.

But again, I am not justifying a careless attitude. According to the gravity of the situation, decision-making needs to be fast and solutions need to be provided to the partners to help them run their business smoothly.

DCC: Can you talk about the concept of e-tail-ing? Has it caught on in India?

Arthur Liu: E-tailing concept is not prevalent in India. Customers do search the web and go to retailers with specific model numbers in moth-erboards, PDAs, netbooks etc. There is definitely a large market for it here. In Korea, almost 100 percent of all PC components are bought over the Internet. 70 percent consumers check products and buy on the Internet while the rest will first check specifications, prices, etc. on the Internet and make up their mind before going to the shop to make the purchase.

DCC: Do you still follow the channel 80:20 rule – where 80 percent of the business comes from 20 percent of channel partners?

Vyas: Till last year the ratio was about 70:30 but since the last six months it has come down to 60:40. That has especially helped us in tapping new markets and expanding our footprint.

In a free-wheeling interview, PRAMOD VYAS, Country Head, Gigabyte India and ARTHUR LIU, Supervisor, Sales Department-Asia Sales Division, Gigabyte, speak with SUJAY NAIR about best practices that channel partners and vendors can incorporate to beat the economic situation and benefit from each other’s success

“Consumers are delaying buying decisions, hitting channel growth”

PRAMOD VYASARTHUR LIU

PHOT

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Q&AQ&A

DCC: When was Frontier Business Systems formed and how has it grown over the years?

We started as a box-selling channel partner in September 1994 and today have evolved as one of the leading System Integrators (SI). We cur-rently have a turnover of over Rs 210 crore (as on March 2009). We are targeting a turnover of Rs 300 crore this year. Moreover, we are focusing on bottomline numbers, and are witnessing a 25 percent growth YoY.

The company has struck a number of mega deals over the years. We are into information security consulting, virtualisation consulting, IT infrastruc-ture management services and have completed some of the major deals in BFSI, education as well as government sectors. We have recently received ISO 22001 certificate. Frontier has a national footprint with offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Cochin and many tier-II cities.

In addition, we have a strategic relationship with several vendors such as Systimax for struc-tured cabling solutions, Cisco and Symantec for networking and security, Emerson for power con-ditioning solutions, Citrix for software solutions, and IBM for TotalStorage solutions.

DCC: What according to you are some of your main strengths?

Our greatest strength is our ability to under-stand customer’s unique requirements and offer effective and efficient solutions and services. Moreover, ours is an environment friendly com-pany. We have been taking several initiatives to conduct our business in the most environment friendly manner possible.

For example, we have a Green building and a Green datacentre in Bangalore, confirming to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

(LEED) Green building standards rating from the US Green Building Council (USGBC).

We have invested considerably in automating our business processes. Internally we maintain a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure for operational effectiveness.

DCC: Do you have a vertical-wise focus? What are the verticals that you are currently focusing on?

Right from the beginning, we have ensured that we focus on all verticals to balance eventuali-ties. Hence, we are trying to spread our focus to verticals like government, PSU, education, ITeS, BFSI, manufacturing, etc. We try to de-risk our model so that in the event of one sector being adversely affected by economic slowdown, we are not hit as a company.

Starting from design and execution of enterprise backup power requirements to personal computing, networking, network security, thin client comput-ing, virtualisation, enterprise computing, storage area networks, infrastructure management services, IT infrastructure consulting, and information secu-rity consulting – we have the domain knowledge and technical skills in every aspect of IT infrastruc-ture – solutions or services.

DCC: Pertaining the current economic slow-down, what are some the challenges as well as opportunities that you foresee for the channel community?

Though the channel community has also been hard hit by the current economic downturn, it provides the fraternity a major opportunity with regards to availability of skilled manpower. Moreover, each deal today has to be fought hard and those with good strategies in place are still doing well.

Cash flow is the biggest threat for the channel today. Customers today tend to delay payments for every small reason. In addition, the opportuni-ties are limited so those with real skills and more value-adds are doing better today.

DCC: Is customer retention a big concern of the channel community? What are the strate-gies that you have adopted to attract new customers?

Customer retention per say is not a concern for our organisation. We have a clear-cut plan and strategy in place to attract and retain customers. We approach our regular customers from time to time with new offerings. We help customers increase efficiency and optimise their IT investments and suggest measures that can help them bring down costs. With new solutions in areas like IT optimisation, Green IT, etc. custom-ers are keen to understand how they can cut costs as well as utilise their existing investments better.

Frontier Business Systems was established in 1994, and generated sales of $50 million last year. With over 600 skilled profession-als, Frontier has a national footprint with offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Cochin and many tier-II cities, besides support locations across the country - ensuring a pan India presence. Frontier has invested considerably in auto-mating its business processes and internally maintains state-of-the-art IT infrastructure for operational effectiveness.

COMPANY PROFILE

‘The Sultan of South’ is how Bangalore-based Frontier Business Systems is commonly addressed. RAVI VERDES, Founder and Director, Frontier Business Systems speaks with CHARU KHERA about his business expansion from being a box pusher in 1994 to currently being one of the most comprehensive IT infrastructure and security solutions provider

“Our greatest strength “Our greatest strength is our ability to understand is our ability to understand customer’s unique customer’s unique requirements” requirements”


Q&AQ&A

DCC: When was TAIT (Trade Association of Information Technology) founded and what was the purpose/aim behind its formation?

TAIT was founded in March 1996 to represent the interest of computer traders of Mumbai. TAIT has 360 members today.

The association aims to bridge the gap between hardware/software manufacturers and dealers and helps them unite and forge new trade alliances form-ing an invaluable network in the industry. We also provide our members access on a regular basis to all information regarding computers, peripherals, spares, software and service and skill up-gradation. Moreover, TAIT provides a platform where diverse subjects such as excise and custom laws, sales tax, new technologies, business trends, sales organi-sation, and service issues are debated with the help of experts.

DCC: What are some of the main challenges that the channel community in Mumbai currently face and how has the association helped them address the same?

TAIT had served a prime role in getting reduction of sales tax for its members, especially for products like UPS, cabinets, cables and cameras and is also constantly following with BMC (Bombay Municipal Corporation) for reduction of octroi on IT product.

The association has also tied-up with various exhibitors to allow the industry to reach out to the masses. We have conducted few management train-ing programs to train the new entrepreneurs and managerial staff of our members. We even have cor-dial working relationship with other trade bodies like MAIT (Manufactures’ Association of Information Technology), NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) and IMC (Indian Merchant’s Chamber).

We regularly circulate updates on legal mat-ters, government issues, new rules and regulations regarding sales tax, octroi, etc. to our members. Moreover, we recently launched our own website, tait-mumbai.com to educate and constantly keep our members abreast of latest developments.

DCC: It is common knowledge that with the economic slowdown, the channel margins are being affected. What steps has TAIT taken for its members to address this issue of low margins?

Yes, margins have really come down, but still there are many areas of services where partners can make money. And for the same, we plan to conduct some regular training programs for our members wherein we will invite some prominent speakers from the industry as well as from other allied fields who would educate our members on the available option to sustain the economic slowdown. For example, from being just box pushers, partners should consider expanding their horizon, opt for broad basic billings, expand into other verticals such as software as a ser-vice (SaaS) and much more.

DCC: While piracy has been a threat to the chan-nel fraternity, what is TAIT’s stand on the same? Have you taken some initiative to combat piracy in your region?

Piracy is a very big threat and to protect the inter-est of the partners, it should be treated with great concern. We have conducted few seminars on this for our members in association with Microsoft, Tally, eScan, Mcafee, etc. wherein the vendor companies provided guidance to partners on identification of counterfeit products. Also discussed were the advantages of using genuine software. We have even requested these vendor companies to educate end

customers and explain the benefits of purchasing genuine software.

DCC: Brief us about the events, expos, etc. that TAIT conducts for the channel commu-nity in Mumbai? Has there been an impact of the economic slowdown on your regular events?

We have our annual expo called COM-IT Expo, an international exhibition and conference on comput-ers, IT products and services and software with the motive of creating a platform for the industry to address the audience on new products, brand aware-ness, barriers to entering a particular market. During this expo new dealers/distributors are also appointed. It is a networking opportunity for channel partners to meet other members of the community and the end-consumers.

It is usually a two-day conference. Last year, more than 300 delegates attended it. Over 19 speakers shared their experiences while 80 exhibitors show-cased their achievements and expertise during the show. To conduct the show this year, we will take a call after June 15, 2009 after considering the market dynamics.

We even organise a yearly mega event for industry promotion under the umbrella of Diwali Mela, where big IT industrialist are invited. TAIT has its media arm called ‘TAIT Classified’ since 1996. It is a weekly tabloid, which was introduced to help the traders advertise and promote their products and offerings.

We have started an arbitration cell, which helps resolve the disputes between the partners legally. We are planning to organise various seminars for educating our members about new opportunities like boosting their after-sales services, increasing their product portfolio, expanding region-ally and entering newer markets, etc.

“United we stand, divided we fall,” is the motto that TAIT believes in. PRAVIN DHOKA, Spokesperson and Director, TAIT shares with CHARU KHERA the growth journey the association has undergone to represent over 300 IT companies comprising IT distributors, resellers, SIs, software and networking companies in Mumbai

“TAIT SERVED A PRIME ROLE IN GETTING REDUCTION OF SALES TAX”

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C O V E R S T O R Y

DIGIT CHANNEL CONNECT JUNE 2009

The Indian economy is becoming truly global. The new mantra for the channel community is to break boundary barriers and look at opportunities worldwide.

CHARU KHERA and SUJAY NAIR analyse this trend...

C O V E R S T O R Y

20

GOINGGLOBAL

Globalisation is clearly on the cards for the more matured channel partners, SIs and VARs. The geographic expansion is part and parcel of making sure that they stay

in market not only to be closer to clients, but also be closer to and have access to labor pools essential for expansion.

In terms of going for pure market growth and speed, going global makes sense. But the challenge and advantage will be to grow as fast as one can

without impacting customer satisfaction, which is extremely critical in such a volatile market.

Globalisation is not a new phenomenon and for a couple of decades now, companies have been expand-ing beyond their national borders. What is new is the dramatic acceleration of this process by the channel community. Many solution providers (SPs), system integrators (SIs), value-added resellers (VARs) that this magazine interviewed said they want to explore opportunities that will help them grow their business


C O V E R S T O R Y

in addition to leveraging on their existing clientele and skill-sets. Though some of them are in doubt that regional as well as product portfolio expansion is the right way to go, there are many others who are considering global expansion.

The Indian economy is becoming truly global and over the years, the Indian channel community has seen an unprecedented growth and is now focusing on the inorganic growth strategies. The new mantra for the community is to break the boundary barriers and look at opportunities worldwide.

From being a box pusher to a reseller to becoming a SI - the channel community is moving up the value chain in terms of offerings, mergers and acquisitions (M&As), expanding product portfolio and expansion - regionally as well as geographically. The world seems to be a universal playground for SIs/VARs as they explore markets abroad.

A large New Delhi-based integrator says, “We have a three-dimensional model that is geographic, hori-zontal application based as well as industry verticals, and we deliver most of our solutions through what we call a solution center. We have two of them in India and one in middle-east. Most of our workforce works in solution centers.”

Trends indicate that most partners are looking at expansion in developing markets as the entry barri-ers are relatively less and they do not have content

with much competition. This is not the case in the western world as it is difficult to gain a foothold in the matured markets of US or UK. “The markets in the most developed countries have reached saturation point and hence they present limited growth pros-pects,” explains Champakraj Gurjar, MD, Maxtone Electronics, Mumbai.

Most service providers expand by hosting remote management, BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) services. Another way is the M&As (mergers and acquisitions) route.

Challenges The first step towards global expansion is to realise the potential and core area of strength of an organisation. This should be followed by a strong research for key markets for expansion, and knowl-edge about the target customer. Consulting legal advisors is another key element that partners should consider to ensure security and safety of the busi-ness. Moreover, one should always establish clarity on payments and other terms and conditions.

In addition adopting a flexible approach, having proper HR policies in place and hiring local sales and marketing staff are key elements for setting up a successful enterprise abroad.

A major challenge with regards to global expan-

21

Why go global?

To grow revenues

To increase brand and shareholder value

To achieve competitive edge as well as maintain financial security

To leverage low cost, high quality Indian talent pool in new geographies

To reduce dependence on home market

To learn and take advanced technologies across geographies

To leverage on the exist-ing corporate infrastructure

To boost competitiveness

You have been operating a subsidiary in the US. When and why did you expand internationally? We were servicing a client in India who wanted to replicate his Indian success at their branch office in New York (US). While working for them, we realised that there is a huge requirement of quality services at attractive prices. We continued our success and expanded from there to other clients in the collection and insurance domain. In 2007, we spread our wings and incorporated our US office under the aegis of Team Business Solutions LLC. We currently offer remote management of Business Intelligence (BI) applications to our US clients.

Why did you choose to tap the US market? With our first client, we got a strong foothold in the US market. Moreover, there were no hassles with regards to the availability of Indian technical workforce in the US. They realised the branding Team has in India and hence inroads were at least clear if not easy.

In addition to this, our directors have been traveling to the US for professional and personal engagements and had prior relationships in the country. This helped us scale our operations in the country.

What have been the growth drivers for Team Computers in the international market?Complete focus on customer delight has been the success mantra for us in the international market. We have gone ahead and ensured satisfaction for clients even if that meant spending more than what the project called for.

Moreover, constant R&D led to innovative solutions. We have participated in many international indus-try events. We regularly meet our customers meetings and have picked up local industry experts to ensure acceptance and adaptability.

What are some of the common errors that partners make while expanding globally? What were the chal-lenges that you faced while expanding globally?Most partners who plan to expand beyond their geographical boundaries tend to have a short-term view of acquiring and servicing clients. Impatience during the warm up stage is another common error that partners tend to make. One should always focus on quality and work processes alignment and should not have very high expectations in terms of profitability during the initial years.

We faced few challenges during our global expansion phase. Operating from India posed limited scope in the overseas market from sales and marketing point of view. Moreover, partnerships and tie-ups were short lived and painful despite maintaining transparency and good faith as ground business realities in the US are quiet different from India.

Delhi-based Team Computers strongly believes in the motto

‘The faster the pace, the better it is.’ Ranjan Chopra, CMD,

Team Computers shares his strategy for ensuring faster

growth and the plans for the company

Team to tango

C O V E R S T O R Y


sion is that most often the organisations that plan to expand globally has no clear idea/aim as to what exactly it wants to do - export a product, open office in a different coun-try or appoint distributors. “Most often the objectives change in the process of globalising and as a result there is no clear vision as to what the company wants to do. A focused international growth strategy is very essential while expand-ing globally,” said Hemant Bakshi of Punjab based Business Systems.

Another common error that most first timers make while expanding interna-tionally is that there is no specific person appointed

for the project. Most often, it is allocated to a market-ing manager, business development manager or anyone who has a vague idea about international business. As a result, the project is stalled each time

an important decision has to be made and there is no structure in place to successfully develop the project. “There is a common belief among a lot of partners that most information required for an international project is available online. Though there are a lot of sources of information on the Internet but it is important to have some valuable insights also about the targeted place, business practices, customers, laws, culture, language, etc.” explained Bakshi.

Mergers and acquisitions M&As are becoming the most common norm for the channel fraternity to consolidate and grow as they provide partners with a wider reach, financial strength, broader skill-sets and expertise. A leading SI with burgeoning global M&As aspirations is Mumbai-based Allied Digital Services. The company posted a turnover of Rs 302 crore in FY08 and has 80 percent stake in US-based $40 million SI, EnPointe Global Services. “We are looking at more such acquisitions, which will be strategic fit to our business strategy of off-shoring remote infrastructure managed services around the globe,” said Bimal Raj, Executive Director and CEO, Allied Digital Services.

Bangalore-based Apara Enterprise Solutions has been exploring new avenues, both in terms of geographical expansion and product portfolio. The company has opened Apara Global Services branches

10 best practices to ‘Go Global’

1. Think globally

2. Have a focused international growth strategy

3. Assess the international potential of your organi-sation and globalise where the return is greatest

4. Conduct market surveys to determine potential locations best suited to the business

5. Study the market carefully

6. Expand where you understand the customer base, market, language, laws and the culture

7. Analyse well the cost and ease of doing business

8. Understand and track your competitors well

9. Establish a comprehensive local sales and marketing campaign and advertise in international publications 10. Build local infrastructure to create presence

Apart from Boston, Choice Solutions had a branch office in UK. But the UK branch was shut down. What were some of the challenges that made you close the UK branch office?As part of our global expansion plans, we started off in Boston, US in the year 2000. We decided to go global as we could foresee a lot of opportunities in the US market and we have build up a lot of expertise around that. Moreover, many of our key investors/partners were living in the US. This provided us an edge. It was around the same time (in 2001) when we opened another office in UK. After the downturn, which occurred in 2002-03, we temporarily shut our UK operations.

Another key challenge that we faced was lack of business (due to the economic meltdown) and inad-equate funds. When we started our operations in UK, the value of rupee to pound was 66, whereas in 18 months, when we decided to move on, the value of pound was Rs 88. Hence, we had to recall all our employees. In the US, my own partners and investors were running the show; whereas in UK we were entirely dependent on the local manpower. We thus decided to adopt a step by step approach and shut our UK office. But we are currently in the process of reopening it sometime this year. Also, we are contemplat-ing to open a branch office in Atlanta in the next two months.

What were the issues you faced with regards to business regulations while expanding to the US market? What are some of the crucial factors that partners should consider before planning to expand internation-ally? Business regulations were the easiest aspect to deal with as we strictly adhered to the processes. But we were unprepared in putting certifications (such as ISO) in place. Another challenge was the cultural differences.

While going global, partners should identify with the niche area of services and understand the oppor-tunity of doing a service. Channels should consider a partnership model for global expansion and put its processes, infrastructure and certification in place. I would also recommend recruiting marketing talent regionally. All these factors played a crucial role in making our company a success globally. One should follow a careful and well-planned strategy while expansion in international markets.

Why did you choose to tap the US market? What according to you are some of the top global destination for expansion for Indian channel community?As I have mentioned earlier, I had investors and partners in the US. People are more open minded and take risk in the US as compared to people in UK. We cater to the education vertical in US. We develop an ERP package called Edfusion for our US clients.

One should first focus in India rather than expanding globally. India is riding high on e-governance project. Thus one should look at opportunities in the country. Partners should also look at UN projects for expansion. Underdeveloped nations such as Africa, North America are some of the best destinations for global expansion.

Global expansion has been the bottleneck for sustained growth for Hyderabad-based

Choice Solution- an end-to-end IT solutions provider. KV

Jagannath, Managing Director of Choice Solutions says that

there are no shortcuts to success in life as he shares the

plans that he envisages for the company

No shortcuts in life

22


C O V E R S T O R Y

23

in UK, Netherlands and the US. Additionally, the company has invested in rolling out Global Enterprise Management Services to offer remote management services to customers.

Another leading player is Omnitech Infosolutions. The company is eyeing various international players and plans to initiate a fund-raising exercise for an acquisition.

Betting on products While many like Allied and Omnitech are acquir-ing firms internationally, there are many others who have taken the product route to make a mark in the international arena.

New-Delhi based Team Computers, for instance, has been operating a subsidiary in the US and selling its Business Intelligence (BI) reporting and analytics tools. “We have witnessed a very positive traction for our international business. We have been following a product-led strategy to expand abroad and call this approach the ‘Guerilla way’ – i.e. low operating costs and more targeted marketing activities. We have developed our own BI reporting and analytics tool and over the years have acquired 12 clients interna-tionally for our solutions and services,” said Ranjan Chopra, CMD, Team Computers. Further elaborat-ing on the future plans, Chopra added that in 2008, Team made roughly $1 million from international operations and is close to rolling out a specialised ERP for the ocean transportation industry.

Analysts believe that many companies are using

the current scenario to rethink their business plans, develop new products, and prepare to enter new markets around the world.

This holds true for many VARs and SIs who believe that expansion globally is the best way to sail through the current economic slowdown. “Our geographical expansion is helping us sail through the recession as it has helped us in streamlining our sales strat-egy. As part of our geographic expansion strategy, we have opened offices in the US, Singapore and the Middle East. Within India, we have presence in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Kochi, Madurai, Vishakhapatnam, Trichy, Coimbatore and Pune,” said RS Shanbhag, Chairman and President of Bangalore-based Value Point Systems.

Going aheadWith aggressive global aspirations and determina-tion to make it big in the international market, the channel community is all set to take a leap in their evolution cycle. However, it is just the beginning and while the future success will depend on how well they can market themselves. It is important that they build products and solutions at par with the industry standards and aggressively provide post-sales services. Whether partners will be able to emulate the markets abroad will depend entirely on how well they execute their strategies and sustain their growth momentum.

[email protected]@9dot9.in

Five key issues to deal with while expanding globally

Taxation agreements

Import and export rules

Business regulations

Cultural differences

Protecting proprietary infor-mation and communication

Climbing greater heightsYou currently have offices in US, Singapore and the Middle East. What are the services that provide in these regions?We currently have direct presence in the US – one in Fremont and other in Hueston. We have been operating the Fremont branch since 2005 whereas the Hueston office has been inaugurated very recently. We also have associates in UK, Middle East and Switzerland.

We offer services such as remote infrastructure management services (RIMS), network operating serv-ices, storage and server consolidation services, migration from one platform to another (such as from Lotus to Excel), etc. We even offer IT allied services such as data translation work (migration from one language to another), data-related litigation services as well as services for offshore development centres.

According to you, what type of Indian channels have expanded globally?Trends indicate that partners who have gone for IPOs generally look for global expansion. The main reason for the same is that most often IPOs generate a lot of money which is then used for global expan-sion. Tier-II SPs/SIs, who have been involved in mergers and acquisitions too tend to expand their reach beyond India.

Since the major chunk of your business is focused in the US, what has been the impact of recession on your revenue?Though the economic condition in the US is deteriorating, there has been no direct impact of recession on our business. The IT allied services that constitute a major part of our services offer enterprises with reduced operational costs as well as increases efficiency. Therefore, even at these times of economic down-turn, companies have been opting for services to reduce cost.

What has been your global success mantra? Can you suggest some of the best practices that will help partners who plan to expand internationally?A main growth factor for us is our efficiency and timely delivery. We believe in constant innovation by adopting some of the best practices from the industry.

Service level agreement (SLA) is ant important factor that should be considered well before expanding internationally. A SLA should be well thought and consulted with a lawyer before being signed (read well between the lines). Knowledge about local taxation policies is also a must.

Moreover, one should avoid signing an exclusive contract with a vendor. Be careful with the term of the contract. Avoid signing a contract for five to six years. An ideal deal should be for a year or two.

A crucial factor that partner who expand internationally should keep in mind is that India is your base and do not loose focus in your home market.

Under commit and over deliver’ is the success mantra

for Bangalore-based Value Point Systems. RS Shanbhag,

Chairman and President of the company shares some of

the significant global achieve-ments of the organisation


GREEN IT

The IT industry is going green with a vengeance. With power bills reaching the stratosphere and the regulators getting into the act, companies are learning that managing the ecology makes for good economics

DIGIT CHANNEL CONNECT 24 MAY 2009

The world, it seems, is finally waking up to the perils of global warming. What better proof of this awareness can there be than the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to Al Gore and the UN’s Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change?

The former US vice president used the media glare to warn that “global warming is the greatest challenge we have ever faced.”

The environmentalists are finally making their presence felt. The spotlight, you would expect, would be on the usual suspects-the tradi-tional polluting industries. So why is eco-awareness now becoming a top concern for most companies? Why is Green Computing on the top of the agenda for most IT transnationals?

According to Sun Microsystems, datacentres alone account for around two-three percent of total global energy use-with IT gobbling up almost five percent of the total energy consumed in the world. In most large companies, it has been estimated that one-fifth of the total energy consumed would be accounted for by Information Technology.

Further, according to a Gartner study, the energy cost of running computers would be greater than the cost of acquiring them by 2015. In fact, this equation might

already be true for a few megacities in the developed world. “With a billion people

participating online today, the network consumes more than 100 billion kilowatts of electricity and costs businesses around $7.2 billion in utility bills annually. And since the power consumption of datacentres doubled between 2000 and 2005, it’s no surprise that 25 percent of an IT budget is consumed by energy costs alone,” says K P Unnikrishnan, Director-Strategic Alliances & Teleweb Sales, Sun Microsystems.

Gartner cautioned that the power requirements to run (and cool) datacentres accounted presently for a quarter of all global CO2 emis-sions from the information and communication industry. The clincher was when a senior analyst from the research firm cautioned that not enough attention was being paid to datacentre emissions, despite wide-spread publicity over the issue. The main reasons for a check not being put on datacentre emissions were due to lack of floor space, failure to house high-density servers and increased power consumption and heat generation, according to the analyst.

Green is moving up the corporate agenda. Close to 48 percent of European respondents in the report ‘Tapping buyers’ growing interest

in IT’, conducted by researcher Forrester, said that environ-mental concerns were “very important” while they were

planning their company’s IT operations. The sample size of the survey was 124 IT professionals in Europe and

North America. Forrester warns on the usual power guzzler, the datacentre, and says that possible legislation and a carbon tax are the main reasons for IT departments taking green action. The pull factors are customers who will demand action, says the report.

“Energy savings are now right on top of a company’s agenda. And the situation is particularly critical in an

energy-starved nation like India, where power outages are the norm, rather than

the exception. With erratic supply and huge T&D (transmission and distribution) losses and

ever-growing demand, cutting down on power bills is the only way out for technology manag-

ers if they want to manage the IT budget”, says Champakraj Gurjar, MD, Maxtone Electronics.Datacentres globally and in India are a sore point

for companies in terms of operating efficiency and the kind of investments they require. According to the Bureau

of Energy Efficiency, India will have an energy demand for 20,000 megawatts of electricity by 2015 and

the greenbacksChannelising


GREEN ITgoing by the present state where there is a deficit of 10-11 percent in peak load, there is a huge power problem and has to be addressed immediately.

Since going ‘green’ makes both economic sense as well as ecologi-cal sense, isn’t the ecological path the only way for the IT industry to go? In addition to economic and ecological benefits, going green is a great contribution to mankind. This even can be described as the most critical challenge to world habitat. Adverse climate change is clearly a blunder done by civilized society. Unfortunately, awareness among Indian organisations for energy conservation is low as priority is always for deploying projects and managing costs. To the few, there is clear understanding and sensitivity of broad benefits by going green. It is also a corporate and IT goodwill enhancer.

Dave Douglas, Vice President of Eco Responsibility at Sun Microsystems had once famously said, “Eco means both ecology and economics.” So essentially, a number of corporates do not see any fundamen-tal drain on their budgets when they push towards becoming more ecologically sensitive. After all, the dollar is green in color, isn’t it? “It’s clear: what’s good for the environment is imperative for busi-ness. This axiom drives Sun’s commitment to designing and delivering eco-friendly processors, systems, programs, and services that help busi-nesses reduce their power consumption, environ-mental impact, and energy costs. All Sun’s eco projects have measurable business benefits, which is why one can say the ‘eco’ is for economics as well as ecology,” says Unnikrishnan.

However, at this juncture, one has to add a note of caution. An IBM-sponsored research revealed that companies have a long way to go before they thrashed out a strategy in tandem with the technological function to tackle environmental issues. Nearly half of the IT executives polled in the survey said that their respective organisa-tions did not monitor IT-related energy spending. Shockingly, half of the respondents admitted that their companies did not measure the environmen-tal impact of their IT systems and policies.

But globally, a number of customers want to reduce their carbon footprint. This in turn is of course pushing manufacturers to design systems accordingly. What is the scenario in India? Are enter-prises worried about their carbon footprints?

While awareness is catching on in India, costs remain prohibitive and it is only those companies which have an international presence which seem to be taking the steps to provide more energy efficient systems. Large enterprises have woken up to the large problem of energy consumption looming in front of them and have started realising the importance of energy efficient processors.

The Green diktatsAnd of course, globally, governmental regulations and policies are also helping the IT industry move towards a more ‘green’ future. A case in point is the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), which is a rating system that grades environmentally friendly PCs and monitors. The EPEAT is driven by the US-based Green Electronics Council, which operates under the following guiding principles:

(To) Implement market-driven systems to recognise and reward envi-ronmentally preferable electronic products

Build the capacity of individuals and organisations to design and manage the lifecycle of electronic products to improve their environ-mental and social performance

An Executive Order passed by the US President has mandated that all federal agencies buy EPEAT-certified products for at least 95 percent of their needs. In India, though, the government has yet to institute such a comparable program for IT products. In 2006, the government

rolled out a National Energy Labeling Program, but this did not cover PCs, laptops or servers.

So what more should the government do in India? Should there be incentives for green computing like tax cuts for more efficient machines or stricter regulations? There seems to be no specific incentives available for green computing from the government. It is overall factored with enterprise commitment towards climate compliance.

The need of the hour therefore is a concerted effort from all ends-from the government to enforce strict laws and from the corporates where awareness on the emerging energy issue as well as identifying solutions to address this issue is required. The efforts of the two parties must complement and supplement each other,” says Unnikrishnan.

His organisation had collaborated with IIT-Delhi to study the environmental impact of the IT industry through e-waste generation. The study attempted to analyse the present scenario in the context of two major concerns: the increase in energy consumption and the production of e-waste and its disposal.

The main recommendations were:Revisit the proportion of time and funds spent by governments on increasing the supply of energy at the expense of efforts to decrease the demand

Establish tax incentives and government procure-ment guidelines that motivate computer profession-als to purchase energy efficient servers and other datacentre components

Foster voluntary industry efforts to develop energy efficient computing products and engage in public-private partnerships that promote the cost benefits of energy efficient datacentres

The road aheadThere was a big hue and cry in the west when lead was found in a few toys imported from China, but it is true that a potentially much more toxic trade exists in the transfer of used computers being shipped to Third World countries for the purposes of recycling reusable parts. Greenpeace, the global campaigning organisation that aims to protect and conserve the environment, has warned of a “dangerous explosion in electronic scrap (e-waste) containing toxic chemicals and heavy metals that cannot be disposed of or recycled safely.” It urges manufacturers to take full life cycle responsibility for their goods, and once the products reach the end of their useful life, take them back for re-use, safe recycling or disposal.

Goverments are also cracking down-the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive was finally passed in the UK in July this year after much wrangling, where manufacturers and retailers of technology will have to pay a percentage of the total recycling cost of their equipment-depending on how much they sell or produce.

And if you thought the green movement was confined only to the optimum utilisation of hardware, you have another think coming. Green software is also taking its first steps. As we all know Microsoft has tied up with the Clinton Foundation to develop a set of technology tools that will help cities all over the world to monitor and control their greenhouse gas emissions. The software giant is providing a Web-based tool which will help cities measure their carbon footprint. According to Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft, “Technology has the power to make a positive, long-term contribu-tion to solving the world’s environmental challenges.”

The writing on the biodegradable wall is very clear. Technology managers will have to account for the environmental impact of their IT buying decisions going forward, and manufacturers will have to ensure that they pack in increasing amounts of comput-ing power in machines that become more energy efficient in the years to come.

“Energy savings are now right on top of a compa-ny’s agenda. And the situation is particularly critical in an energy-starved nation like India”CHAMPAKRAJ GURJAR MD, MAXTONE ELECTRONICS


SMB FOCUS

Small and midsized business networks require much of the same network hardware needed by enterprise networks, but SMB routers, firewalls and other network appliances should be tailored for

smaller networks. These tips will help SIs and VARs to enhance their SMB business…

While SMBs still need essential network security equipment such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems, these organisation are often limited by tight budgets and smaller staffs. DCC attempts to offer value-

added resellers (VARs), security consultants and systems integrators best practices for setting up and administering a network firewall and IDS for an SMB.

Firewalls and intrusion detection systems (IDS) are essential parts of an SMB’s network and its security. With the number of attacks on SMBs on the rise, a robust system is equally important for an SMB as it is for a large enterprise. And despite the challenges of recent Web and application-level attacks, a strong perimeter defense of firewalls — as old-fashioned as it may sound — is still necessary to protect your SMB.

But with tighter budgets and smaller staffs, you need to carefully plan where to place and set up these important network tools. As with

other IT projects, the key to keeping costs and maintenance in check is careful planning.

Choosing the right VPN for your customer: VPN options There is widespread agreement that access to corporate networks should be secured with a virtual private network (VPN), and chances are, your customers know they need one. But which VPN do they need? That’s where you come in. This feature looks at three popular types of VPNs (IPsec, OpenVPN, and SSL VPNs), and when each is appropriate, to help you recommend the right VPN to your customers.

IPsec VPNs IPsec is the IETF standard VPN. IPsec is an industrial strength VPN that is very flexible and configurable. It comprises three protocols:

26

5 best practices

networkingSMBfor


SMB FOCUSAuthentication Header (AH), which provides message authentica-tion; Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP), which provides message encryption and authentication; and Internet Key Exchange (IKE), which provides key management and protocol negotiation. Because almost all of the AH functionality is duplicated in ESP, AH is usually used only for special purposes, and we won’t consider it further.

The most useful way to configure ESP is tunnel mode, in which the VPN connects two networks or a single computer and a network. This covers the familiar cases of connecting two corporate sites and of connecting a road warrior to the corporate network. Traffic carried through such a VPN is encrypted, making it safe from snooping, and authenticated, making it safe from undetected alteration.

Because IPsec operates at the network (IP) layer, it works with any protocol carried by IP. This makes it an ideal general purpose VPN for customers that require strong security and flexibility. IPsec implementa-tions are available from all the major vendors, including Cisco, Juniper and Microsoft. On the other hand, IPsec can be difficult to configure and requires an experienced technician to keep it running.

OpenVPN Another general purpose network-to-network or computer-to- network VPN is OpenVPN. Although similar in functionality to tunnel mode ESP, OpenVPN is more lightweight and easier to configure than IPsec.

OpenVPN is a user mode program that runs on Unix/Linux, Windows and Mac systems. It uses TLS (SSL) for key and configuration negotia-tion and an ESP-like protocol to transport the IP datagrams. It can be configured to use shared keys — simple but less secure — or certificates for key management. When used with certificates, OpenVPN provides a very robust VPN solution.

OpenVPN is simple enough for use by your SMB customers that don’t have a dedicated IT staff. Although this VPN is robust enough for most security requirements, the fact that it is a user mode program means that it may experience some performance problems under very heavy load and thus may not be appropriate for large businesses with heavy traffic. However, it is an ideal solution for securing enterprise WiFi systems.

SSL VPNs Finally, there are SSL VPNs, which link a single computer to an appli-cation gateway on the corporate network. Because SSL VPNs leverage the client’s Web browser as an interface, additional software is often not needed on the client machine. This means that installation and support of client computers are simplified tremendously and that the client machines can run any operating system that supports a browser and SSL.

The disadvantage of this type of VPN is that to avoid extra soft-ware on the client machine and to realise OS independence, they are restricted to proxying Web pages and therefore are restricted to HTML/HTTP-aware applications. By adding a small amount of software on the client, SSL VPNs can perform application translation. This allows the VPN to handle specific non-Web applications for which the vendor has built support into the SSL VPN gateway — mail, telnet and file services are examples.

If your customer requires secure remote access to Web-based applica-tions such as online catalogues, price lists, directories or manuals; order entry; customer contact reporting; or similar applications, SSL VPNs are an ideal solution, regardless of the size of the business.

VoIP migration made simple with hybrid PBXs Voice over IP (VoIP) offers many advantages for its users. However, SIs and VARs are going to have a hard time convincing customers to tear out an existing phone system.

The advantages of VoIP have become clear over the past few years, but the thought of ripping out and replacing a functioning phone system is a frightening prospect. Hybrid PBXs support both tradi-tional Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) phones and VoIP, easing the transition from TDM to VoIP.

Suppliers of traditional PBXs such as Avaya and Nortel offer add-on boards or gateways that enable you to turn a traditional PBX into a hybrid PBX, providing a step by step path to VoIP. You can begin to

enjoy many of the advantages of VoIP without a complete replacement of your current PBX.

VoIP creates savings in multiple ways: Allows calls to be routed between company sites over the data network, thereby avoiding phone company charges.

Reduces and simplifies office wiring. VoIP enables you to run a single set of wires to each desktop to support both data and voice.

Enables unified messaging so voicemail can be accessed from a phone or from a PC.

Enables access to the PBX from softphones so employees can route calls through the PBX from home or when traveling.

Eliminates the need to update the PBX when users move from office to office since the phone number moves with the IP phone set.

Recommended steps in implementing VoIP A first step in the transition from TDM to VoIP often consists of adding an interface to the PBX to connect it to the company data network: an easy first step because there are no changes to connections to the desktops. Calls from one company site to another are then routed over the data network, avoiding phone company charges. A TDM interface to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) remains in place to handle calls outside the company. If problems occur with the newly added interface, intra-company calls can be temporarily routed over the PSTN.

The next step can take place when a new block of offices is added or an existing office area is remodeled. Adopting VoIP for these offices means saving the expense of running phone wiring. You will wire the area only for the office data network, which will need to be installed in any case. VoIP means that there is no need to run traditional phone wiring to the new offices.

How to choose the best router for your customer The network manager has told you that the network may need a new router. Now it’s your turn. As the channel partner, what do you recom-mend? Assuming your customer already has a functional network, there are many reasons why you may want to recommend a new router. Obviously, scalability is one reason. The customer may have run out of Ethernet ports on their current router. The router may be near its shelf life (perhaps it has been serviced too frequently and is off of warranty and/or support), and you know it’s time for a newer model. Or the customer may have a new requirement to support a different protocol than they have been using — such as RIP2, BGP, IGMP, HSRP, IGRP or OSPF — and perhaps their existing router does not support this protocol. Be very careful to check this out, as you don’t want to be accused of buying unnecessary equipment to pad your account manager’s wallet.

The customer may want to implement VLANs into their network or work with spanning tree. They may also have a new requirement to provide better failover and redundancy than their existing router provides. Perhaps they want an integrated router/VPN, without having to rely on a firewall. There are pros and cons of doing it this way, but clearly if there are budget constraints, an integrated packet filtering router that also provides VPN services for remote client connectivity may help them. Your responsibility is to define the pros and cons, and let the customer make the actual decision.

Some things to consider When upgrading the customer to a new router, you must understand the level of support available from the vendor, unless your company is fully staffed to provide that support. If you try to go with a low-priced router, it may not have the technical staff to help you deal with potential problems. One must also consider the platforms that WAN engineers typically use, as it will be easier to support the environment with industry-standard products that are fully utilised by the majority of companies, small and large.

For both the enterprise and SMB, it is important to choose a manufac-turer that cares enough about their products to educate the engineers responsible for deploying their products (and not just box pushers).

27

LEADERSHIP


sevenThe

golden rulesfor effective decision-making

Illu

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tion

: Shr

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shna

Pat

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LEADERSHIP


Good leadership is all about taking informed and timely decisions and such decisions at the top level can spell doom or mark the success of an organisation. To know how you can buck up your decision-making technique, read on… MANEKA TANWANI

The Indian channel community is growing at a fast rate and organisational structures are becoming complex. It is becom-ing critical that such channel partners develop their leader-ship skills to sustain and grow, especially in today’s era of

globalisation. One of the key leadership skills that can make or break a company is the ability to take effective decisions.

As you climb up the corporate ladder, your job entitles, above all to make decisions. You are always involved in some or the other kind of decision-making – be it reviewing reports, coming up with innovative ideas to get that edge, hiring somebody, proposing a budget or evaluat-ing alternatives for a problem.

Poor decision-making is a serious problem for business, eventually affecting a company’s reputation, long-term growth, employee morale, productivity and revenue. It is becoming quite apparent that businesses need to understand how decision-making affects their bottom line.

Every senior executive has a different style. There are some who like to gather as much as information possible about an issue. They like to conduct research, understand all possibilities and options. They strive to be perfectionists and come to a decision only after they are sure they have the best possible solution. There are also some who like to make a verdict as soon as they have sufficient data to supplement it. Then there are others who strike a balance in the above two and adapt according to the demands of the situation.

To build your own decision making style is a trial and error exercise. Only after you try out various things, will you know what suits you best to make informed and right decisions. There are few techniques that will help you do that.

Understand the type of problem – Seasoned leaders know how to tackle different problems. The key lies in knowing when to respond imme-diately and when to wait. Some problems go away is left alone for a while and some need immediate attention. You can arrive at a decision by looking at it one step at a time. Taking a systematic approach can prevent being overwhelmed by the situation. Never take a hasty deci-sion as the consequences can be pretty scathing.

Anticipate problems – Learn to anticipate problems so when they occur you are not caught off-guard and end up making the wrong choice in that moment. Train yourself by looking at various situations and predicting what might happen. This will help in dealing situations in a better way as you will be prepared to tackle the problem with multiple possible solutions. Though it is not possible to be know every time, with practice you will be able to understand how each member of your team works and that will make it easier for you foresee problems.

The 24 hour rule – Try to sort most problems within 24 hours of its occurrence. This reduces unnecessary delays and also helps you avoid making instant and hasty decisions. It gives you enough time to ponder on a particular problem and choose the right course of action. Again, there are various decisions that need a cautious approach. Sleep on these decisions before taking any action. This allows your subconscious a chance to participate in the process and possibly provide you with new insights. Also, there are many issues that become clearer when given due thought and sleeping on them makes these decisions easier.

Don’t try to be a superhero - Just because you are the skipper of the ship doesn’t mean that you have to take every decision pertaining to the business. Prioritise and delegate. Get as much help in the process as possible as it will provide with multiple options to choose from. This solves two purposes – it leave you time to deal with mission-critical issues and it shows that you trust your team members. This motivates them to work harder and feel ownership to the business. Not to forget, delegating builds future leaders.

Base decisions on concrete facts – This is easier said than done but

don’t let personal prejudices bias your decision. Get the right facts and figures in front of you, weigh the pros and cons. Don’t get influenced by hearsay. Involve your team to get different points of view to debate and come to a sound decision. Understand the consequences of the decision before you make one.

Be in control – Be calm and collected. When making group decisions make your point effectively. Listen to other people. Don’t force your decisions. Try to persuade them and not force them. Don’t decide when in doubt. Clear thinking is the only way to make the right choices. Be confident when you make a decision and stick to your decision till the end. It is impossible to make the right decision all the time but it is important that you do not lose your conviction and self belief.

Learn from poor decisions made in the past and focus on bettering your skills. And most importantly, never compromise your ideals. Stand up for what you truly believe in.

Follow your gut instinct – Most accomplished leader s follow their intuition. Experience gives that instant feeling of what is right. Trust that feeling and go with it. This is tough to do for methodical people but when your instinct tells you that something is wrong, pay attention to it.

Making a smart decision is the key. It can take a few minutes or a few days to make that. To avoid going round and round in circles, wast-ing time and negatively hitting the bottom-line, concentrate on making timely decisions sooner rather then later. It is all about finding the right balance between efficient use of time, relevant research, delegating when needed and listening to you gut instinct.

How to make effective decisions

Failure of a leader to arrive at a right decision, at the right time can lead to unnecessary delay and productivity loss. There is no guarantee that the decision taken is correct. Not making a decision, however, can result in disaster.

Though the following method is very simple, its impact cannot be under-stated. It is concrete and strikes at the root of the problem.

Write down what the problem is. Analyse the problem so you under-stand the complexity of it. Most decisions fail because the problem is not fully comprehended.

Collect the essential data but don’t be too fixated with laying your hands with every piece of available information.

Identify the actions needed to accomplish your established goals. Write down what you can do about it. Penning down various solutions or alter-natives can help you get a better picture of the scenario. It also helps in not missing out any key elements.

Decide or choose what to do. You can then use the technique of elimination and come to a sound and apt decision.

Act on it as soon as possible. Stick to the solution and set the chain of action.


CUSTOMER INSIGHTS

Where to start’ is the big question. Answering this is difficult for many organisations. The key aspect is to

appraise existing relationships, determine the value of each and work to strengthen the promising ones.

One of the first steps in increasing the value of business relationships is to understand the relationships your organisation maintains. The challenge is to weed through every exist-ing relationship to evaluate and classify each one. If you have a database dedicated to managing organisational communications and interactions, use that. Otherwise, buy or build such a tool.

There is a huge repository of customer rela-tionship management (CRM) tools available and they come with a variety of capabilities and price tags. In the event your organisation is able to afford a higher-end solution, consider low-cost and open source solutions. These systems are also feature-packed, and relatively easy to configure and implement. If your organisation does not have a CRM application and cannot afford to purchase one, use Microsoft Outlook, Excel or anything else available that can manage rows and columns of information. Outlook offers better data storage flexibility and interac-tion tools, but Excel is easier to use for financial analysis and sorting.

Determine value of relationships If you have an information management tool implemented or have adopted an alternate solution, load all the available information about your organisation’s relationships into the database. Then begin classifying. Common

classifications include the type of relation-ship (lead, prospect, customer, sales partner and vendor) and the status of each relation-ship (active, inactive or archive). Categorise each relationship with respect to industry, company size, geography and products or services used.

If your organisation has information relat-ing to the marketing activity that initiated contact, record that as well. Document sales history, returned orders, referral business and other events that affect the value of the rela-tionship. Then identify the three most impor-tant elements of the relationship from the other party’s perspective. Finally, classify each relationship according to its current value and again according to the potential for increas-ing long-term value. Try to use no fewer than three – but no more than five – classifications of value and potential.

The organisation elects to recommend its poorest relationships to its competitors. This can be a smart move when there is little hope of building a profitable relationship with the contact. The organisation also plans to grow its keepers through regular interaction.

Marginal relationships will receive follow-up contact each quarter. Average relationships will receive contact every month. And rela-tionships the organisation values the most will receive weekly attention. Because the organi-sation also ranks its relationships according to future potential, its people are able to attack the most promising relationships first and work on the least promising ones using cost-efficient methods, such as e-mail.

Once every relationship is classified, ranked

and loaded into the organisation’s interaction database, the next step is to make the informa-tion available to everyone who needs access to it. Train them to use the database and the information effectively.

Strengthen relationships Your organisation’s technology users should be able to access pertinent, up-to-date infor-mation from any location at any time. That is why CRM applications are better solutions than spreadsheets and homegrown databases for organisations attempting to be customer-centric.

With all available information in one place, staff can act in unison, and the organisation can create a coordinated response that grows relationship value. Consider the advantages of a staff able to handle all of a caller’s issues without transferring the call or placing the call on hold, compared with one that puts its customers on hold or forces them through an endless maze of menu options.

One of the most frustrating things for call-ers is a maze of menu options followed by time spent holding on the line for a person to answer the call. Callers’ frustration levels rise when the person answering the call has to run around looking for information or has to transfer the call just to respond to callers’ needs. This is not customer service: This is customer disservice, and it negatively impacts the long-term value of relationships.

Train employees Properly train employees and give them authority to take action. Make sure your automated phone system is easy for callers to use and keep wait times down to a one-minute average. The objective is to make sure calls are handled quickly and do not have to be trans-ferred for requests or problems to be resolved. The primary goal is to build the value of every relationship with each interaction.

An organisation is truly customer-driven when it properly manages information, makes it available to the right people at the time needed, and trains its staff to use it to build relationship value. Creating a reposi-tory of information and sharing it throughout the organisation is just one step that must be taken along the way.

30

Adding value through customer relationship Being customer-driven is crucial in today’s marketplace. Here are some tips that will help you be more customer friendly and create business value…


C E L E B R I T Y C O N N E C T

“By asking customers to make an informed choice, Vishwanathan Anand has helped in creating a mindshare for AMD in the customers’ mind. This approach has been critical and consumers today have started researching for more information before buying a product.”Himanshu Jain, CEO, SMC International, New Delhi

“Vishwanathan Anand’s association with AMD has helped build a human connect and has created awareness about the company in the minds of consumers which wasn’t the case earlier.”Ganeshan, Proprietor, Mensel Computers, Coimbatore

“With the association of a gifted mind like Vishwananthan Anand, AMD has created combination of brilliant minds and brilliant products.”Dinesh Heda, Proprietor, Shwetha Computers, Hyderabad

“The three similarities between computers and chess are performance, speed and memory. I believe that AMD and Vishwanathan Anand are true leaders in these three parameters. He is the perfect brand ambassador for AMD. We have effectively leveraged this association to educate our customers about AMD products.”Vikas Parekh, Proprietor, Samvik Marketing, Mumbai

“In the game of chess, every move has multiple options. A well-thought decision makes the difference between winning and losing. Similarly, at AMD we strongly promote taking informed decisions among our customers and partners. Customers need to be aware of all the choices and then make an informed purchase based on the specifi c requirements. The brand synergy between AMD and Vishwanathan Anand has helped us in more ways than one by creating a better recall for our philosophy and build the mindshare amongst employees, customers and partners. We even started

a website called AskVishy.com, which was quite successful in providing an open platform to our stakeholders for information exchange to enable informed decision-making. We believe that increase in business comes at a later stage; it is utmost critical to persuade the customers to evaluate their choices.

Channel partners are the foundation of our existence in the Indian market and we have been extremely fortunate to have their support in this campaign. Our efforts are directed at continuing to seek their support in making the customers aware of their choices and at working together to meet the customers’ needs.” .

Deepanshu Sharma, GM - Marketing,

Strategy and ISV Alliance, AMD India


C O N N E C TC E L E B R I T Y

AMD’s Grand Master


ANALYST SPEAK

Beating the downturn – back to basics

Although the picture for the Asian mobile services industry is one of resilience, it would be a mistake to conclude mobile

network operators are having it easy. Operators are suffering from reduced roaming revenue, declines in usage and spending, and currency fluctuations. So what can be done to thrive in this environment?

“The downturn intensifies the imperative for operators to get the basics right - plan ahead, evaluate risks, and cut costs – while treating the customer as king”, said Nathan Burley, Ovum Analyst.

The economic downturn means those care-fully prepared three-year-old plans are prob-ably outdated. Now is the time for mobile network operators to reassess their core strategy. MNOs (Mobile Network Operators)

should ask themselves: Who are our custom-ers and how much longer will they sustain their telecoms spending? Should we dispose our non-core assets? How will we adapt to new competitive threats?

This is the time to plan for the unexpected. How much operations can be sustained with reduced capital expenditure? What will happen to your profits if governments impose new taxes? What about increasing unemployment?

Slashing discretionary spending, trimming jobs, outsourcing network operations, stream-lining supply chains and renegotiating dealer contracts are some of the options.

“Although, while the temptation is there to cut marketing costs, this is no time to abruptly slash the marketing budget”, advised Burley. Customers need to know about all the good

things MNOs are doing. “The recession may also open cheaper marketing opportunities, such as lower media costs, and MNOs should exploit those”.

Additionally, customer facing units must place a renewed focus on meeting and exceed-ing their customer needs. In an industry where churn is accepted as normal, now is the time to focus on holding on to customers. Good customer relations are a priority and this is the time to understand customers better — their wants, preferences, and spending habits.

During this downturn, MNOs need to empower their customers by offering them value-based products and services. “Low-cost providers in Asia have already mentioned the ‘positive’ impact of the downturn”, concluded Burley.

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There is a growing awareness among the SMB segment in the country towards the various threats to their data,

deployment of relevant solutions to coun-ter this threat has not matched up, states Symantec 2009 SMB Security & Storage survey. This survey has covered verticals such as BFSI, healthcare, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, professional services, education, etc.

While SMBs in India are aware of the need to protect information (84 percent), protect the network (76 percent), protect the desktop (53 percent), protect the servers (81 percent), protect e-mail (67 percent), and backup & recovery of data (83 percent), the stark reality is that the awareness has not neces-sarily translated in users actively deploying solutions that ef fectively protect their corporate data.

“The survey shows that small and midsized businesses in India want to protect their infor-mation, both internally and externally, but wafer thin budgets, coupled with inadequate and under-trained manpower are clearly stop-ping them from doing so”, said Ajay Verma, Director, Channel and Alliances, Symantec India. “As information within Indian SMBs continues to grow, there will be enormous pressure on these organisations from their customers and partners to effectively and appropriately, secure and manage their information.”

According to the survey, 61 percent of Indian SMB’s were unaware of the present day IT security threats. While a majority of respondents are extremely concerned about basic security issues like virus attacks (73 percent), phishing scams (60 percent) and spam (64 percent), a large number of respon-dents did not consider data loss (68 percent),

Indian SMBs falling short in deploying securityemployee ignorance (70 percent), unauthor-ised network access (50 percent) and unen-

crypted laptops (61 percent) as major security threats.

digit channel connect june 2009 issue

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