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Honeywell awards its APAC Channel Partners Gigabyte introduces GeForce GTXTITAN X

22nd Friday, May 2015Silver Oak Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi


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HP announces Channel

Program updates pre-split

HP has announced updates toits channel partner programsdesigned to help partners captureimmediate opportunities and positionthem for future growth. The HP

Partner Navigator Programis designed to help HPpartners through HPsupcoming separation intotwo companies, while

additional programs,including the Partner One

Alliance, is designed to help

partners drive positive business outcomesfor their customers.HP is committed to sustained growth

for its partners, focussing on the threekey pillars of simplicity, innovation andprotability, said Rajiv Srivastava, VP &GM, PPS HP India.

Microsoft to help

customers adopt

Cloud easily

With the aim to help Indianenterprises and governmentorganizations so that they can harnessthe power of cloud, Microsoft India haslaunched a special Cloud AcceleratorProgram. Microsoft Indias CloudAccelerator Program is specially designedto help Indian customers start and

complete theircloud journey.More than15 Microsoftp a r t n e r s

including HCL, Wipro and Tech

Mahindra will be part of the rollout ofthe Cloud Accelerator Program in India.More partners will come on board withnew offerings over the coming months.

Microsoft has also launched cloudtraining programs Azure Vidyapeethand GuruVarta, for partners that willenable SMBs transition to the cloud.

From Paper to Digitization34pg

EMC launches ViPR Controller 2.2 Ricoh launches MP C2011SP

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38pg

Service Support Key

to a Vendors Success


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S. Mohini Ratna

Editor, VARINDIA

[email protected]

Technology innovation is changing the game for businesses, industries and markets. Enterprises are

increasingly growing interested in adopting the Cloud. With freedom of Internet, net neutralitywould create a fair level-playing eld for all companies big and small to produce the best services andoffer these to consumers.

In view of some of the recent developments in the country, there is much to be written about. TheGovernment is highly committed to empowering the nation digitally and is moving at a supersonic speedto implement many of the programmes such as e-governance, UID, mobile payment, etc. The governmentis also working in partnership with the ICT industry to implement the Digital Presence. With favourablegovernment policies and the burgeoning market for local consumer electronics, telecom products andavailability of skilled labour, there is also a renewed thrust to attract investments to boost the Indian EDMS(Electronic Document Management System) industry.

Additionally, for India to become a global manufacturing hub, there are many challenges that ITmanagers are faced with, like how to satisfy performance demands without new signicant IT capitalinvestments. Also, we have to create a world-class infrastructure in order to render the Make in Indiainitiative a success. It is denitely a positive aspect to increase manufacturing in the country, but not before checking on the potential of good

human resources and institutions of various kinds that will make the cost of capital reasonable.With a positive note, digitization is growing and evolving. Consumer demand is rapidly changing the marketplace. Companies are nding

new ways to innovate for business advantage and are capitalizing on new opportunities to achieve signicant business improvement. It hasalso been noticed that certain corporates are moving towards a digital form of communication. It is good to move with the time, but it is alsodangerous at some point. It will be wrong to believe that they will nd all that they need in the Google. So to point out to some really interestingexamples or anecdotes, many people want to know the source of information from where it is collected, and itinvariably comes from a print brand in digital form or otherwise.

Lastly, various opportunities for technology players with multibillion dollar opportunities are lined up in varioussectors like Smart Governance, Smart Energy, Smart Environment, Smart Transportation, Smart InformationTechnology & Communications, Smart Buildings, Smart Health, Smart Education and Smart Power. It is up tothem on how they prepare themselves for the transformation to a world-class digital infrastructure.

Are we rightly value adding. to transform India into a Manufacturing Hub

HELLO INDIA

Parikshet Singh Tomar

Country Category Leader, PrintingSystems, PPS - HP India

What is latest in the printing categoryat present?

We are leaders in the Laser-jet categoryand we will continue to lead this market. HPhas been innovating in the laser-jet printingportfolio for last 30 years but this is the rsttime that we have introduced some veryholistic features in our latest offering in this

category, under what we call Jet Intelligence.These series of printers are far more spacesaving than a previous generation printer,50 % + energy efcient, 40 % faster in itsrst page print-out, thus ensuring that theseorganizations remain cost competitive. Thenew launch is also a Colour Laser-Jet printer.We are foreseeing a higher traction andrequirement for colour in todays businessenvironment. One of the requirements thenew-age organizations are putting forward isthat they want to use colour as part of theircommunication because they are much more

powerful and gets much more response fromtheir clients. All these products are designedfor the new-age ofce environment; smallerin size and compact in design so that theycan t into the shrinking ofce size that wesee today. These products will therefore setthe norm for the future products that willcome in. HP has been part of a lot of printerlaunch earlier but this is one umbrella we will

put together on the Jet Intelligence piece. Itis both for mid-market and enterprise classcustomers.

As for single function and multi-functionprinters, though single-function printersare in itself a huge market, the market isshifting towards multi-function printers andthe trend shows that they are fast gaining

momentum.In the current scenario of stiff

competition, what kind of innovativesales and marketing strategies is HPadopting?

HP has got 3 go-to-market strategies aroundConsumer, Enterprise and Commercial andeach segment has its own specic initiativesto drive business in the market. For exampleif we talk about coverage, it is about goingto more number of cities and towns whichwill help in growing the overall business.HP will keep continuing its focus in eachof these areas going forward. I do not seeany major challenges though because ofthe competition though but yes, I ndopportunities everywhere. So opportunitiesare immense for all of us.

How much innovation do you al lowin your products while still keeping the

price factor in mind?

We do whatever research is required onour part and ensure that the pricing is in line

with what the customer wants. It should notbe way off the mark and should be based onthe customers needs and what they are readyto pay for that feature. So we do such kindof analysis and we keep on working withour worldwide teams as the nal product isdeveloped by them. But we price it in theway the local market research tells us. n


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This will be a wonderful journeyfor both HP and their Partners

There has been much speculation around the separation of HP into two entities, of how partners

would react to the confusion that it will give rise with regard to the go-to-market strategy. HP is,

however, trying to simplify the matter for partners by introducing several programmes. Gurpreet

Singh Brar, Director Commercial Channel Sales, PPS, HP India, throws more light on this

It is no longer news to anyone that HP is separating into two newFortune 50 Public Companies. While HP Inc. will be the leadingpersonal systems and printing company, Hewlett-Packard Enterprisewill build upon HPs leading position in servers, storage, networking,converged systems, services and software as well as its OpenStackHelion cloud platform.

In the runup to the separation that is going to be effectivefrom November 2015, HP has announced updates to its channelpartner programmes, designed to help partners capture immediateopportunities and position them for future growth. As far as thepartner programmes are concerned, there is going to be no changein the overall framework. The only change which will be thereon the channel programme part is going to help them make sure

that the transition from one company to two is seamless, saysGurpreet Singh Brar, Director Commercial Channel Sales, PPS,HP India.

HP Partner Navigator Programme and the HP Partner OneAlliance are the two programmes introduced to the partners thatwill help them go through a smooth transition. Post November,as we continue to operate as two separate companies we willhave to make sure that there is enough focus from both us andpartners on the market. Separation is an operational thing, whichwill happen simultaneously without disrupting our focus on themarket, he says.

HP is conducting partners round table and updating itspartners on the new changes. Partners, on their part, are quiteexcited and have given a positive feedback. As we go forward

from 1st November, there are going to be two teams with twolegal entities. Partners are very bullish about this new change andthis separation. They understand that in order to grow the marketand go beyond what they are doing now, these have to have achange, reiterates Gurpreet.

Since both the businesses (PPS and enterprise business) will havedifferent requirements in terms of speed, velocity, time-to-marketfrom a product standpoint, R&D and investment, having just onecompany was making it look very cumbersome. The resources andrequirement of one team may vary from the other team. So havingtwo teams will ease the situation to a large extent. When you hire twodifferent entities, speed and agility will come automatically and thecost will be optimized in a much better way, believes Gurpreet.

Going aheadAs far as channel is concerned, HP has always believed thatits pillars are simplicity, profitability and information. It keepsdoling out specialization programmes for its partners in differentareas like Mobility, value while giving extra rebates, thus makingsure that the partners make money in its dealings with HP. Froma partnership standpoint, there has to be a balanced portfolio ofsales and this is where HP spends a lot of time with its partners. n

[email protected]

HP Partner Navigator ProgrammeThe HP Partner Navigator Programme will help distributors

and the reseller network maintain business continuity throughHPs separation. With resources including dedicated HP PartnerSupport Centers, the HP Partner Navigator Programme will enableall HP-authorized partners to continue to deliver the operationalexcellence and high standards their customers have come to expect.

HP Partner One Alliance

The Partner One Alliance is designed to help top partnerscontinue to offer cross-portfolio opportunities across companiesafter the separation. With the Partner One Alliance, both Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and HP Inc. will work together on partneractivities and maximize participation in industry channel events.Dedicated teams in both companies will collaborate to build jointbusiness and marketing plans around specic solutions in the keyareas of the portfolios. The Partner One Alliance will be availableto all Platinum, Gold, Silver and distribution partners.

Gurpreet Singh Brar

Director Commercial Channel Sales, PPS - HP India


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ROUND ABOUT

Whether you believe it or not, Indiasdomestic electronics hardwaredemand is going to reach US$400 billion by2020. However, our domestic productionwill be around US$100 billion, judging by the

current levels of production. This means that,to meet the domestic demand, we will have toimport electronics hardware worth US$300billion annually. Policy watchers say that, atthis rate, our electronic goods import will behigher than that of oil imports.

Have we been caught unaware of thislooming threat? The answer is both yes andno. Yes, because such a precarious situationcould have been anticipated at least twodecades back and corrective steps could havebeen taken to ward off the occurrence of suchan eventuality, which has great economicramications. No, because despite beingaware of the rollout of the sinister economichappening, there is not much that could havebeen done to prevent it.

Let me go into the history to set the stage.In the early 1980s, when we started looking atinformation technology, we had two edglingsectors, connected to each other and had a lot incommon: computer software and services andelectronics hardware. Domestic productionwas limited for both these segments.

That time, we had almost a headstart inelectronics. There were several companiesmanufacturing TV sets, radios, tape recorders

and the like and there was only one channel,the state-owned Doordarshan which used totelecast for limited hours in the wee hoursof morning and in the evening.

In the meantime, computer software andservices have been growing steadily. From amere export of less than US$100 million inthe late 1980s, it has peaked to US$100 billion,a big leap, forming a sizable chunk of Indiasforeign exchange earnings. But the model ofgrowth had its own ip sides. The growth wasconned mostly to the external sector totallyignoring the domestic market. That trendeven now continues. Of the total domestic

production of computer software and servicesestimated at US$120 billion or so, 80 per centis exported.

But electronics hardware depicts a differentstory. Not only has its production dipped,but also exports have stagnated at a low ebbof US$8 billion or so annually. With Indiasigning International Telecom Agreement(ITA) in 1997, which envisaged bringing theimport duty on electronics hardware goods tozero level by 2005, domestic production gotcrippled. Imports had become cheaper thandomestic production. Major internationalbrands imported heavily their gadgets insteadof producing them domestically. That had anegative impact on the Indian industry.

Are things changing now? Happily, theperception is slowly gaining ground that theelectronics sector can pick up riding on theback of two important programmes launchedin the country Make in India and DigitalIndia, which are designed to give a leg-up to

manufacturing and digital connectivity in thecountry. However, that alone will not bail outthe electronics hardware in the country. Thereis heavy import of chips or semiconductorswhich are going into the manufacture of

electronics goods in the country. These arecostly inputs, making electronics productioncostly and exports uncompetitive. The chips orsemiconductors are imported from countrieslike China, Taiwan, South Korea, etc.

There are two proposals with thegovernment to manufacture chips in thecountry, one in Gujarat and the other inYamuna Expressway in Greater Noida. Therewere proposals to manufacture chips in thecountry earlier also. One chip manufacturingfacility was set up in Chandigarh, which wasgutted and till date the exact reasons for there are not known. On the other hand, wedo not have anything to showcase as chipmanufacturing facility. Once these facilitiescome up, which some of the close industrywatchers are skeptic on account of the highcost involved in the wafer chip manufacturingfacility, things can look up. India will bein a position to push up the productionof electronic goods and thus ward off thelooming foreign exchange crisis on account ofthe heavy electronics goods import.

To become a world leader in electronics,we have to take on countries like China,Korea and Japan. Let us take China versus

India in terms of the inherent strength forelectronics goods manufacturing. There is nocomparison at all. While India is toying withthe idea of setting up two chip making plants,Chin has already over 100 units engagedin manufacturing. China has millions ofelectronic manufacturing units spread acrossthe country. India has only 3,600 units in theorganized sector found mostly in cities likeBengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurgaon.

While Chinese exports of electronicsproducts are in several billions of dollars, it isminiscule from India.

Now the government is determined

to create an ecosystem conducive for themanufacture of electronics goods. Manyscal and nancial incentives are framed tomotivate major players to come to India.Digital convergence refers to harmony of fourindustries, such as information technology,telecommunication, consumer electronicsand entertainment. The latest is that thesetechnologies are blended together for creatingnewer products.

But these things will not happen in avacuum. We have to work towards makingthem happen.

The government should introspectwhy large companies are shying away frominvesting in the electronics sector. The secondissue is why major companies both from Indiaand abroad are shying away from investing inwafer chip technology, despite the 25-per centcapital subsidy and plethora of other incentivesoffered? Even if these two projects oated bytwo consortia fructify, does it compare well

with China, which has over 100 chip makingfacilities? It is important that these issues aresorted out at the earliest to pave the way for avibrant electronics hardware sector.

A related issue is R&D. Most of theelectronics companies invest heavily inresearch and development to continuouslyupgrade the technologies since the averagelife span of a brand is less than a year. CanIndia afford such heavy investment in R&D?Importantly, India has created a new fund,

Electronics Development Fund, which isknown as Fund of Funds. This facility, whichoperates through a string of venture capitalfunds, zeroes in on entrepreneurs, who havethe caliber and professional outlook in settingup electronic units. The underlying premise isthat the capital subsidy and other facilities areavailed by only capable units which have thewill to succeed.

The other way to promote electronicsproduction in the country is by streamliningthe functioning of electronics hardware parks(EHTPs), which are exclusively dedicated to

augment the production of quality productsin the country. There is no denial that ourpast experience with EHTP is not thatencouraging. Some of the parks set up lack thebasic facilities like uninterrupted power andwater supply, facilities for treating e-wastes,lack of lodging and training facilities for theiremployees and so on.

At the end of the day, we cannot afford toincur huge import bill for electronics goods.The challenges that are staring at us shouldbe converted into opportunities to buildcapacities for production on a large scale notonly for substituting imports but also catering

to other markets. Once the expertise is built,innovations will follow. The most remarkableinnovation can be the evolution of digitalconvergence, when software and hardwarecombine to craft newer products.

That will also be the stage when Indian ITand related industry will be entering a newtrajectory. n

Tale of Two Brother Industries: IT and Electronics


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HOT BYTES

Konica buys printing business

of Monotech Systems

Oracle witnesses

demand in

Cloud Solutions

Oracle isw i t n e s s i n gunprecedented demand

for its cloud solutionsin the country. OraclesSoftware-as -a -Service(SaaS) business has seenthe highest and fastestadoption rate till date,with Platform-as-a-Service(Paas) close behind.

Over the last few years,Oracle has acquired severalhundred cloud customersin India, all using differentOracle Cloud solutions.The Oracle CustomerExperience Cloud (OracleCX Cloud), which includesOracle Sales Cloud,Oracle Service Cloud,Oracle Marketing Cloud,and Oracle Social Cloud,had the highest uptake incustomer adoption andaccounts for more than 50percent of the companysSaaS customer base.

HID Global buys

Quantum SecureHID Globalhas acquired

Quantum Secure. Withthis acquisition, HIDGlobal will enhance itsability to deliver an end-to-end identity managementsolution.

With the acquisitionof Quantum Secure,HID Global is takinga signicant step in

addressing customer needsin managing identity, riskand compliance. Thecompany has been at theforefront in deliveringa versatile managementtool for all organizations,especially those in highly-regulated industries suchas nance and healthcarewith demandingcompliance requirements.Going forward, thecombination of QuantumSecures SAFE softwaresuite with HIDs productportfolio will deliverever better and morecomprehensive solutionsfor our customers, saidDenis Hbert, HIDGlobal President & CEO.

Snapdeal buys FreeCharge

Zenith to enhance e-governance sector

Amazon announcesinvestments in Telangana

NASSCOMs start-ups Programme

in the fourth phase

IBM enables Start-ups toharness the Cloud

Konica Minoltahas announcedits acquisition of theProduction Printingbusiness of MonotechSystems Limited. Theacquisition will comeinto effect from June 1,2015. MSL is currentlya distributor for KonicaMinolta in India.

The other threedistributors HCLInfosystems Ltd, KMIBusiness TechnologiesPvt. Ltd. and TechNovaImaging Systems Ltd. willcontinue to be the valued

business associates andoperate, as earlier.

Yuji Nakata, MD,Konica Minolta India, said,The Production Printingmarket in India has beenrapidly growing. We havenow set ambitious targetsfor ourselves and the MSLacquisition will provideus a platform to directlycreate new value for ourcustomers, and achieve

higher levels of customersatisfaction.

Snapdeal hasa c q u i r e dFreeCharge. Thisacquisition sets upSnapdeal to build themost impactful digitalcommerce ecosystemin India. With thisacquisition, Snapdeal willbe offering the widestrange of products andservices, including nancialservices, mobile rechargeand utility payments withan exponentially growinguser base of over 40million.

Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder & CEO,Snapdeal, said, The age

of monolithic ecommerceplatforms is over. It is nowtime to build an impactfuldigital commerceecosystem in India thatis multidimensional andinclusive, delivering well-dened experiences toconsumers. With this game-changing partnershipwith FreeCharge, we havesignicantly enhanced ouruser base and now offerall our customers accessto the widest selectionof products and servicesonline, making digitalcommerce an even moreintrinsic part of theirlives.

Zenith Software

has plans toestablish their presencein more than 25 cities forthe growth of domesticIT market, especially inthe Banking and Govt.(e-gov) sectors. Currently,Zenith has expanded itsnetwork in 10 cities andis planning to tap the ITmarket across 25 cities inthe coming years.

Anoop SinghSengar, President &Deputy CEO, ZSL said,The Govt.s DigitalIndia Initiative, newtechnological shift(SMAC and OpenSource ) in the Indianbanking landscape andexponential growth in

the size of the domesticIT market has createda perfect ecosystemto further excel and

increase our already well-established presence in thedomestic market.ZSL is onthe path of transformationthrough innovation withexcellence to meet thecurrent needs of theindustry."

Amazon SellerS e r v i c e s(ASSPL) has announcedinvestments in the stateof Telangana with theopening of a FullmentCentre (FC), spread over280,000 square feet nearKottur, on the outskirtsof Hyderabad. The FCwill be operational fromMay 2015. The FC willallow Amazon.in to offerits Fullment by Amazon(FBA) service to thousandsof small and mediumbusinesses in the stateand empower them togain access to and servicecustomers across thecountry at signicantlylow operating costs. Itwill also enable faster

and quicker delivery ofproducts to amazon.incustomers in the region.

Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao said,"We are very excitedthat Amazon has decidedto invest their biggestwarehouse in Telangana.We have passed the TSiPass bill in our Assemblythat ensures self-certication and deemedapproval of all clearanceswithin three weeks ofapplication for any MegaProject. For Amazon, wehave given all clearancesin 11 days, well within theguaranteed time. We aremaking all efforts to makeTelangana an investor-friendly state."

The NationalAssociation ofSoftware and ServicesCompanies (NASSCOM)has marked the second

anniversary ofits 10,000 Start-up Programme tocreate 10,000 domain-specic start-ups inthe country by 2020.As the 10,000 start-upprogramme keeps rollingto its fourth phase ofshortlisting, Phase 3 had500 start-up shortliststhat went through pitchand mentoring Konnect

sessions. Applicationsare currently beingprocessed on FIFO basistill 22nd April for thenext session of Start-up

Konnect which is a miniboot-camp programmefor shortlisted start-upswho will be eligible forconnect-2-pitch withall ecosystem partners,including leadingaccelerators, angelinvestor networks andventure capital rms.

To run criticalapplications andgrow businesses, severalstart-ups across India aretapping into IBM cloud.Goldstar Healthcare,Vtiger, Clematix andEcoziee Marketing havechosen SoftLayer, an IBMcompany, as their cloudinfrastructure platform.

IBMs cloud servicesgive start-ups the requirededge to compete andthrive in a challengingmarketplace. said VivekMalhotra, Cloud Leader,

IBM India/ South Asia.IBM is powering cloud

adoption among Indianstart-ups by enabling themto do more with limitedresources and budgets.With SoftLayer, start-upscan begin on a small-scaleand then expand rapidly tomeet workload demands.A IBM cloud solutionscan help innovate at afaster pace, enrich userexperience and buildaffordable businessmodels.


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HOT BYTES

Xerox concludes XRCI Open 2015 Brocade plans

$300 Million

investment

To support thecompanys NewIP innovations, Brocade

has announced theopening of a new state-of-the-art DevelopmentCenter in Bangalore, andstated that it will investUS$300 million in Indiaover the next ve years.The new Center reafrmsBrocades commitmentto accelerating growth inone of the worlds fastest-growing economies, andwill play an importantrole in the development ofnetworking innovationsbased on the New IParchitecture.

The Center willenable Brocade Indiato showcase proofs-of-concept and pilot projectsfor customers and partners while contributing tothe development of next-generation, fabric-basedand software networkingsolutions.

Lenovo

introduces

DRS 2.0

Lenovo hasannounced DealRegistration System(DRS) DRS 2.0, an easy-to-use platform that buildsa direct online connectionbetween Lenovo andits commercial businesspartners. This initiativeaims to equip thepartners with updatedinformation, provideexclusivity and reducethe turnaround time fromclient identication to theclosure of business.

DSR 2.0 is a freeplatform and can beaccessed on any webbrowser and mobile

handsets. The platformbuilds on the rst versionof the platform DSR 1.0that was launched lastyear and adds severalfeatures that increasesfunctionality, speed andtransparency.

Barracuda enhances worldwide

Partner Program

MAIT and BIIPA to promote

local manufacturing

PM boosts e-governance plans

with Twitter Samvad

D-Link spreads D-Link

Direct Service

NTT to invest Rs 620-crorein new data centre

Xerox ResearchCentre India(XRCI) has conducted the2nd edition of XRCI OpenInnovation Symposium 2015 in Bangalore.

With the availabilityof abundant computingpower, proliferation of

data from sensors and

increasing digitization ofdata, there are amazingopportunities to applytechnology towardsmaking a difference tothe world at large, said

Dr Manish Gupta, Vice-President, Xerox Corp.and Director of Xerox

Research Centre in India.

To reinforceits position,Barracuda has enhancedits channel program toprovide the necessarystructure and tools to allowresellers to successfullysell and support Barracudasolutions for mutualcustomers. The newprogram is designed toaccelerate protabilityfor loyal partners, and toattract new, motivatedpartners.

Over the years, wehave added a tremendousamount of innovativetechnologies to our

solution portfolio toprovide our channelpartners with the bestpossible options to solvesecurity and storagechallenges for customers.We will continue tofocus on ensuring ourpartners are equippedwith the necessary toolsand resources to solvethese IT challenges, butalso better aligning theprogram to meet thedifferent needs of resellersat every partner level,said Michael Hughes,SVP Worldwide Sales,Barracuda.

Aiming topromote localmanufacturing, SMEChapter of MAIT hassigned an MoU withthe Busan IT Industry

Promotion Agency(BIIPA) in Bengaluru.The MoU aims to bringtogether Indian andKorean SMEs to upholdlocal manufacturingby regular exchange

of information ontechnology know-how,software development,talent exchange with astrong focus on industrialdevelopment in both the

countries. This MoU hasimparted further forwardmomentum to encouragelocal manufacturing ofproducts in India andset agendas for regularengagement.

To boost thee - g o v e r n a n c eplans, Indian PrimeMinister NarendraModi (@narendramodi)took another step in hisDigital India initiativeby launching TwitterSamvad. It is aimedat helping governmentbodies and leaders tocommunicate directlywith citizens on a dailybasis via Tweets and SMSon their mobile devices.

Through TwitterSamvad, every day a setof curated Tweets willbe delivered from thegovernment and leaders

D-Link hasmade a majorbreakthrough incustomer servicesupport by introducingthe revolutionaryD-Link Direct Service DDS during mid-2013. Following theoverwhelming responseto DDS, the company hasnow decided to extendthis service to customerspresent in C & D Classcities as well. As a result,the new and enhancedservice support systemwill make the turnaround

time faster and increasethe footprint for DDS pan

accounts to mobile usersacross the country as SMS.Updates on governmentservices, policies andactivities can be deliveredto any user with a mobiledevice signed up for theservice with each of the 16

launch partners. Anyonewith a mobile phone, withor without a data plan,can register for the serviceby giving a missed call toa unique number for eachof the partners.

Twitter Samvad isbased on the platformprovided by ZipDial, anIndian company recentlyacquired by Twitter.

India.The highly appreciated

and admired D-LinkDirect Service with itsnew Regional model will

be backed by D-LinkService Centres (DSCs)along with D-Link ServicePartners (DSP) and D-LinkAuthorized Collectioncentres (DAC). So witha presence in over 150cities, DDS will now offerfaster and reliable serviceto customers across India.All regional DDS Centresare equipped with thestate-of-the-art BGA (Ball

Grid Array) facilities tosupport quick resolution.

NTT Comm-unications isplanning to open a newdata centre through itssubsidiary Netmagic inMumbai by the end ofcurrent calendar yearwith an investment of$100 million. NTT,which offers voice andvideo solutions andnetwork services tocustomers, holds a 74%stake in Netmagic, whichis currently growing ataround 35% annually.

NTT has chosenIndia's nancial capitalMumbai over other

locations and since themetropolitan hosts manycorporate headquarters,the company expectsit to be a big businessdriver.

"The new data centrecoming up in Q3 2015will be spread across3-lakh square-feet and canhost up to 3,000 server

racs with 20MW-28MWenergy capacity," SharadSanghi, MD and ChiefExecutive of Netmagic,said. "This new datacentre will have carrier-neutral business model,"he added.


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18/56


ON THE RAMP

Adobe introduces Adobe Document

Cloud

Axis launches

Q61-E Series

of Camera

Ax i sCommunications has

introduced new AXISQ61-E Series. TheSharpdome technologywith its innovativemechanics and a uniquedome geometry providesfull scene delity and sharpimages in all directions.The technology enablescameras to offer theunique capability toidentify objects as muchas 20 above the camerahorizon making thesecameras also suitable foruneven terrain.

By bringing theSharpdome technologyinto the new AXISQ61-E Series, we canoffer a compact androbust PTZ camera forreliable identication inHDTV that ts in mostenvironments. said ErikFrnnlid, Axis Directorof Product Management.

Juniper unveilsnew application

acceleration

switch

Juniper Networkshas unveiled theQFX5100-AA, a newapplication accelerationswitch and the QFX-PFA, a new packet owaccelerator module,together providing aground-breaking datacenter switch thatconsolidates computeresources and customizablelogic into the network.

Ideal for nancialservices institutions,the switch and modulewill vastly improvethe performance ofapplications that handle

market data feeds, socialmedia feeds, orderexecution routing and bigdata analytics, allowingnancial rms to makedecisions faster and takeadvantage of real-timemarket opportunities.

Ruckus redefines Wi-Fi ZoneFlex R710

Dell brings enhanced Networking

Solutions for SMBs

Ricoh launches MP C2011SP

Dimension Data helps customers

shift to Next-Gen Data Center

Panasonic rolls out Duplex

Multifunctional Printers

Adobe hasintroduced itsnewest cloud offering,Adobe Document Cloud,a modern way to managedocuments at home, in theofce and acrossdevices. AdobeDocument Cloudconsists of a set ofintegrated servicesthat use a consistentonline prole andpersonal documenthub. At the heart ofDocument Cloud is theall-new Adobe AcrobatDC, which will takee-signatures mainstreamby delivering free e-signing

as part of the integratedsolution.

Clearly, we havestruck a chord, as weset out to alleviatedocument distress for both

enterprise workersand individualc o n s u m e r s .With DocumentCloud, we arerevolutionizinghow peopleget work done

with documents, andour customers areapplauding the move,said Bryan Lamkin, Sr VP,Technology and CorporateDevelopment, Adobe.

Dell has announcedan enhancednetworking portfolioincluding the new X-seriesfamily of smart managed

switches and an expandedN-series family with theaddition of the Dell N1500for smaller fully-managedenvironments.

We observed thatSMBs (just as largerenterprises) are beingaffected by the increasedworkload rising out ofthe high impact trends ofsocial, mobility, cloud andanalytics. To effectivelywork through theseworkloads, such businessesrequire enterprise-level

Ruckus Wirelesshas unveiled theRuckus ZoneFlex R710,a Wi-Fi access point (AP)based on Wave 2 featuresof the 802.11ac standardthat extends Wi-Fi toenable multi-gigabitWi-Fi performance and

unprecedented capacity.ZoneFlex R710 is the

rst Wi-Fi access pointto now support majortechnical advances in the802.11ac standard thatallow the simultaneoustransmission of multipleclient streams todifferent devices overthe same frequency,a highly anticipated

new capability calledmulti-user multipleinput/multiple output(MU-MIMO). Thisenables over two timesthe density of mobiledevices versus Wave 1,and aggregate data ratesexceeding two gigabits

per second.With four discrete,

dual-band smart antennaarrays, the ZoneFlexR710 is capable ofdynamically creating over4,000 unique directionalantenna patterns perradio, mitigating up to15dB of RF interferencewhile also reducing co-channel interference.

technology which is rightsized, resource light andnancially exible. Ournew N-Series and X-Seriesnetworking products workefciently and seamlesslyin mid-market companiesby providing enterprise-level technology optimizedfor their workloads, saidManish Gupta, Director &GM, Enterprise SolutionsGroup, Dell India.

Ricoh has unveiledthe MP C2011SPColor Digital ImagingSystems for printingindustry. MP C2011SPoffers fast speed, greater

paper capacity and worry-free security. Further,it allows customers toexpand their digitalimaging resources andcapabilities withoutexpending their budget.

Users can maximizeproduction with fasteroutput speed, conserve ITresources with advancednetwork, Color and Monoprinting and monitoringcapabilities, and save

time and money with

document sharing overthe mail in a network.

Manoj Kumar,Executive VP & CEO,Ricoh India Ltd., said,With the aim to offerbest-in-class performanceproduct, Ricoh has broughtthis compact device thatoffers advanced featuresfor multifunctional

operations.

To helpo r g a n i z a t i o n sbuild next-generationData Center, DimensionData has launched a newmaturity tool. The DataCenter DevelopmentModel the rst

assessment that coverssuch a broad spectrumof the data center wascreated off the back ofstrong demand fromclients seeking guidanceand actionable plans tomake their data centersmore responsive andagile.

According to

Steve Joubert, GroupExecutive for DataCenters, DimensionData, global competitivepressures brought on bysocial, mobile, analyticsand cloud have had atremendous impact on

data centers to transformto remain relevant.Every client we speakto is looking for waysto transform their datacenters to become moreresponsive to businessneeds. It is with this inmind that we developedthe Data CenterDevelopment Model.

Panasonic Indiahas introduced itsmultifunctional duplexprinters with high-speed 24ppm. Thesenew printers come withmemory of 64MB, whichboast a speed of 24ppmwith double- sidedprinting along with anadded advantage of 2-in-1function which consumes part of an A4 sizepaper and reduces tonerusage. These printersare also compatible toGoogle, Cloud print andMobile print applications,making it accessible toany electronic gadget.

Manish Sharma,

MD, Panasonic India,said, Panasonic hassuccessfully made inroadsinto the Indian businessmarket and this segmentholds immense growthopportunities for us toexpand.With the launchof these products, we arelooking at capturing 20%market share by 2016."


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20/56


ON THE RAMP

Kingston unveils HS4 All-

In-One Media Reader

Palo Alto unveils

AutoFocus

Palo AltoNetworks has alsointroduced a new cyber-threat intelligence service,called AutoFocus. This

service gives prioritized,actionable intelligencedesign so that customerscan take clear advantagein the battle against cyber-threats.

AutoFocus cyber-threat intelligence serviceis able to expose the latestthreat tactics, techniques,and procedures usedby attackers, Attributeattacks to specicadversaries, Identifyhow specic threats tinto a larger campaignand Distinguish betweencommodity malwareversus highly customizedor targeted malware.

These advancedcapabilities enablecustomers to quicklyprioritize highly targetedattacks, apply appropriateresources to address them,and take immediate action

to protect critical assets.

Micron & Intel

intro 3D NAND

Flash Memory

Mi c r o nTechnology andIntel Corporation havejointly developed the new3D NAND technology.Flash is the storagetechnology used insidethe lightest laptops, fastestdata centers, and nearlyevery cellphone, tabletand mobile device.

This new 3D NANDtechnology stackslayers of data storagecells vertically withextraordinary precisionto create storage deviceswith three times highercapacity than competingNAND technologies.

This enables morestorage in a smaller space,bringing signicant costsavings, low-power usageand high performance to arange of mobile consumerdevices as well as the mostdemanding enterprisedeployments.

SanDisk improves FlashSoft

Caching Software Portfolio

EMC launches ViPR Controller 2.2

Fujitsu M10 Servers accelerateDatacenter Transformation

Blue Coat enhances itsproduct portfolio

EMC ViPRController isstorage automationsoftware that centralizesand transforms storage intoa simple, extensible andopen platform. It abstractsand pools resources todeliver automated, policy-driven storage services ondemand via a self-servicecatalog. The vendorneutral centralized storagemanagement, helps inreducing costs, providingchoice and deliveringa path to the cloud. Italso provides seamlessintegration with cloudstacks and supports an

Kingston haslaunched itsfourth-generation HS4 All-In-One Media Reader andhas also announced a new

64GB capacity addition toits CompactFlash Ultimate600x family which willsoon be available in India.The 32GB and 64GB CFUltimate 600x cards offerpremium results withspeeds up to 90MB/s readand write to support burstmode photography orHD video. The additionof Media RECOVERsoftware lets users recover

deleted les and restorecorrupt les, if needed.

HS4 All-In-OneMedia Reader is a greatdevice to quickly movedata between multipledevices. The higher-capacity CF Ultimate 600xlets avid photographersand videographers capturemore content and whenused with the reader, datatransfer is simple and fast,said Nathan Su, Flash

Memory Sales Director,APAC Region, Kingston.

GIGABYTE haslaunched themost advanced GPU GV-NTITANXD5-12GD-B. It is based onthe GeForce GTX TITNX Maxwell Architecture.GIGABYTE GV-NTITANXD5-12GD-Butilizes the 28nmfabrication process andfeatures 12GB of 7GbpsGDDR5 memory anda massive 3072 CUDAcores. This card is agaming beast armedwith incredible graphicsrepower ready to maxout the latest games atextreme resolutions.

SanDisk hasintroduced thenewest version of itsFlashSoft server-side,solid- state cachingsoftware, whichprovides several notableperformance, usability

and compatibilityimprovements forWindows, Linux andVMware environments.Its FlashSoft cachingsoftware will be availablein new bundled offeringsthat package the softwarewith SanDisks array ofenterprise ash hardwaresolutions, including the

Fusion ioMemory PCIeapplication accelerators,the Optimus Ascend SASsolid-state drive (SSD),and the CloudSpeedAscend SATA SSD.We are excited to beable to offer customers

a complete solution thatprovides the performanceand cost benets of ashtechnology, while atthe same time makingit easier for our channelpartners to support theircustomers, said RaviSwaminathan, VP & GM,Systems and SoftwareSolutions, SanDisk.

open API.ViPR Controller

automates repetitivestorage provisioningand reclamation tasks inaddition to providing self-service access to storagefor customers. Its self-service catalog makesit as easy to consumeenterprise storage as itis to consume a publiccloud storage service while maintaining allthe best-of-breed featuresand capabilities of theunderlying arrays.

Blue Coat Systemshas announcedthat its cloud-based GlobalIntelligence Network nowintegrates Blue Coatsentire portfolio, includingthe Norman Sharksandboxing technologyand Solera Networksforensics and incidentresponse products recentlyacquired by Blue Coat.All products now feed andreceive threat informationon a continuous basis,providing securityprofessionals real-timeintelligence that allowsthem to more effectively

Fujitsu M10 serversrunning OracleSolaris 11.2, a fully-integrated enterpriseOpenStack distribution,are an ideal match fortodays IT requirements.The combination ofthe mission-criticalstrength of Oracle Solaris

and its integration ofOpenStack open-sourcecloud software enables ITleaders to build efcient,compliant, secure, openand affordable clouds andallows cloud and legacyapplications to coexist ona single system, to easilytransition datacenterinfrastructures to on-premise/hybrid cloud

models.Fujitsu M10 servers

are exible and scalablesystems that deliver highperformance and mission-critical reliability forenterprise-class workloads.These high-performanceservers are based onFujitsu SPARC64 X+/X

processors, run OracleSolaris and offer dynamicscaling in a pay-as-you-grow model supporting upto 1,024 cores and 32TBof memory in a singlesystem image among theindustrys largest capacityavailable on the markettoday, delivering extremein-memory computeperformance.

blocks threats. This leadsto reduced attacks and amore effective advancedthreat defense.

Blue Coat customersnow have the mostpowerful solution for fullnetwork visibility andadvanced threat defense inthe industry. By helpingthem see clearly, andprotecting them againstunknown threats almostinstantaneously, ourcustomers gain a level ofprotection no other singlevendor can deliver, saidMichael Fey, Blue CoatPresident & COO.

This card is loaded withthe advanced technologieslike NVIDIA ShadowPlay,g r o u n d b r e a k i n gG - S Y N C d i s p l a ytechnology and NVIDIAGameStream to streamgames to the NVIDIASHIELD portable. Withthe use of GIGABYTEOC GURU II utilitysoftware, the overclockingcapacity can be furtherincreased by unblockingthe hardware limitation.

Gigabyte introduces

GeForce GTXTITAN X


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22/56


VOICE-N-DATA

Huawei signs contract

with Tata Teleservices

RCom to launch

4G services

RCom hasannounced toprovide 4G services acrossthe country on the backof spectrum won by it

in the recently spectrumauction. RCom hasbecome Indias rst onlyoperator to launch state-of-the-art LTE nationwideon vastly-superior 800/850MHz band in India.

It made bids worthRs.4, 299 crore and isrequired to make anupfront payment of Rs.1,106 crore. RCom retainedits 900 MHz holding inHimachal Pradesh andMadhya Pradesh, besidesacquiring 800 MHzspectrum afresh in Assam,North-East, Odisha andWest Bengal where it lost900 MHz band spectrumholding.

RCom has alsoacquired new andtop-up 800/850 MHzspectrum in 11 Circlesto achieve contiguous 5MHz spectrum holding

nationwide.

Ericsson will

partner for

5G Research

Ericsson hascollaborated withKings College Londonand Technische Universityat Dresden (TU Dresden)for 5G research. Thecollaboration will address

the technical implicationsand social changes.

5G is expected tobegin its commercialrollout in 2020, by whichtime Ericsson believesthat there will be up to 50billion connected devicesin the world, mainlyin machine-to-machinec o m m u n i c a t i o n . 5 Gnetworks will enable awide variety of use casessuch as evolved mobilebroadband services, arange of machine-to-machine communicationand media distribution.These services will demanddiverse requirements onthe performance of thenetworks.

Orange rolls out first

SDN Pilot for SMBs

Uninor acquires Radio Waves

ZTE launches 3GPP MCLD

Standard Project

"Idea" Top Bidder in

Spectrum Auction

Airtel focuses on TD-LTE and FD-LTE

Huawei hasentered into athree-year contract worth$15 million (Rs.93 crore)with Tata Teleservices

to enhance Tata groupstelecom company'swireline network.Huawei is upgradingTata Teleservices' pan-India internet protocol-based core network withrouters that support 100Gand 400G technology.

Tata Teleservicesrecently won moreCDMA airwaves inthe just-concludedauction, which can beused to deploy 4G LTEtechnology that supports

high-speed broadband.The telco operates in

more than 450,000 townsand villages across thecountry. It had upgradedits 3G network toHSPA+ (High-SpeedPacket Access) technologywith the help of NokiaNetworks in Karnataka,Haryana and Punjabcircles.

Smartphone salessurge in the Indiantelecom industry is seeingsubscribers use more

data services on 2G andincreasingly on 3G.

Orange BusinessServices haslaunched its rst pilot of a100% digital and automatedSDN solution for smalland medium enterprises(SMBs). By April 2015,

around ten SMBs (withup to ten sites) will test inreal conditions for a year a100% digital plug-and-playSDN offer, developed byOrange Business Services.This SDN pilot will beused by these companiesto create and manage inreal time their Intranetand Internet networks viaa web portal. With this

simple and secure interface,network managers can alsoorder and customize newvirtualized applicationservices of their choice -Internet content ltering,advanced security and

antivirus.This pilot project ispart of a larger programnamed "SDN for Business"dedicated to formalizingand implementing OrangeBusiness Services' SDNstrategy. SDN is amongthe top priorities of theOrange Group in deningits network evolutionstrategy.

Uninor hasannounced toacquire Radio Wavesthrough other options,including acquisition orspectrum sharing as perbusiness requirement.There are different optionsfor getting spectrum itcan be through auction,M&A, spectrum sharing,spectrum trading oranother auction. Thecompany, owned byNorwegian rm Telenor,participated in the auctionbut did not buy anyspectrum. It was permittedto operate in seven out of22 telecom circles and had4.4 crore subscribers atthe end of January.

The company hasplans to modernizeall its 24,000 mobiletowers so as to upgradeits network to cater tothe rising demand. Thecompany also investedin new technology notonly future ready but isalso much more efcient.Existing BTS have alsoto be changed in the next1-1.5 years.

Currently, Uninoroperates in six areas Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,Gujarat, Maharashtra,Uttar Pradesh East andWest. The company willstart its operations inAssam by the end of thisyear.

ZTE has launcheda research projecton Multicarrier LoadDistribution (MCLD) ofUEs in LTE. The researchproject, led by ZTE withthe cooperation of ChinaTelecom, Verizon andother operators, aims toenable idle user equipment(UE) to be distributedevenly among multipleLTE cells (includingheterogeneous networkcells) so as to improvethe performance andoperational efciency ofLTE networks.

The current andheterogeneous LTEnetwork architecture leads

to overlapped coverage ofmultiple macro and microcells and the existing cell

reselection mechanismcannot solve the problemof how to distributeUEs evenly across thesedifferent cells.

ZTE was on the thirdposition rank-wise in termsof the Patent CooperationTreaty (PCT) applicationsin 2014, as indicated bythe latest data publishedby the World IntellectualProperty Organization.ZTE is one of threeenterprises that have themost PCT applications.

Idea Cellular hasemerged as thehighest bidder in thespectrum auction afterattracting bids worthRs.30, 306 crore. Bharti

Airtel, the countryslargest telecom servicesprovider, came secondwith bids worth Rs.29,130 crore, while VodafoneIndia was third with bidsworth Rs.25, 959 crore.

Marten Pieters, MD& CEO, VodafoneIndia, stated, With thespectrum acquired in thisauction, we have ensuredthe continuity of ourbusiness and increased

our capability to provide

Airtel has decidedto focus on bothTD-LTE and FD-LTEafter the purchase of 111.6MHz of Spectrum across900 MHz, 1800 MHzand 2100 MHz bands forRs.29,130 crore duringthe March 2015auction to spruceup 4G coverage.

It will chalk outa strategy to focuson data growth.

Airtel has alsoacquired 1800 MHzSpectrum across Punjab,Andhra Pradesh,Kolkata, Orissa, Haryana

high-speed 3G coverageto more areas. We willcontinue to invest inbuilding our networkin the coming years toharness the potential of

the Spectrum won.The victorious bidderswill pay a quarter to athird of the winning pricewithin 10 days, and the restin 10 annual installmentsbeginning 2017.

On offer this time wereblocks for 69 service areasat a total reserve price ofRs.80,277 crore, and theprovisional allocationwas announced for 63 ofthem at a winning price of

Rs.109,874.91 crore.

and North East. Thecompany plans to offerpan-India 4G servicesusing combination ofFD-LTE technologyin 1800 MHz band andTD-LTE rollout in the2300 MHz band. It will

also offer 3G acrossall markets with theexception of Kerala byusing combination of 900MHz and 2100 MHz.


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24/56


CHANNEL BUZZ

Plantronics partners embark

on USA exclusive trip

Toshiba partners rejoice in Goa

GFI and Satcom Infotech conduct

Multi-City Partner Events

Honeywell awards its APAC Channel Partners

Plantronics partners andRashi branch heads haveembarked upon a ten-day tripto SFO, Vegas and New York,U.S. THE CHALO AMERICAWITH PLANTRONICSProgramme was a super successwith 100-percent achievementfrom each participant.

The rst dawn of the tripsaw a visit to the Plantronicsheadquarters in Santa Cruz,California. The partners got achance to witness the Researchand Development centre ofPlantronics, the same placewhere the headset used by NeilArmstrong The rst man to

walk on the moon was designed.The partners also got a lifetimeopportunity to experience theInfamous Wall of Ears awall that which has ears mouldsof every possible size shape andform. Plantronics tests all-newheadset designs rigorously inorder to put on the market themost comfortable headset forall shape and sized ears. Thepartners got an opportunity toalso experience their amazing

acoustic test centre which isa testimonial of Plantronicsstringent quality parameters.

On the next day, the Partnersand the Branch Heads got anexclusive opportunity to havean interaction session with thebusiness heads at Plantronics.They got an insight into thevisions and the blueprint of thefuture roadmap of Plantronicsin India. The Conferenceconcluded with partners beingfacilitated with performance-related awards. The partners alsohad a great experience visitingManhattan, Central Park, TheEmpire State building and

visited the lady herself, Statue ofLiberty also.Plantronics acknowledges

partners tireless efforts topromote premium Bluetoothheadsets in the country and wetake this opportunity to thankthem for our buoyant growth. Wehope the visit to our headquartershas strengthened the partnerscondence in Plantronics,added Bobby Joseph, CountryHead, Plantronics, India.

To celebrate theirconsistent growth inToshiba business, over forty

partners had a good treat in Goa.The main objective of the meetwas to motivate the partners,increase their sales prociency/knowledge and their productaptitude. The highlight of theconference was the brieng session

by the Country Manager ofToshiba himself, Polad Garda. Itwas his unfathomable condencebuilding words that motivatedthe partners to outperform theirpreset targets.

Vishal Aggarwal of VishalInfo Solution, Ahmedabad,

had this to add, The trip wasperfectly balanced, from theinteraction with Polad to the stay

in Goa. The interaction allowedme to understand the companysproducts, and its vision for thenear future. Motivating wordsby Garda have now made mewant to break more targets in thefuture, and be a regular at such

incentive trips.Toshiba in a very short time

has become the leader in Storagein India. I take this opportunityto thank all the partners for theircondence and support to Rashi,added Kiran Deshmukh, BusinessManager,Rashi Peripherals.

GFI Software and SatcomInfotech have conductedmulti-city events for theirpartners in Bengaluru, Chennai,Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi.The key objectives of these

events were to help partners gaininsights about GFI's products andsolutions, explore new businessopportunities and address thechallenges they face while sellingGFI products.

GFI gave presentations onvarious products like LanGuard,Web Monitor and Events Managerupdating partners on new features,upgrades and enhancement intheir security solutions offering.

GFI also unveiled its channelstrategies and future initiativesplanned for channel partners inthe Indian market. The eventsprovided a platform for partnersto share their ideas, discuss

strategies and explore new growthopportunities.

"These events help reiterateour continuous support to ourchannel partners in India. Ourpartnership with Satcom Infotech

in the security domain is deliveringmeasurable business benets forcustomers and we look forward toexpanding this alliance to explorenew growth opportunities," saidGraham McIntyre, RegionalChannel Manager Middle EastAsia and India,GFI.

Vinod Kumar, ManagingDirector, Satcom Infotech,says, "This will help us gain themind share of the partners to get

associated with Satcom. They arehelping partners in stabilizingtheir business and at the same timecapturing market share through aservices-centric, outcomes-drivenapproach."

Honeywell ProcessSolutions (HPS) hashonoured its top regionaldistributors at the annual Asia-Pacic (APAC) Channel Partnerof the Year awards ceremony inBali.

The APAC conferencehosted Honeywell channelpartners from 16 countries across

the region, including Australia,

China, India, Malaysia, thePhilippines, Singapore, SouthKorea, Thailand, Japan, Pakistan,Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Brunei,Indonesia and Vietnam.

Honeywell acknowledged 12channel partners for excellence,innovation and service among

more than 190 companiessupplying and integratingHoneywell solutions in Asia-Pacic.

Our channel partners areour true partners in helpingHoneywell customers in theAPAC region achieve theiroperational and businessobjectives. These automation

professionals have proven domain

expertise in the process industries,as well as in-depth knowledge oftheir local markets. We count ontheir ability to deliver exceptionalservice, support and trainingsolutions, said Lance Fuhr,Channel Excellence Leader,HPS.


25/56


Rockefeller Foundation to light up 1,000

villages with an investment of US$75 Million

The Rockefeller Foundation has pledged to commit $75 million

(about Rs.468 crore) for the launch of Smart Power for RuralDevelopment, an initiative that aims to provide electricity to 1,000villages over the coming three years. To achieve this ambitious goal ofproviding power to 1 million Indians in the states of Bihar and UttarPradesh, the Rockefeller Foundation is funding the creation of a neworganization Smart Power India that will be responsible for expandingthe Smart Power model.

The Smart Power model is an innovative way to deliver cleanenergy via decentralized mini-grids. The mini-grids provide marketopportunities to investors and will be able to integrate into the nationalgrid system which the government is extending. Under the Smart Powermodel, an anchor tenant, for example a telecom company operatinglocal cell towers, would serve as the base demand for power and make itprotable for an Energy Service Company Operator (ESCO) to build a

power plant which is large enough to serve both lighting and productiveloads. With this structure in place, the ESCO is willing to go to ruralcommunities and is able to sell power to local businesses and households thus meeting the need for various uses of power lighting, productiveloads (such as carpenters, agricultural loads irrigation, grinding mills)and other business needs beneting new and future local businesses andhomes.

The initiative aligns closely with the Indian Governments vision ofproviding access to reliable power throughout the country. The initiativesfocus will be on India and it aims to promote sustainable business modelsthat deliver renewable energy and spur economic development among anunreached rural population.

Smart Power India will be the Rockefeller Foundations key partnerworking with Energy Service Companies, private sector partners,investors, NGOs, and the Indian Government to reach the goal ofbringing electricity to underserved villages in India. The organizationwill also provide support for the entire ecosystem needed for mini-gridsto be successful, sustainable and scalable.

The launch was marked with a ceremonial event in New Delhiattended by distinguished dignitaries, including, Shri Piyush Goyal,Minister of State for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy, seniorofcials from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, ofcials fromPublic Sector Utilities, senior ofcials from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,Heads of telecom infrastructure companies, energy service companies,research organisations, think tanks and academia.

Judith Rodin, President, The Rockefeller Foundation, said, TheRockefeller Foundation is thrilled to launch Smart Power for Rural

Development in India, with the goal of providing access to electricity and

Jaipdeep Mukherji,CEO, Smart Power India; Dr. Judith Rodin,

Global President, The Rockefeller Foundation and Zia Khan, Vice

President for Initiatives and Strategy at the Launch of Smart Power

India

Jaipdeep Mukherji,CEO, Smart Power India; Jamshyd Godrej,

Chairman and Managing Director - Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing

Company; Ashok Khosla, Chairman - Development Alternatives

andShashanka Shekhar Panda, Founder - Chairman & CEO, Blue

Earth Enterprise

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Power, Coal and New &Renewable Energy, Govt. of India speaking at the launch of Smart

Power

transforming the lives of one million people in 1,000 villages in rural India.Every step towards increasing rural access to modern energy sources canhelp India reach its full economic potential. We believe the provision ofpower will open up greater opportunities for economic development inrural areas, paving the way for a more inclusive economy. The SmartPower model we are launching today is a unique market-based innovationthat can support India as it achieves its ambitious electrication goals.

Jaideep Mukherji, CEO, Smart Power India, said, After the last fewyears spent in the renewable energy space, I am thrilled to take on the

new role as CEO of Smart Power India. The Smart Power model is aninnovative solution for what has been an intractable problem in India.We have a unique opportunity at this time, given that the governmentis supporting investments in rural electrication to spur economicdevelopment. The telecom revolution and the proliferation of cell towers,and the private sector partners looking for new avenues for investmentcan also address social challenges. Now is the time for India to have anenergy revolution, and I believe the Smart Power model stands at theforefront of supporting that vision.

The provision of power to the selected villages is expected to openup signicant opportunities for economic development and improvinglivelihoods. Those affected will see improved access to education,opportunities to trade and do business, access to key information servicesand improved healthcare services all spurred on by access to reliable

energy. n

EVENT SPECIAL


26/56


Continuing the Channel Legacy

Following the acquisitions of the x86 server business from IBMand the Motorola Mobility unit from Google, Lenovo hasregistered its name in the list of the biggies in the IT industry. Amongothers, Its 'Protect & Attack' strategy has worked as a long termformula for success in the PC+ era. This will further accelerate thecompanys strategy to become a global leader across its full spectrumof products, while focusing on its new growth engines - Mobility,Enterprise and Ecosystem/Cloud businesses.

However, the role the Channel has been very instrumental in

bringing this transformation to Lenovo, which cannot be forgotten asthey remain a part and parcel of Lenovos go-to-market strategy.

The Channel Built-up

Lenovo has a 2 tier distribution system for the Commercial Business,which comprises of the National Distributor and the CorporateReseller network. It also works on a combination of Named Accountsand Rest of Universe (named Commercial Channel) accounts, wherethe Rest of Universe is driven regionally through partner focuseddedicated channel managers. Lenovo however sees the CommercialChannel as a signicant growth engine for its future aspirations.

Further, Lenovos partner ecosystem is categorised in threesegments - Platinum, Diamond and Gold). A partner stands to reapmore benets as they move up the categories.

When it comes to interacting with partners, Lenovo maintains anopen communication with its channel partners and organise severalengagement programs as well as track the CSAT. These initiativeshelp the partners to get better acquainted with Lenovo as well as geta platform for sharing valuable feedback. To cite an example, ourCSAT scores with our partners have been going up consistentlyover the past 3 cycles, as a result of these initiatives. We also havea structured process of reviewing the effectiveness of these programsthrough impact on business, direct feedback (QBRs, Round table andother face to face meetings) as well as CSAT conducted by 3rd partyagencies, explains Nitin.

A channel-friendly company that it has always been, Lenovo has learnt the art of retaining partners loyalty towards its business

over the years, benefitting both of their businesses at the same time. Nitin Garg, Head - Channels, Commercial Business - Lenovo Indiarecounts how Lenovo has been successful in doing this by addressing key challenges of partners and by bringing out some wonderful

partner programs which even the Channel becomes grateful to be a part of -

Nitin Garg,

Head - Channels, Commercial Business

- Lenovo India

Partner Programs also form a cornerstoneof how Lenovo drives business and getsubsequent results. The objective of its partnerprograms is to encourage high performance,to drive the right product mix and to helppartners develop the market locally.

At the beginning of the year, Lenovointroduced Lenovo Lakhpati, an exclusiverewards program for its commercial partnercommunity in India on the sale of anycommercial channel product (Desktops,Notebooks and Workstations). Furthermore,Lenovo has announces the Deal RegistrationSystem (DRS) - DRS 2.0, an easy-to-use

platform that builds a direct online connectionbetween Lenovo and its commercial businesspartners. This is a wonderful initiative that isaimed at equiping the partner with updatedinformation, provide exclusivity and reducethe turn-around time from client identicationto closure of business.

Jim RakeshOwner, Rox Technology & Solutions Pvt Ltd

Chennai

Lenovo with their PC PLUS strategy andchannel partner friendly model is an awesomecompany to be associated with. We have beenpartnered with Lenovo for more than a decadenow. ROX , as a premium partner enjoys exclusiverst hand product trainings, Demo units, access tothe Lenovo Leads (which only a Premium partnerenjoys), Eligibility to premium support, SpecialBid orders, Eligibility to co-marketing budget and

availability of premium partner rebates.Business partners form the crux of Lenovosgo-to-market strategy and with their premium

partners schemes, they incentivise the partners in every stage of the sales cycle. Lenovoby a policy, drive customers to the channel partners, ensuring the partner network is wellsupported and the customer is serviced on optimal time. To sum up, our unique technocommercial expertise creates a compelling value proposition to the customers to chooseLenovo.

VENDOR - PARTNER ALLIANCE


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Lenovos Channel propelling growth in

a big way...

According to Lenovo, growth andopportunity need to be viewed from twoangles rstly whether the addressablemarket is growing for the channel partner andsecondly are they reaping rewards consistentwith the efforts they put. Lenovo has been

outperforming the market in most productcategories and we are poised to sustain ourgrowth momentum in the future, observesNitin.

Lenovo and its partners have traditionallybeen strong in the top 8 cities. Hence itsexpansion efforts are directed towards othercities, which provide signicant growthopportunities. This is achieved through3 strategic initiatives: A larger eld forceto cover these locations, special incentiveprograms for the partner organization as wellas for their sales managers and enablementin the form of product training and demand

generation programs.

However, channel partners sometimesview themselves as product resellers. As aresult, they miss the opportunity to become astrategic vendor to the customer organisation,thus limiting their scope to generate morerevenue. We have been training our partnersto become a solution provider and to providea viable solution to customers pain point.This approach enables them to not onlybecome a strategic partner to the customer,but also helps them make more margins andgrow their business, observes Nitin.

This is further complemented by thefact that with the acquisition of System X,Lenovo is now in a better position to offera comprehensive portfolio to its channelpartners. n

[email protected]

Sanjay Patodia

CEO - Galaxy Office Automation

Mumbai

We have been associated with Lenovo productsfor last 15 years, since the time IBM owned theThink PC brand. In India we have been associatedwith Lenovo from the time it got incorporated inIndia.

Over the years we have acquired many customersin VLE and Global accounts which had helped us in

increasing our Topline. Also being a trusted partnerwith Lenovo, we were given the opportunity tobecome the AWSP for Lenovo Services pan Indiapost the disassociation of Lenovo services from IBMservices. The biggest advantage and benet we had

reaped with Lenovo partnership is the sheer volume of business both in product sell as wellas services.

Lenovo support had always been great as a principal. However, there had been change inLenovos approach in the last 2 to 3 years on its GTM for Global as well as VLE customers.Also the rebate programs have had an impact due to the change in this approach, which hadresulted in compromise on protability for partner community. But, the top Managementof Lenovo has recently assured and reworked on its channel approach for these categoriesof customers and done some major changes in its rebate structure as well as SPC structure.Furthermore we were also informed about the Core Channel strategy adopted by Lenovoin China and its plans to replicate the same structure in India. This would denitely lead topositive impact on channel business both in terms or revenue as well as bottomline.

Mahesh Tomar

Director, Team Computers

Delhi

Our association with Lenovo is ever sincethey acquired IBM PC business in 2005. Prior tothis we were associated with IBM as a partner inelite category in Royal Blue club since 1995. As aLenovo premium partner, we have had the benetsof business sustenance, customer preference due to

great brand, reliable & innovative products linesand reasonable prot.

Lenovos team attributes high value to businessrelationship with customers & partners. TheIncentive programs introduced by Lenovo areabove average and have the scope of being moreattractive. Lenovo is open to the feedback, rather they invite feedback & inputs which isthe most interesting thing about them.

I will like to pass on a simple message to every peers in this business that lets promote ourbusiness with Lenovo & grow the market share together. Our core strength of nationwidecustomer coverage, providing priority response to customers through dedicated customercare & trained eld support, and operational excellence in handling the complex project willhelp Lenovo in growing further.

Prarthana GuptaDirector

Cache Technologies

Delhi

We have been associated with IBM for more than one and a half decade now and when IBMs PCdivision was acquired by Lenovo, we started working for Lenovo from day 1 i.e. since 2005. We havebeen associated with Lenovo and remained as loyal partner because of following things -

Thinkpad and ThinkCentre products that have been the premium product The service business happens through partners Pleasant experience and a very personalized approach which makes us feel connected to the

heart A robust enterprise channel ecosystem which has always been there to benet partners and to

encourage them to work and invest in Lenovo Business Lowest Channel Inventory as its sell out model never blocks our working capital Channel hygiene that has been the top priority

The team has been restructured by merging its SMB business and Lenovo has moved hundreds of enterprise accounts to partners andis also managing the relationship directly with some accounts, which indicates that we are the extended arms and lots of things have beendemonstrated time to time in terms of schemes, Lead sharing activities and support extended and the service business that has been ensuredto remain with partners. We, as system Integrators or solution providers must not ignore PC Business. In our growth, we all started ourcareer through PC business and went deep in accounts to develop our enterprise portfolio. As we see PC market recovering in next fewquarters, we foresee tremendous opportunities and growth with Lenovo that is the only player to have a clear focus in PCs, Tablets andsmartphones.

We are geared up to do much more business for Lenovo and bring more customers to them. We have been together in this journey fromday one and we will keep on contributing and putting our best efforts to grow Lenovo business in coming years.


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Reaching out to customers

in the effective way

Lenovo India Services won the Golden Peacock (GP) Award forServices Innovation in the year 2014. The GP Award is regarded as abenchmark of Corporate Excellence worldwide. Lenovo won the firstGP award for the successful transition of Services to Lenovos In-house model. While winning the award was one of the milestones forLenovo, this prompted them to raise the benchmark in Services and gofor a second nomination in 2015 for Business Excellence in Servicesand they won the award for a second consecutive year!

Winning this award two times in a row is an outstanding achievement and this prompted us to know more about what Lenovo India Services

has done in the recent past. We took the opportunity to speak to some of the industrys business partners through a survey across the country to

gauge their feedback on how Lenovo India Services has transformed. This was an independent survey done by our VARINDIA editorial team

and here is what the partners had to say about Lenovo India services.

To understand more on this we reachedout to Sudipto Gosh, Executive Director,Lenovo India Services to throw morelight on the processes and changes thatLenovo has undertaken during the same

period and also get to know their futureplans.

Serve, Solve, Satisfy has been ourmotto in the recent past and we decidedto transform ourselves by listening to ourbusiness partners and customers veryfrequently. We conducted various roundtable meetings with our business partnersthrough which we were able to gather alot of inputs to further improve our Services. This initiative along withvarious other platforms including a quarterly partner survey provided

us with a lot of feedback on services provided by us.

Some of the key processes that we initiatedand improved are:

1) Customer Advocacy Managers(CAM) Team:

The Customer Advocacy team comprises

of dedicated managers, who work independentof support functions and is responsible forend to end issue resolution. Pro-active Customer engagement Drive the internal cross tower engagementfor speedy resolution.. End to end follow up with proactive issuestatus update to the customer

2) Call Me Back (CMB)Call Me Back, is a unique method where

customers can opt for a call back or schedulea call back at a convenient time suitable tothem. Reduce non-entitled calls as customer can

enter serial number of the system manuallyin eSupport website for which they needsupport. Reduce handling time by gathering allnecessary information regarding the systemfrom the eSupport website Eliminate call abandonment and improveutilization of call agents

We created a task force to ramp up ourservice footprint. Today, we are glad to saythat, we have the largest number of dedicatedservice centers across the length and breadthof India with 180 + Cities covered.

We also did a relook at the rst point

of contact that our customers would facewhen they call our contact center. Weidentied processes that could be improvedand also initiated new processes to ensurethat our customers/ partners have a pleasantinteraction with the technical support team.

"The service transformation is agreat initiative and I'm confidentthis will go a long way in enhancingchannel confidence. Really appreciatethe effort. Vikas Agarwal, UniversalComputer

Lots of appreciation to LenovoService Team for exemplary work. Keepthe good work going on. ChandreshVithlani, Ilife, Pune


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A key finding that was brought up during these interactions wasour service coverage and how we could expand our footprint.

3) Lencare (Lenovo CustomerCare):

Lencare team manages social mediaand any other tasks outside the purviewof standard support functions. We Re-engineered the system DOArefund process to make it quicker keepingCustomer Satisfaction in mind. We launched a fast track process forour Core Business Partners to prioritizetheir claims and improve their Customersatisfaction level.

4) Well planned and executedmonsoon:

Another key feedback was on theplanning and execution of support servicesduring the monsoon season, where theproduct failure rates go up due to seasonalimpact. We planned ahead of the curveand focused on our execution to mitigatethis impact.

Good business planning is 9 parts

execution for every 1 part strategy Tim

Berry.We ramped up resources in our contact

center, logistics and field services. Wealso enhanced the spare part planning anddistribution across our 20 warehouses.The execution of the plan was doneperfectly which helped us in reducing theissues that normally delay us during themonsoon period.

Some of the steps taken during thisperiod: Command center with strong BMS to

monitor and track progress Accurate sizing of additional callvolume to Contact center using historicaldata. Ensure engineer buffer across peaklocations. Drive productivity based incentiveplan for higher call closures Shrink wrap was mandatory forall parts moving out during monsoonperiod. Volume forecast on both outboundand storage shared with logistics partner

We implemented other innovativeprograms that would benefit the businesspartners which in turn would benefit theend customers. Some of the initiativesthat we launched are:

1) Satellite Resident Engineers (RE)for Business Partners as a consultant

Based on the success of deployingResident engineers in large and global

accounts, we have now extended theRE program to cover our key businesspartners. The RE program is where adedicated engineer is deployed at customerlocation based on the install base. Being

at the location the RE is able to handleall customer problems locally and supporthardware cases through a dedicated RE calllogging channel. Having been successfulin the commercial segment, we decided tothe implement the same for our businesspartners. Trained and dedicated engineer will bedeployed as a satellite engineer He will work as a consultant formany business partners and will be ableto diagnose and troubleshoot customermachine issues. Reduced time in call logging due to

effective trouble shooting by the RE Improved part ordering with betterresolution times.

2) Execute service camps for largeRegional Distributors and LenovoExclusive stores. Organize proactive service camps tohelp resolve customer issues Push bios and firmware updates oncustomers machine Train customers in proper usage ofcustomers

3) Fast Access code for businesspartners to reach contact center directly

Business partners can reach the contactcenter agent directly with the unique fastaccess code Bypass the IVR messaging includingtechnical tips and product options Reduced hold time against an averagequeue time of 90 seconds Reach a dedicated agent designated toaddress service related escalations

Service is not about reaching adestination but a journey of continualprocess development which will take oursupport to the next level. We have many

more breakthrough innovations plannedaround service excellence in the time tocome. Moving from a contact center to acommand center for our business partners,where they will get all the support requiredin a priority basis. Business partners will also be able to

track progress of service orders Dedicated support team to handle allescalations with speedy closure. Create an all in one portal wherebusiness partners can access all information

pertaining to performance and updateswith unique log in.The impact of the all these initiatives

and processes has shown a big impact onour customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction surveys areimportant vehicles for any servicesorganization, as they give a rightmeasurement of the satisfaction levelof customers. This helps in determiningcustomer loyalty and over the last year ourcustomer satisfaction level has increasedconsistently to new heights. We are nowachieving targets after improving 5.7 pts

year to year, based on a transactionalsurvey performed by Satmetrix on behalfof Lenovo.

As we enter the next financial yearwe are happy to say that the feedback ofour business partners and the correctiveactions by our passionate team helped usin continual improvement. We are in thesteady path in moving from enabling ofbusiness to being a key differentiator forbusiness. We are on the right track and weare sure Lenovo India Services will scalenew heights.

The Golden Peacock award won by

Lenovo consecutive ly for the last two years

is a pat on their back for all the efforts they

have undertaken during the transition of

services to their in house model. Looking

at their ambitious plans for the future,

I am sure Lenovo wil l achieve greater

customer satisfaction and loyalty in the

coming years. n

Lenovo India services offers the below

to enhance customer experience

LPSS - Lenovo Premium Support

Services RE - Resident Engineers Support

ADP - Accidental Damage Protection Warranty Extension

Lenovo Service Camps


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For Schneider, Network Connectivity

space is a big Opportunity

GB Ravichandra, Director, Network Connectivity - Schneider Electric India speaks to VARINDIA about thecompanys current roadmap in the Indian market and its plan on how to overcome the challenges in the networkconnectivity space.

Indias telecom sector has created ahistory with its phenomenal growthstory over the years. The role of high-speed broadband has transformed the livesof millions and there is no reason whybroadband growth would not follow asimilar trend like that of telecom. Acordingto GB Ravichandra, Director, NetworkConnectivity - Schneider Electric India,

value of wireless connectivity across

e-magazine, april 2015

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