sme channels april issue

sme buzz /16

champs drives business even in the Hard Times

sme chat /24

“We are clear about mak-ing Belkin one of the lead-ing tech brands in India.”

sme buzz /32

Enterprise Application on cloud is the Answer to the SMEs’ Growth Strategy

HP Enables Students with Customized PC Solutions /08PLUS

It is not the biased deployment rather balanced deployment driving adoption of the MFDs. /20

VoLUmE 01 | ISSUE 02 | APrIL 2010 | rS. 25/-

www.smechannels.com

india’s first IT magazine for sme business

are you

mFDs?

sellingright

Feature /15

Netgear always blieves in tying up with right partners

sme chat /36

“Seagate Continuously Educates Partners about New Opportunities”

sme chat /32

“We Completely Under-stand Our Customers Networking Requirement”

Lenovo Focuses on the Retail Segment /10


PLUS

april has Brought smiles

to the Face

editorial

sanjay [email protected]

Finally! The hard times seems to be over. Vendors have again started spending in market develop-ment and product launches. As a journalist I can see at least every day there is one or two product launches happening. This is a good sign. Senior management is found sitting in closed rooms final-izing their strategy for 2010. And vendors are engaged in reshuffling the portfolio to be more focused in the market.

But great thing from the SME perspective is that the vendors have started taking them more seri-ously. A technology giant like Cisco has some time back launched a large portfolio for the small busi-nesses. Earlier of course they had similar kind of products and programmes, but this time we could see intensity in their activities. Not only Cisco, every vendor including HP, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, etc. have either unveiled products through a soft launch or launched in jam- pack 5star hotels.

It is now about spending more and earning less and eyeing at a large volume now than eyeing at a small volume with a large value. Of course value business will soon be back but it will take some time to understand their needs clearly. It’s like recovering from a shock and disbelieving every one. So large enterprises are in that perplex situation and taking cautious and delayed steps to acquire any technology.

I was sitting with a gentleman some time back who happens to be an IT veteran. He was of the opin-ion that it is right time for could computing to make inroads. For vendors offering enterprise solutions over cloud have already won clients in the past few quarters. Good news!

From the perspective of channel, the dryness in the market is changing into a bit misty wet though the mercury is rising to a record high. Customers have started walking into the large market places in search of their first purchase or replacements.

Particularly, the education sector has got time to look into technology as the exams have been over. The students are out of the campuses and the administrators are thinkking of integrating solution now. In fact, for most of the verticals, it is the right time. With April, they have already received their budget or atleast got their plans approaved and now they can easily place order or at least put the partners in the pannel.

Trust me, things are looking bright this quarter and coming quarters will also be more interesting.

AOC’s “All in One” Personal Computer – M222T

my experience

spECifiCations

With Touch screen, 500 GB HDD, Wi-Fi, Web

cam, SRS, low power, DVD and USB hubs,

AOC’s All in One PC is in 4 variants.

final wording

There is surely utility value associated with

this PC but given the Indian average earn-

ings, it will only be afforded by the high end

homes and designing houses.

ovErall rating

price approximately at Rs 50,000, AOC’s “All in One” Personal Com-puter – M222T is surely a stylish super slim, feature loaded Touch screen PC with the latest Intel core-2 processor. The M222T is a super high end ‘Full HD’ PC with Windows 7 Pre-mium, Touch screen, 500 GB HDD, Wi-Fi, Web cam, SRS, low power, DVD and USB hubs. AOC‘s All in One PC’s are available in two sizes, 18.5” & 22” and in 4 different vari-ants offering both Intel and AMD Processors and varying hard disk options.

VOLUme 01 | iSSUe 02 | aPRiL 2010 | RS. 25/-

www.smechannels.com

sme ChaNNeLSapril 2010

3

contents

APRVolume 01issue 02

SME CHATMohit Anand /24managing Director, Belkin india & subcontinent

David Ramsay /26senior Director, Alliances, Asia Pacific, salesforce.com

Milind Tamhane /30Vice President - iTs sales, Digilink

Rajesh Khurana /36Country manager, india & sAARC Countries, seagate Technology

Rajesh Sahore /32VP-Channel Development, D-link (india) ltd.

SME BuzzChamps drive business even in the Hard Times /16For last three quarters, when the competition was struggling...

Enterprise App on cloud is the An-swer to SMEs’ Growth Strategy /32Ramco onDemand eRP (RoDe) helps part-ners to maximise their opportunities...

COVER

STORY

Are You Selling Right MFDs? /20

it is not the biased deployment rather balanced deployment driving adop-tion of the mFDs. single functional printers might have more installation base but the truth is that pure economics making these converged machines sprint faster.

editorial ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 03

snippets ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 06

inside out~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 28

Partner Corner ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 34

Product Review ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 40

more inside

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra

Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra

Executive Editor: Smruti Chaudhury

Copy Editor: Neil D’Souza

Designer: Ravi Kumar

Visualizer: Sharada Prashad

Lead Visualizer: Manash Ranjan

MARkETinG

Senior Manager: M Raj

Executive- Marketing: Rajat Kumar

Circulation and Printing: Panchanan Bhoi

SALES COnTACTS

Delhi 6/101, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas

New Delhi-110016

Phone: 91-11-46151993 / 9958358954

E-mail: [email protected]

Bangalore Subrat S

136/9, Ground Floor, Eden Crest Apartment

Grape Garden, Ejipura

Vivek Nagar PS

Bengaluru-560047

Phone: 91-11- 9886107294

Mumbai Hemal Shah

B/14, Neel Ashish

92, J.P.road, Andheri (West)

Mumbai - 400058

Phone: 022-9819597604

Chennai Thaga Pandian

No-27, Rajan Street, Kodambakam

Chennai - 24

Phone: 044-43066990

Kolkata S Subhendu

BC-286, Laxmi Apartment, Kestopur

Kolkata-700101

Phone: 91-11- 9674804389

EDiTORiAL OFFiCE

Delhi: 6/102, Kaushlya Park, New Delhi-110016

Phone: 91-11-/41055458

[email protected]

Bangalore 136/9, Ground Floor, Eden Crest

Apartment, Grape Garden, Ejipura

Vivek Nagar PS

Bengaluru-560047

[email protected]

Printed, Published and Owned by Sanjib

Mohapatra

Place of Publication: 6/101-102, Kaushalya

Park, Hauz Khas

New Delhi-110016

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Printed at Karan Printers, F-29/2, 1st floor,

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All rights reserved. No part of this publica-

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Subscription: Rs.250 (12 issues)

All payments favouring: SME Channels

SME ChAnnelsAPRiL 2010

4

2010


HCL Pours Power into Beanstalk HCL Info makes Beanstalk more powerful now. Available in three models - Classic, Ultima and Xtreme - the new Beanstalk offers

convenience, connectivity and multimedia entertainment experi-ence for the home users.

Based on Microsoft Windows

7, Intel Core i3, i5 & i7 processors, Bose speakers, Nvidia CUDA GPU, light scribe DVD writer along with LIFEBOX, which includes a

Aforeserve in and Accel out for Kingston ServiceKingston Appoints Aforeserve.com to manage the after-sales support and service programs for all consumers in India. Aforeserve has come in place of Accel Frontline, who was previously offering after-sales service for Kings-ton. “Kingston is always committed to excellent product quality and satisfied customer services. Aforeserve.com Ltd. is a leading after-sales service provider to the IT Industry. I believe that partnering with Aforeserve.com Ltd. will be able to continue to provide the Kingston top-rated after-sales support to the local market. Since April 1st 2010, all consumers in India can enjoy the benefits from efficient and satisfied after-sales services,” said Scott Chen, Vice-President, APAC Region, Kingston.

collection of premium content in 41 DVDs and CDs, the Beanstalk PCs are tool to watch out for. Speak-ing on the occasion, Mr. George Paul, Executive Vice President, HCL Infosystems Ltd said “HCL Infosystems has a strong heritage in computing business and always pioneered the latest technology for the Indian consumers. We have successfully maintained a strong foothold in the desktop category and have believed in high performance, providing a better experience to our customers. We are leveraging our robust ‘eco system’ of partners to deliver the performance and set the trend for a smarter computing lifestyle.”

“The return of HCL Beanstalk PCs is a significant step towards expanding our leadership position-ing in the high end desktop space. HCL Beanstalk will transform the mainstream consumer experience by bringing a whole rich world of multimedia, entertainment, educa-tion and lifestyle aiding features,” he added.

Further, the new HCL Beanstalk PCs range starts at Rs. 39, 990 and goes upto Rs. 85,000, plus applicable taxes inclusive of 3 year comprehensive warranty and 3 years McAfee Access.

HCL BeanstaLk

piCture

sme chAnnelSapril 2010

6

sNiPPeTfor more log on to smechannels.com

produCt | CHanneL | teLeCom | data Com

redington to distribute Jabra productsRedington has been appointed by G N Netcom as distribution partner for Jabra headsets including Jabra GO 6400 Series headsets.

Srinivasan, Managing Director & CEO, Redington, said, “We are excited to partner a technology innovator like GN Netcom and we are confident that our channel partners and customers will appreciate the tremendous value of the Jabra portfolio of quality products and breakthrough designs. Through our excellent geographic reach and on-ground resources, we hope to realize maximum growth potential in the Indian market for Jabra’s offering.”

Dinesh Malkani, Vice-president & General manager of GN Netcom, “We registered a remarkable 30% growth in India last year even as the overall industry declined. The new range strengthens our capability to improve business competitiveness of Indian enterprises through UC solutions that are offered in partnership with Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Avaya and Siemens among others.”

neoteriC and iris go passive Belkin shakes hands with Neoteric Informatique and IRIS Computers for expanding its structured cable business in India. As national distributors, they take the onus of making Belkin ‘s entire range of copper & Fiber structured cabling solutions available in the Indian market.

As per the release, the dual distributor strategy is designed to offer rapid geographical coverage, multi-layered channel penetra-

tion, effective reach and aggressive sales conversions from developed and as well as emerging markets. While Iris Computer’s strong relationship with SI and PC Server reseller partners will help Belkin to gain entry and traction in the enterprise market, Neoteric’s strong footprint in PC Component & Assembler channel is expected to help the company gain rapid access into the PC component Channel.

“As Belkin enters in to Structured cabling market in India, it is important that we find the right channel partners who understand our business, can drive demand for our solutions, and scale with our growth,” says, Mohit Anand, Managing Director, Belkin India, “Appointing IRIS Computers and Neoteric Informatique is our first step towards capturing a majority share in the Indian structured cabling solutions market,” he added.

Belkin also plans to establish a dedicated network of reseller and SI partners, to work closely with both distributors and is putting together an aggressive array of marketing campaigns and channel training programs.

Signing up as distributors, Sanjiv Krishen, MD, IRIS Computers and and Paras Shah – CEO, Neoteric informatique expressed their happiness and support to the principal.

3 nights in europe with DIGIlInK Valid from 1st March to 30th June, 2010, DIGIL-INK channel reward program “Zip Zap Zoom 3” promises to take its partners on a Europe trip. On achieving 37 points, the SI’s and VAR’s can win a 4 day/3 night trip to an European location, on achieving 22 points, the SI’s and VAR’s can win 3 day/2 night trip to an exotic international location and on achieving 15 points the SI’s and VAR’s can win a 3 Day/2 Night trip to a mystery international location. This scheme is valid for DIGILINK Passive range of products.

Milind Tamhane, Vice President - ITS Sales, DIGILINK said, “After an overwhelming response from our previous two Zip Zap Zoom schemes, we are happy to announce “Zip Zap Zoom 3” for our valued partners”

rashi to Push A-Data as nD After tying up with Targus to distribute its prod-ucts, Rashi Peripherals has tied up with A-Data as its National Distributor. As per the company release, Rashi will initially distribute Supreme Series with major chipset in DDR2 & DDR3 version for both Desktop & Laptops which will be available in 1GB/2GB/4GB modules.

Kapal Pansari, Director - Marketing, Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd. said, “We are very excited to have A-DATA in our portfolio as this almost completes our component line of business. A-DATA products are high on quality and Rashi has always taken care to add only quality products to its distribution kitty. Our wide-spread distribution channel will help us make A-DATA brand a name to reckon with in the Indian market and the products will be easily available.”

Hp goBBLed 3Com at $2.7 BiLLion HP has finally acquired 3Com at a price of $7.90 per share in cash or an enterprise value of approx-imately $2.7 billion. HP will integrate 3Com’s network switching, routing and security solutions with its existing HP ProCurve solutions, creating a comprehensive portfolio for customers. 3Com also brings to HP network security capabilities through its TippingPoint portfolio. Together, HP is able to deliver one of the broadest network technology capabilities in the market,

“The AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform signals a new era of

server value and signifi-cantly disrupts today’s

server economics.”ravi swaminatHan

md and regionaL vp of saLes and marketing for amd india

my point


7

sNiPPeTs

New Palit GPU to Accelerate Gaming Palit unveils GPU GeForce GTX 400 Series i.e. GTX 480 and GTX 470. Based on the Microsoft DirectX 11 technology and NVIDIA newly designed Fermi Architecture, the GeForce GTX 400 series is ready to enable a totally new class of physical gaming interaction!

Said to be the fastest one, the GPU 400 Series is the first GPU based on the newly designed Fermi architecture and implements all DirectX 11 hardware features, including tessellation and DirectCompute. GTX 400 series is designed spe-cifically to support the next generation gaming effect such as ray tracing and also enhance the 3D effect from NVIDIA existing 3D Vision to 3D Vision Surround technology. These specifications will give you a whole new perspective in gaming experience.

With PolyMorph Engine (up to 16 tessellation) and 4 raster engines, GTX 400 series enables film-like geometric realism for game characters and objects. Gamers can now enjoy the outstand-ing gaming experience to a whole new level. Tessellation and displacement mapping—the key techniques employed in films, become a reality for the first time in PC gaming. Geometric realism is central to the Fermi architectural enhancements for graphics. In addition, PhysX simulations are much faster, and developers can utilize GPU computing features in games most effectively with GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470.

matrix teLeCom reCHristened as matrix ComseCHaving diversified into manufacturing of Security products, Matrix has changed its name to Matrix Comsec Pvt. Ltd from Matrix Telecom. Comsec stands for Communication and Security. With the new identity Matrix has also changed its corporate logo which, like its new name, will exemplify the area of operations that is Telecom and Security.

However, Matrix will continue market its telecom and security products under the brand name of Matrix Telecom solutions and Matrix Security Solutions, respectively. The name change reinforces Matrix brand as an integrated corpora-tion, that reflects the company’s long-term strategy to advance its global presence, and more closely align and strengthen the identity of each of its operating divisions: Telecom and Security.

Commenting on the name change, Managing Director of Matrix Comsec, Ganesh Jivani said, “Matrix identified Security as a fast growing segment some time back. As a product company we plan to research and design security products and solutions suitable for small, medium and large businesses. As a first step, we have already developed a range of all-integrated, comprehensive Time-Attendance and Access Control solutions. As with all other Matrix products, we have designed this Comsec range of solutions ground-up from scratch with 100% indigenous development. Hardware, embedded software, application server, plastic and metal enclosures and packaging are all created, designed and implemented by Matrix engineers. These solutions are packed with functions, features, flexibility, performance and reliability.”

“It is important for us to communicate the nature of our business to our customers. Further, it is also necessary to highlight our commitment to security business. Therefore, we decided to rename our company from “Matrix Telecom” To “Matrix Comsec” Where Comsec includes our both the businesses - Telecom and Security. With this diversification in security business and with the new company name, we aspire to deliver world-class solutions and services to all our valued Indian and overseas customers.”

Kobian iXA Slim external DVD Writer is Ideal for Mobile Workers

Hp enables students with Customized pC solutions

ganesH Jivani,

Managing Director of

Matrix Comsec

HP enables the education segment with a new lower cost PC solution based on Microsoft Windows MultiPoint Server 2010.

The HP MultiSeat Computing Solution comprises of a host PC, the HP MultiSeat ms6000 PC, to be shared with up to 10 students, connected via the HP MultiSeat t100 Thin Client. This shared resourcing model utilises the host PC’s excess processing resources to operate the additional computing stations. Only the host PC is powered up, meaning less energy consumption and associated costs, thus enabling schools to increase student access to technology at a much reduced cost to build computer literacy skills from a young age.

Each HP MultiSeat t100 Thin Client is energy efficient, consuming only 2.5 watts of power.

Kobian iXA External DVD Writer is ideal for people on the move. Designed to provide consis-tent, unyielding performance the iXA M890-AS DVDRW adopts a single interconnect cable for both data transmission and power supply through a single USB port. Weighing less that 0.4kg, this 8X Slim External DVD Writer also is easy to carry. It features a sleek glossy surface design, which sets this drive apart from the rest.

This External Slim DVDRW Drive adopts the cutting edge technology and promises a high performance and reliability to your applications. It is compatible with a wide range of media and achieves impeccable recording quality. After the overwhelming response on the Mercury DVDR Media from the channel partners, Kobian is all set at expanding their optical product line in the next few months.


8

sNiPPeTs

Amkette offers USB MicroSD- cum- Card ReaderPriced at 450 /- for 2GB and Rs.750 for 4GB, Amkette Micro SD card with a USB card reader is designed with a USB connector and a memory expansion slot that accepts a micro SD card.

It eliminates the need to carry additional USB transfer cables and the typical wait for Bluetooth technology slow file transfers between phones and PCs. It also replaces your SD card adapter, since the micro SD card fits directly into the reader. When in use the data transfer is as simple as drag and drop.

AVAST Forays into Indian MarketAVAST forayes into Indian market and appoints AVOSEC as its official distributor in India. AVOSEC as its official distributor will offer AVAST products to Indian customers through its network of qualified and dedicated resellers. This distributor will also ensure pre and post sales service.

James Norris, the CEO of AVOSEC, says, “The customers are in a delimma in choosing a product with high brand name or low price. This is the right time to offer a technically rich product like avast! a brand name endorsed by 100 million users at an affordable price.”

Lenovo foCuses on tHe retaiL segment

Inspan, the Chennai-based distributor launches Genius optical mouse - NetScroll 110X. Priced at Rs.340, the NetScroll 110X has a plug and play USB interface and is designed for both right and left hand users alike. The 1200 dpi ensures the triple accuracy compared to normal optical mouse at this price range. This is also compatible with Windows 7. etScroll 110X also works well with Macintosh OS X10.2.8 or later version.

Available in a compact hanger package, it becomes easy for display at the point of purchase. This stylish optical mouse designed in superior aesthetics in attractive black color matches perfectly in any contemporary environment. The Genius NetScroll 110X has a comprehensive 3 years warranty ensuring higher confidence levels for customers and partners.

digesTg.d. goenka impLements aCt! By sage GD Goenka World institute has implemented

aCT! By Sage for student enquiry manage-

ment, student counselor activity management

and communication management. aCT!

allows users to log each enquiry and track it

till the admission stage. Using the contacts

module it is possible to record all requisite

information regarding the candidate such as

contact information, previous academic record,

and course he would like to pursue as well

as personal information such as his birthday,

house address and so on.

netapp Crossed 150,000tH depLoyment about to touch eight years, but Netapp has

crossed 150,000 unified storage systems

deployment. “Our customers’ adoption of uni-

fied storage over the past eight years validates

our technology direction for next-generation

virtualized storage architectures. Unified

storage is a key requirement for customers,

especially as they move to shared infrastruc-

ture environments to drive down cost and

reduce operational complexity,” said Manish

Goel, executive vice president of products at

Netapp. “

new offiCe Bearers at vait S.r. ramesh of Sree Gururaja Systems and Ser-

vices has been elected as Vellore association

for information Technology (VaiT) as president

for the year 2010-11. Similarly, J. Mothilal of

Universal Computer Systems has been elected

as Secretary. Whereas r. Sairam, Sriram

Computers has been elected as Treasurer and

Vice-president is B.r. Sathishkumar of Sun

Systems & Solutions, Gudiyatham. K.Baskaran,

of Digitech Computers, Kannamangalam has

been elected as Joint-Secretary.

saLesforCe.Com inCreases apaC Customer Base By 36% Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud comput-

ing company, added more than 1,800 net new

customers in the asia pacific region(1) during

its full fiscal year ended January 31, 2010,

bringing its total customer base to almost

7,000 organisations in the region, a 36%

increase, year-over-year.

“asia pacific was the fastest growing region

for salesforce.com globally in FY10,” said Marc

Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.

Part of its aggressive retail strategy, Lenovo India has opened its first Flagship Store in Bangalore and the largest in India. Based in Mantri Square, Malleswaram, Bangalore, the new Flagship Store, as per the release, is the first of its kind in India and will house the entire range of Lenovo Think and Lenovo IdeaPad and IdeaCentre range of products for Consumer and SMB. The store, located in India’s largest mall, has been designed to be a complete brand experience zone and a one-stop-shop for Lenovo customers. The flagship store combines brand display, product experience, information collection, consultation

and sales and reflects the look and feel of Lenovo stores internationally. Customers visiting the store will be treated to an end-to-end, compelling shopping experience.

While inaugurating the store Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India, said, “The Flagship store embodies Lenovo’s commitment to putting the customer first by providing the opportunity to experience our entire range of products and technology under one roof. The store is a significant step to get closer to our customers and reflects our changing focus towards retail as a key business tool and integrates with our overall business strategy for India.”

inspan launches genius netscroll 110x optical mouse


10

sNiPPeTs

WorLdWide PC sHiPmeNTs iN THe Q1 2010totaL 84.3 miLLion units in tHe Q1 2010, a 27.4% inCrease from tHe Q1 2009. Hp Continued to Be tHe Leader in worLdwide pC sHipments, But its growtH was BeLow tHe worLdwide average in tHe Q1 2010.worLdwide pC vendor unit sHipment touCHes 10 (tHousands of units)

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ZyConnect Chan-nel meet Chennai attracted 250+ participants ZyXEL ZyConnect Channel meet, Chennai pulled more than 250 channel partners from in and around the city. The main attraction of the meet was to recognize the efforts put in by the existing partners and address the relevant channel fraternity. Pinaki Chatterjee, Executive Director, Technical, ZyXEL India, said, “The objective of the channel meet was to educate new technologies as well as make partners well versed with current technology and make them independent so that they themselves can evaluate and compare different brands and select the best suitable for their valued customers.

Addressing the gathering Rishi Samadhia, the Executive Director, Channel, ZyXEL India, said “It is a platform we shared our approach on the various existing and prospective initiatives with a thick demarcation of the rich product line from the company. We also showcased the technical superiority of ZyXEL solutions. This helps our associates in creating a niche in the market.”

iBm to enaBLe start-ups to grow fastHelping the start-ups, IBM opened its resources to help the next generation of entrepreneurs capture emerging business oppor-tunities in fast-growing industries such as energy and utilities, health care, telecommunications and government.

The IBM Global Entrepreneur initiative provides start-ups with no-charge access to industry-specific technologies in a cloud computing environment. Under the new program, IBM will pro-vide access to its Research community as well as sales, marketing and technical skills. IBM invests more than $6 billion per year in Research with more than 3,000 people in eight labs around the world. With more than 4,914 new patents in 2009 alone, IBM has experience bringing innovative technologies to market.

IBM is uniquely positioned to help start-ups because of the depth of resources, expertise, and experience with the most forward-thinking institutions, governments, and businesses around the world. With its Smarter Planet strategy and years of investments in research, IBM is skilled in building product and services offerings for businesses based on new ideas. IBM Industry Frameworks, for example, are software platforms targeted to industry specific market opportuni-ties such as Smarter Water, Smarter Buildings and Smarter Health Care.

“A large number of venture capital investments in the technology industry will be targeted at entrepreneurs in the US, China, Israel, UK, Germany, France and India this year,” said Promod Haque, managing partner, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). “To make these investments count, start-ups must have the right skills in place to bring new technologies to market more quickly. Venture capitalists, businesses, government and academia must all collaborate to ensure today’s entrepreneurs are prepared to succeed.”

exeCutive movement

p raghuraman join

AMD as the Director,

Transaction Business.

amit mehta joins eMc

as Director Marketing

for India and SAARc

amitabh Jacob

Appointed as RSA

Securworld channel

Manager

prasenjit sarkar ap-

pointed new Regional

Director for logitech

South Asia. he will be

based in Singapore and

lead logitech’s channel businesses in

India, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand,

Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan,

Bangladesh, Sri lanka & nepal.

After a long stint

at Mcafee, kartik shahani joins RSA as

Regional leader for India and SAARc.

promod Haque, md,

norwest venture partners

Q1 2009 Q1 2010 Growth

hP Acer Dell lenovo ASUS Toshiba Others

19.9%

54.3%21.4% 59.2%

114.8% 35.8%

11.9%

15,3

19

12,0

03

10,2

09

6,9

77

4,6

47

4,6

23

30

,56

5

12,7

73

7,7

79

8,4

06

4,3

84

2,1

64

3,4

04

27,

30

9


12

sNiPPeTs

AMD has unveiled the industry’s first new server platform featuring 8- and 12-core x86 processor for the high-volume 2P and value 4P server market, which puts the competition

on the hot pan. The AMD Opteron 6000 Series platform addresses the needs of servers today including, workload-spe-cific performance, power efficiency, and overall value - while

delivering more cores and more memory for less money. OeMs including hP, Dell, Acer Group, cray, and SGI are intro-

ducing new systems based on this platform.

amd 12 Core proCessor to redefine server market

InTeX to Invest Rs.100 crore on Retail Activity Intex Technologies has opened its 12th store in the exclusive small format retail chain by the name of INTEX SQUARE at Varanasi. The new store, set up in association with M/s K.R. Enterprise- one of Intex’s distributors in the area- displays the entire range of Intex’s end-consumer products on its shelves - Mobile Phones, PCs, TFT LCD Monitors, Multimedia Speakers, DVD Players, UPS, Cabinets, Web Cameras, Keyboards, Mouse, Headphones, to name just a few. Spread over 350 sq ft area, it has been done up in a modern format utilizing concepts of interior design to facilitate storage & display and ensure a complete technology experience to consumers. The company has planned an investment of more than Rs. 100 crores for the INTEX SQUARE initiative by March, 2011.

neoteric unveils lacie Portable Drives Neoteric unveils Starck and Petit range of LaCie HDDs. The LaCie Starck Mobile Hard Drive is the result of collaboration between LaCie and world-famous designer Philippe Starck.

Its sturdy 2mm of aluminum casing keeps the LaCie Starck from overheating, and helps it to be very resistant, enhanc-ing its overall dependability. The polished aluminum exterior is stylish and tough, but also light enough to transport, making the LaCie Starck both completely chic and completely mobile. A convenient aspect of the LaCie Starck is its embedded USB cable, which allows you to maximize its compact nature and portability.

Gigabyte Unveils dual Core atom motherboard Available from Avnet, Ingram Micro, Redington and Neoteric Infomatique, Gigabyte’s latest motherboard for the new Intel Atom processor D510, the GA-D510UD supports the new revolutionary two–chip layout. Featuring integrated the Intel 45nm. Atom Dual-Core D510 processor provides an easy-to-use flexibility and cost effective platform. Enhanced with all solid capacitors design, GA-D510UD brings small yet powerful and stable platform.

Further, Gigabyte GA D510UD features the revolutionary Gigabyte Ultra Durable 3 design, with 2 ounces of copper for both the Power and Ground layers to enable dramatically lower system temperature, improve energy efficiency and enhance stability for overclocking. Other added onboard features include DualBIOS and Energy Using Products Directive (EuP), for a powerful, yet power efficient multimedia platform.

ZotaC new grapH-iCs Cards to enHanCe gaming experienCeZotac GeForce GTX 480 and GeForce GTX 470 graphics cards, the new graphics cards from the house of Zotac, offer enhancement to the gaming experience. With new Microsoft DirectX 11, 32x anti-aliasing, NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround and HDMI 1.3a technologies, the new models deliver better performance and visuals. With an advanced unified architecture that features hundreds of programmable unified shaders ready to process all GPU needs for extreme high-definition 3D gaming and everyday tasks. The unified architecture combines with a large 1536MB frame buffer on the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 480 and 1280MB frame buffer on the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 470 to deliver high-quality details and breathtaking performance. New Microsoft DirectX 11 with Shader Model 5.0 technology enables the two models of ZOTAC to take visual realism to new heights with integrated GPU-accelerated tessellation.


14

sNiPPeTs

After a long fast of two years, the Indian market is gobbling every-thing. The reference is to the intake capacity of Indian market in terms of adopting technol-

ogy after a prolonged slowdown. Particularly, network computing is at the fast pace of growth. Vendors have started positioning their products more in greener and thinner manner in order to influence the users for a better economics. On the core of the market are the SMBs and Wireless Net-

working is one of the sought after technologies for the customers.

Given this development, Netgear is very much comfortably placed in the SMB market with its plethora of network and niche storage solution- Netgear ReadyNAS solutions than others.

The country manager of Netgear, India & SAARC, Atul Jain, says, “The beginning is really good on the product side for Home & SMB. Net-gear has already extended the leadership in SMB storage with two high performance ReadyNAS

The channel partners need to “stay focused” as Netgear offers a huge product line to address Home, SoHo and SMBs. The hand-holding and empowerment programme of the company is one of the best in the industry

By SaNjay [email protected]

it is time to go All out

aTul jaiN, CouNTry MaNager, iNdia & SaaC (iNdia),

NeTgear

“Netgear always blieves in tying up with right partners who can add maximum value to the products.”

products for virtualized environments, support upto 500 users. Extending its Gigabit range of switches for more business critical application within SMB segment, Netgear is consolidating its position in more of N-category range of Home and Small and Medium Businesses.”

The company is going with a focused approach of better ROI for the customers and its partners’ network. On the core of the partners’ engagement remains Netgear empowerment programme, which is extremely critical. Partner of this pro-gramme, the company conducts training pro-grams on its new products in around ten cities. Along with this, the company is pursuing various programmes in terms of lead generation through smart emailing blast, POPs, Posters dissemination, etc. with messages for partners and their allies.

From the reach perspective, especially in second tier cities; the company is enrolling more partners through focused training programs and offering excellent incentives through unique mar-keting program. The best thing about Negear is it values the importance of each partner. Netgear always blieves in tying up with right partners who can add maximum value to their products.

Finally…Today, Netgear India’s contribution to the Netgear worldwide is too less but going forward it will surely have a decent share as the company eyes at a growth of 20% in 2010.

sme channelsapril 2010

15

netgear sme Buzz

For last three quarters, when the competition was strug-gling, IBM’s share had jumped 30%.

one – be it enterprise customers or even the small businesses - was affected. Money went out of the market. Given the fact that we were market leader, it was natural that we had felt the impact from the revenue perspective. But during the tough times, we had taken leadership in various product lines.”

“We had kicked off blade champions during 2008 which was conceptualized in the early part of the year. It was started with 20 partners but now touched 140 partners. The whole design was aimed at tapping the emerging market opportu-nity. The blade market was specific account driven market. Most of the blade sales were driven by enterprise accounts. We had assessed that point of time the relevance of blade servers for the wide customer base. It was not just the large enterprises but also who were investing in new infrastruc-ture would look at blades very seriously. So we had brought products on Blade Centre S during 2007 December for the SMB market and named it ‘Office in a Box’. Along with this, we were doing

By sanjay [email protected]

businessdrivechamps

even in the hard times

Headquarters : Bangalore

Key people : Ajay Mittal

Products : system and server: AMD

processor-based servers,

Blade servers, Cluster

servers, Intel processor-

based servers, Linux servers,

Mainframe servers, Power

Systems POWER processor-

based servers, System i

(iSeries), UNIX servers x86

servers for Windows and

Linux

strage: Disk systems, Hard

drives/microdrives, Network

attached storage, Storage

area networks, Storage

software, Tape systems

software: Lotus, Rational,

WebSphere, Tivoli

Website : www.ibm.com/in

Facts about W

hen the entire market was struggling from the insanely market slowdown during later part of 2008 and the year 2009, survival for the

partners was a critical issue. There was a clear dearth of liquid cash for them to make their day to day business. Movement of the entire cycle was slowed down. In this situation, there were very few vendors which had helped them to grow. One of them is IBM. The company had brought in some radical changes to its approach to the entire market – be it partners or customers. The com-pany had brought a lot of changes into products positioning, partner programmes and geographic reach. Even the company had helped the partners financially acquiring technology.

Ajay Mittal, VP - General Business, Systems and Technology Group, IBM India/SA, says, “With the meltdown of the finance industry, there was a chain effect for every industry. Every

sme CHANNELSapril 2010

16

IBMsme buzz

channel programmes for up-selling the products.”“The office in a box encompasses 6 blades in

a chassis with integrated storage. It takes SAN inside the box so also switches, and it was relevant for the customers who were into setting up their new office and needed various essential applica-tions like email, web, enterprise applications, etc., to run. Integrating this solution they simply mini-mized their Capex on the data centers,” he added.

Ajay maintained, “By selling Blade Centre S, we took away the customers’ needs of enterprise storage. By putting 12 discs and with 1TB capac-ity in each drive, the customers could effectively get up to 12TB of raw space, which means usable space in a RAID - 1 or - 5 environment is from 6TB to 8TB.”

Entire product and services was orchestrated under a clear cut charter for IBM and revolved around Simplicity, Growth and Profitability. This clearly got reflected in their market share. For last three quarters, when the competition was struggling IBM’s share jumped 30%. The com-pany has sold at least 100 chassis every quarter. Nearly 2,000 competitive installations globally have migrated to IBM platform in the past three years, many led by Business Partners. It justifies IBM’s strategic platforms, middleware, software, services and ecosystem.

Clearly IBM had a very good strategy towards making the solution very simple and enabling the partners to grow towards being profitable. In this process the company significantly reduced the number of promotions for its partners to the tune of almost 50%. Ajay says, “We found our partners were spending countless hours just trying to navigate through the dozens of promotions. This reduced their overhead and consolidated pro-motions into a bigger play for them so that they received the same amount of incentives but with less time involved.”

Secondly, the partners received financial rewards immediately upon closing deals, and they had more visibility into their financials to reduce forecasting risk and budget uncertainty.

In the mean time, IBM also rolled out an enhanced lead pass engine, which enabled the company to better assess which partners have the right skills and attributes to take a lead and close the business. This had expedited the lead passing process and allowed them to get the leads into the partners’ hands faster and more easily.

In support of the charter, IBM also refreshed the STG Principles of Engagement, providing simplicity around its coverage, and clarity to dem-onstrate that the Business Partner is primary route to market for the mid-market. The company also continued co-marketing programs and incentives for education at the individual seller level.

hoW channel is relevant to ibm?

ajay MIttal, Vp - General BusIness,

systeMs and technoloGy Group,

IBM IndIa/sa

The Channel market is extremely critical for us. Almost 80 per cent of our business

comes from the channel as far as STG is concerned. Our interpretation of SMB busi-

ness has undergone evolution from SMB business to General business. It encompasses

the complete market except for the very small set of vertical accounts. So in day to

day basis, we deal with the customers who are spending 1000 USD till the custom-

ers spending 5 million USD. My team has the most diverse space of customers and

products. We sell everything from entry-level System X till Mainframes, Tapes, etc.

how IBM helped partners durInG 2009?In 2009, the money got shocked out. More than the customers the channel saw a

lot of constraints because for them the working capital was not available to them.

Even if they had opportunities in the market place, they were not able to go and push

those opportunities aggressively because there was paucity of working capital. Banks

were not able to lend and the vendors had defined credit policy. So we stepped in and

brought additional credit to the market. We extended finance to the channels through

IBM Global Finance (IGF). Not only that we also did some customers financing. That

clearly worked for us and it reflected in the marketing number during 2009.

Other thing that worked for us is our entry and mid-range storage. We were more

focused in to the enterprises, but during 2009, we equally extended our solutions for

the entry-level and mid-range market. The result was our X-series server business had

a very good success. On a quarterly basis, we sold 3000 servers through the chan-

nels. We replicated the success of the servers in our storage business and brought in

an SME relevant portfolio and took the same channels. Today, it is growing at 100%

and contributing significantly to our business. We are selling a lot of external storage

through that particular segment.

what Is the dIrectIon For channel partners In 2010? Storage is clearly a place going to grow. The need for storage is growing irrespectively

and the size is increasing on continuous basis. And, it is the mid market going to

drive the storage market therefore the channel partners need to have clear storage

strategy.

FInal questIon


17

sme buzzIBM

ibm leadershipl iBM, has a 35.7% share of the india server market in revenue terms for 4Q 2009.

l iBM’s overall server revenues in india witnessed a growth of 58% quarter-on-

quarter (4Q 2009 over 3Q 2009). - Overall server - #1

l iBM recorded the highest growth in the x86 blade server segment with revenues

surging 162% from (Q4 2009 over Q4 2008)in terms of factory revenue - x86

blade : No 1 for FY 2009 and Q4 2009

l in the india x86 server segment for 4Q 2009, iBM gained 5.68 points of factory

revenue share quarter-on-quarter (4Q 2009 over 3Q 2009) :

l Overall x86 : No 2, but we experienced the maximum share gain in Q4 when

compared to competition (3.5 share points)

l Non-x86 Unix Server segment, iBM maintained its number one position, with

a 42.6% market share in 4Q 2009 in factory revenue terms. On a quarter-on-

quarter basis, iBM was also the fastest growing non-x86 UNiX server vendor in

india. - non x86 Unix : No 1 for FY 2009 and Q4 2009

l iBM’s external disk storage systems factory revenue grew at 36.5% year-on-

year (2009 over 2008), while revenues of all other major players declined.

iBM maintained its leadership in the market with 31.1% market share in

Q42009, a 13% points lead over its nearest competitor. 33.5% market share

in revenue terms for FY2009. : External disk storage : No 1 for FY 2009 and

Q4 2009

Source : IDC’s Asia/Pacific Quarterly Disk Server Tracker, Q4 2009, March

2010 release

The partners got access to IBM servers, storage, software, services and finance. IBM engaged partners in co-marketing activities to create demand. From the geographic stand point, IBM also expanded its sales and service through the partners in the tier 2 and 3 markets. Also in these locations, the company worked upon empowering them on clients’ business challenges - educating and enabling them on IBM’s high value solutions.

Ajay says, the strategy of 2009 will be carried forward to 2010 but there will be some fine tuning as per the current situation. In the major steps, the com-pany will endeavor to further simplify the PartnerWorld Program around skill development, more revenue generation, creating more references, and

working on customer satisfaction. From the products perspective, IBM will deliver a complete line-up of

new, innovative, “workload optimized” systems designed for massive scale to meet the demands of a smarter planet.

Finally…A rich basket of products and consistent strategy in place, IBM is going gung ho in the Indian market. The fine-tuned service delivery around platforms, middleware and software through the ecosystem are compelling reasons to move to IBM.


18

IBMsme buzz

Uniline Unveils D series UPs

Uniline, the 3rd largest manufac-turer of UPS in India, unveils all-in-one D Series UPS. Started in the year 1989, the company has launched many products in the

last 20 years and D Series UPS is one of the game changing solutions for the company. Ideal for a wide range of applications with its high technol-ogy, high reliability and efficiency and functional structure, IGBT rectifier and inverter-based D series UPS offer lower overall cost of ownership with high efficiency.

R. K. Bansal, Managing Director, Uniline

Energy Systems, said, “The effort of brining this high-end UPS system is backed by our R&D team and manufacturing unit at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh.”

“Our focus in bringing out more and more UPS products with good quality and affordability has taken us to No.3 position in just 5 years time,” He adds. Asked about how much time the company would take to reach No.1 spot, he jovially said “It will take 3 years for Uniline to reach the spot but it all depends on the growth of the competition in the market. However it is not impossible!”

The company is more known for OEMs and

government supply, but the year 2010 will see Uni-line’s aggressive focus in the channel market. Uni-line is all set to take the company into a new league entrepreneurship by focusing on the brand build-ing by out laying a budget of Rs.10 crore for the marketing activities. The company surely likes to see the contribution of channel business increase from 37% to a better number vis-à-vis other two vertical markets (OEM and Govt.) to its revenue.

In addition to this, the company has an expan-sive plan of bringing out more and more Solar Power, Inverters and High Power UPS (up to 1000 KVA) products.


19

sme BUzzuniline

One might look at the MFDs or the multi functional devices as a variant of the printers - be it laser technology or inkjet technol-ogy based ones but to the SMEs

MFDs are the utility machines. It helps them to save a lot of expenses incurred towards printing, copying and faxing. Even from the point of view of real-estate price, all the extra devices take a good ammount of space value. Therefore a single MFD can save a lot of office space and makes the office look aesthetic. On the support perspective, it calls for a single person to service the entire fun-tionality of the machine than five people for five different machines. But, many argue that stand along specialized products are better than a single all in one machine. It is correct to some extent for large enterprises with high duty cycle of printing,

copying, faxing or scanning. But today there are so many variants of MFDs available from HP, Canon, Xerox or even from Samsung and Epson that they compel the large enterprises to go for the MFDs than the stand alon products. Most of the MFDs because of their remote printing, securing option, network and variable printing bring a lot of value to the customers.

Due to compliance requirement, various verti-cals are moving towards the complete digitization of their documents and MFDs are comming as advantage. As per Gartner, factors like increasing real estate prices, and decreasing prices for storage and capturing technologies are driving the adop-tion of DMS. The technology is witnessing the changing user needs.

Similarly Gartner says that the combined printer, copier and multifunctional product

It is not the biased deployment rather balanced deployment driving adoption of the MFDs. Single functional printers might have more installation base but the truth is that pure economics making these converged machines sprint faster.

By Sanjay [email protected]

MFDs?

Are YOu

Sellingright

The overall Inkjet and Laser multifunctional

device market is 6 Lacs units in 2009 out

of which Inkjet MFP accounts for 75% and

the laser MFD accounts for 25% in terms of

the Units.

the OverAll MArket

75%laser MFD

25%Inkjet MFp

SMe channelsaPrIL 2010

20

MFDsCOver StOrY

out oF the total Market SIze oF laSer

MFD’S (237,214 unItS), a3 accountS For 63,595 unItS anD a4’S Share

IS 173,619.


21

MFDs COver StOrY

(MFP) market in India totaled nearly 0.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009, which repre-sented a 34.7% growth over the fourth quarter of 2008 and an 18% growth compared to the third quarter in 2009 which clearly shows the growing demand for MFDs in India.

Vipin Tuteja, Executive Director, Marketing and Business Support, Xerox India, says, “MFD’s are evolving to be the one-stop-shop for all docu-ment management needs in an organization be printing, scanning, copying, faxing. MFD’s today are an integral part of the entire breadth of SME’s with integration of multiple features of standalone devices and ease of accessibility across networks.”

As per Puneet Datta- Assistant Director - Mar-keting, Canon India, “The main factors behind consumer wanting to purchase MFDs is that today MFDs turning out to be cost-effective propositions, especially in the small and medium enterprises (SME) and small office or home office (SOHO) segment, where most growth is expected. And, with corporates resorting to cost saving in communications in an increasingly competitive environment the thrust on MFDs is certainly present there too. Secondly, MFDs are a good option for small offices and active home users. They are good devices offering value for money while also cutting down on the clutter due to their compactness and multifunctionality. ”

Gurpreet Kanwal, Country Business Manager, Convergence at HP India, says, “Having one machine instead of four or five different ones helps in saving a lot of space and also eases management issues. MFDs are expected to be dominant in the SMEs segment on account of the multi-tasking activity available in a single machine.”

Ram Prasad, Senior Business Manager, Consumer Product Group, Epson India, says, “Today, in any SME office the amount of infor-mation transmissions both inter and Intra office whether through digital or through printed form is substantial. This flow is across the organization irrespective of size or domain. In this scenario one

product which can be truly be handy is an MFP which can manage 4-5 functions through single device. It may be a simple document printing to scanning encrypted PDF File, Faxing invoices to printing special occasion photos in office and much more.”

But point is here which technology the SMEs should adopt. Inkjet offers low TCO and higher operational cost whereas laser offers high TCO low operational cost. On this Tuteja opines Inkjets are said to be more suitable for the smaller work-groups or individuals in comparison to lasers that

are geared towards larger workgroups with more diverse printing needs.

While the debate continues, many analysts believe that the two technologies will co-exist. Yet another school of thought holds the view that laser technology will dominate and eat into the market share of inkjet market in the coming few years. However, the past two years have seen the inkjet technology facing tough competition from the laser technology in the SMBs, SOHO and the corporate segments due to higher level of efficiency, lower total cost of ownership (TCO), high quality prints, space saving, ease of use and value. The greater adoption of the laser technol-ogy has ensured a remarkable drop in the price-performance ratio.

Datta of Canon takes a balance view about both the technologies. As per him the Laser market is on an upward motion. At the same time the inkjet market is currently in a state of transition and is moving into photo printing. It will definitely not decrease but in fact would see an increase owing to its vast acceptance into home market also. In fact, photo printers are increasingly taking over the traditional photo studio and are becoming a solution for quality photo printing. Canon holds almost 2300 patents for the inkjet printer and constantly produces printers which align them-selves to the market needs.

However, Ram Prasad arguing in favour of inkjet technology says, “From the SME’s Perspec-tive, the new generation inkjet MFDs offer an Edge over Laser MFDs in terms of overall features at the same time compares well in terms of speed or quality and running cost of lasers. On overall value for money and TCO, inkjet MFD scores better over laser MFDs - more so, if you want to Print in colour!”

Today, Xerox has 12 models in A4 MFPs (Mono & Colour) and 25 models in A3 MFPs (Mono & Colour) and most of the models also have 2-3 variants. These models come with Xerox DocuSh-are enables document management, collabora-tion, review and approval, and Web publishing to support information sharing at all points of the enterprise by every knowledge worker.

Epson has 5 MFD Models focused on SMEs. The company provides various tools for integrating into the office systems ensuring effective usage for Document management or content management. Interestingly all the MFDs are routed through the channel partners to the end customers. HP has the highest number of partners - around 3500. All are allowed to participate in the business. HP offers periodic trainings for its partners and their sales teams on product and application skill sets. There are demo programs and end customer engage-ment and awareness building activities done all

“inkjet MFDS OFFer An eDge Over lASer MFDS in terMS OF OverAll FeAtureS AnD COMpAreS well in terMS OF SpeeD Or QuAlitY AnD running COSt OF lASerS”rAM prASAD, Senior BuSineSS Manager, ConSuMer ProduCt grouP, ePSon india

“CAnOn COntrib-uteS tO MiniMizing envirOnMentAl burDen thrOugh eFFeCtive Appli-CAtiOn OF envi-rOnMentAl teChnOlOgieS. ”puneet DAttA, aSSiStant direC-tor, Marketing, Canon india


22

COver StOrY MFDs

year round to enable the partners. Over and above this, the company does a lot of collaterals meant for specific customers segments within SMB. As the largest company for MFDs, HP runs a lot of channel programs and incentives backed by a lot of end customer promotions as well.

Similarly, Xerox has 500 partners nationally who are a mix of Xerox Premium partners, Value Added Resellers, Sub Distributors. But over the next few years, Xerox India will continue to expand the partner base pan India particularly in places which are still not adequately covered.

Xerox India’s channel strategy revolves around partner profitability. Tuteja adds, “We want all our partners to be profitable. Our channel partners are instrumental in providing document manage-ment consultancy and appropriate information about Xerox products that fits in best as per the customers’ requirements at the ideal price points. We train our channel partners; provide them with marketing collaterals to ensure they are empow-ered with appropriate information. Should there be a requirement we also provide pre-sales and post-sales support to ensure that the customer gets the best service on Xerox products and solutions.”

There is a XVLE (Xerox Virtual Learning) site, which also provides training when they require it. There is also nationwide Channel Partner pro-gram which divided the partners into Platinum, Gold, Silver partners depending on their size, exclusivity and volume of products and solutions rolled out.

Canon BIS division has 155 channel partners, 34 Canon Care centers, 156 authorized service centers to the address the emerging needs of MFD market. The company is focusing significantly on tier II and III cities. The company has nearly dou-bled its sales staff from 400 to 730 people. Canon has created a new category “Digital on Demand printing” where the company has launched new Colour Presses and has identified business oppor-tunity in areas like photo book printing, and graphic arts segment.

Similarly, for Epson there are more than 500 Partners engaged across India with key focus on SME space. The company focuses on 2-Tier dis-tribution strategy.

MFDs are also at the evolution phase. Today, the MFDs have made a significant contribu-tion towards taking the concept of “Office Next” to a higher level. Going forward, as this market matures mono lasers will take a low and ‘Color laser MFD’s’ are going to become extremely popu-lar providing customers color solutions at effec-tive price points.

Majority of Xerox MFD’s are network enabled devices. These devices can easily integrate with the existing networks available at customer locations. Those are user friendly and need not be added separately on to individual systems in order to perform various functionalities. These feature rich Xerox MFDs with an ability to deliver customized applications based on individual document man-agement requirements are making inroads into the entire breadth of SMEs.

Although much has been happening in the A4 space but the market trend in shifting to multi-function color A3 solutions as these machines allows customers to print marketing collaterals, graphs, etc. inhouse at very little price points.

Canon is emphasizing on green technologies and web 2.0.

Canon’s products boast of hundreds of enhance-ments. For example, its new imageRunner advance offers advanced controller that delivers improved performance through faster processing, industry-first MEAP technology and partnership alliances with leading software providers such as Adobe, Microsoft and NTWare, ensuring that integration with common office systems is straightforward, contributing significantly to improved operat-ing efficiency and security. Users can personalise and speed-up access to the most relevant func-

iMpOrtAnt pOintS tO nOte beFOre Selling MFDSl Look at the print volume requirements of

the customer

l Look at whether they require color & b/w

printing

l Look at whether they require a3 or a4 MFDs

l Understand what kind of speed requirement

they have

l Suggest the appropriate solution for a

customer.

l Suggest about the roI vis-a-vis the competi-

tion technology

l Offer a matrix of comparison

l advise them about the utility of original

consumables

tions for their specific role through automated one-touch workflows. The new range also offers improved document security and will comply with the industry’s most stringent security standards. Organisations can adopt a portfolio of security measures to meet their specific requirements. Device security can be achieved through employee ID cards and follow-me printing as well as hard-disk removal. While critical business data can be protected through a Document Scan Lock Kit.

As per Gurpreet of HP is going by the industry trends, 2010 will see range of products that will support WiFi technology in printers. Similarly, full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering ensures fast photo printing performance even in the default mode which is also expected to be seen as an emerging technology.

Ram Prasad adds, “Customers are looking for more features like Wifi and web printing in the inkjet printers and colour printing is in thing with cost of colour printing becoming more economical in the new generation Inkjet MFPs. MFPs are getting inte-grated into the overall office ecosystem including the existing software platforms and applications.”

Finally…If MFDs are making a march ahead of single functional printers or cannibalizing their market share, there is a utility value in it. In the growth of MFDs, there is surely a great role of partners who need to advise right solution to customers with better RoI than selling them the machinese avail-able with them.

“XerOX prODuCtS AnD SOlutiOnS Are rAteD high-eSt in pli repOrtS thAt COnDuCt teStS OF DeviCeS in ACtuAl CuStOMer envirOnMentS.”vipin tutejA, exeCutive direC-tor, Marketing and BuSineSS SuPPort, xerox india


23

COver StOrYMFDs

“we are clear about making belkin one

of the leading tech brands in india.”

mohit anandmanaging director, belkin

india & subcontinent

Indian market is going through a very interesting phase. The consumers are ready to experiment with every attractive product that is coming to the market. In this

situation, Belkin has chosen the right time to enter into Indian market and take person like Mohit Anand on board as Managing Director for India & Subcontinent, who

understands the pulse of the market in depth. To know more about the company’s strategy for SME Channels spoke to him. Excerpt

brief us about belkin presence in india?

Since our entry in India, in early 2009, Belkin has taken rapid strides towards becoming a leading tech & digital lifestyle brand. Headquartered in Gurgaon, Belkin India has come a long way from a one man team to 40+ people and offices in major metros. Belkin has also made its presence felt in Bangladesh, Srilanka and Nepal.

what kind of product range do you have?

We offer an extensive range of innovations, designed to give computer and consumer elec-tronics users’ seamless integration in their homes, at work, in their cars, and on the go.

what kind of competitive advan-tage do you provide to your

partners?At Belkin we acknowledge that our channel part-ners play a pivotal role in bringing Belkin to the growth path. The key advantage that Belkin offers

its partners are the fact that they get to sell world class products with very healthy bottom line contribution. We also empower our partners in various ways through our well fleshed out partner engagement and readiness model.

which products do you think are going to drive your market for

2010?I would say different products in different catego-ries. Belkin has a vast range of products including iPod/iPhone/Laptop accessories, Active & Passive Networking and Power products. The consumer behavior would again be the market driver this time and Belkin has classified its product range as per the consumer usage scenario At home, At Work, In Car and On the Go.

Wireless networking growth is being driven by rapid growth in broadband penetration and an increasing need of consumers to have secure and reliable wireless networks for fast internet access. The increasing expansion or up gradation in business enterprises’ IT infra-

structure will drive the structured cabling market. Increasing numbers of iPod, iPad, iPhone and laptop users will augment the accessory business, where as issues like power surge will affect the power category products.

Recently you have launched

passive products and have appointed two distributors for the same, could you elaborate it on the strategy front?

Structured cabling business is a key component of our over all India strategy. We had to enter this segment sooner rather than later since our world-wide principal product is cabling. IT infrastruc-ture upgradation in Indian enterprise business has opened new doors for SC business.

To target the complete pie we have appointed Iris Computers and Neoteric Informatique as its national distributors for the segment. Iris will focus on the Server/SI channel eco system, while Neoteric will focus on the PC component and reseller channel.

sme channElSApril 2010

24

sme chat

what is your distribution and channel strategy for other

products?Belkin is operating with a hybrid channel model with regional distributors selling through both organized retail and traditional retail channels to reach out to consumers, across more than 7,000 stores countrywide, besides multi-brand retail chains. We are embarking upon an aggressive market outreach programme through 2010 to help improve visibility and connect for the Belkin brand across target audiences and geographies.

We have 6 distributors and over seven thou-sand resellers across 100 cities in India. Our Channel structure includes national and regional distributors, non IT resellers and major LFRs.

brief us about your channels empowerment strategy?

Belkin as a company is very focused on empower-ing channel partners with training and accredita-tion, which stands true for India as well.

Under the empowerment program, we regu-larly conduct multi-city SI cum reseller partner

meet and events, these events are focused on addressing not only the field sales teams but also on the technical support people in the chan-nel. This includes technical training, products showcase, future product roadmaps etc. We also have regular channel schemes to motivate our partners that we run on a quarterly basis. Besides this we have a fully fledged accreditation program whereby we issue certification to authorized retailers, resellers and VAR’s.

what is your marketing strat-egy for 2010, what kind of

budget the company has set aside for this purpose?We have a gamut of marketing, brand promotion and channel activities in pipe line for higher vis-ibility and easy access to Belkin products for its consumers.

Our strategy in India is simple – continuously offer innovative, stylish, user-friendly and reliable products at value price points, at retail outlets that serve our customer’s convenience and ever-changing shopping habits, and then back it up with world-class tech support and warranty service.

We are committed to investing in India as it is one of our most strategic markets and we are clear about making Belkin one of the leading tech brands in India.

You are focusing heavily on retail stores, what is your plan

to beef up this programme?Belkin products are available on shelves, across all major IT and Non-IT retail outlets. The complete retail structure includes traditional IT and non IT retail outlets like Croma, Staples, X’cite, Oddyssey etc. we are continuously expanding our reach and penetration and some of the key initiatives for us to branch out into channels that have been hith-erto untapped by any IT brand. A few examples of this are, the fact that today Belkin products are finding their way into “electrical shops’ with our surge products, similarly with our in-car solutions we have been able to tap “car accessory” stores. This makes Belkin perhaps the only tech brand that is present in stores that have never carried IT and lifestyle products traditionally.

what kind of growth do you want to see this year?

We are very young in India and have just com-pleted 1 year of our operations here, thus our con-tribution to our global revenues is very small at this stage. We are very clear that India is one of our most strategic markets and we are confident that Indian operations will contribute close to 10% of our global revenues over the next 5 years.

“structured cabling business is a keY component of our over all india

strategY.”

sme channElSApril 2010

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sme chat

What are the Trends emerging in cloud computing in India for

2010?There is a lot of buzz around ‘cloud computing’, and rightly so because no single approach to tech-nology has ever so clearly set out a path towards powerful computing tools delivered with none of the management or cost overheads associated with IT.

It is the closest we have seen yet to IT that ‘just works’. And with businesses looking to do more for less right now, we are beginning to see a shift towards cloud computing.

Cloud applications require no more infra-structure than an internet connection and can even work wirelessly on a range of mobile devices. This capability gives companies the freedom to greatly reduce upfront capital expense and ‘pay-as-they-go’. Customers get up and running in less time - typically it is days or weeks versus the months or years associated with some traditional software.

As a result, SMEs are now able to access productivity software that can greatly affect their business success – software that has pre-viously only been available to large enterprise companies.

Hundreds of organizations in India like Ffree-dom, Ocimum Biosolutions and Omnitech have already made this shift to cloud computing. We think this is just the tipping point for more adop-tion to come. Industry experts are touting SaaS (software-as-a-service) growth numbers upwards of 60% in India , with adoption right across indus-tries including banking, finance and healthcare. In fact, analyst firm Springboard Research states that India is the fastest growing SaaS market in the Asia Pacific region.

What are the plans of Sales-force.com India?

We are bullish about India’s appetite for running and developing enterprise applications in the cloud. We currently have hundreds of customers and 30,000+ developers in India alone. We intend to increase our presence in India to capitalize on pent up demand from small and large enterprises looking for enterprise class CRM that can be implemented in days or weeks, versus months or years.

In an annual survey with more than 6,000 Salesforce CRM customers globally, customers achieved on average more than 34% increase in sales revenue, 52% increase in lead volume, and

25% increase in customer satisfaction. There’s no reason why SMEs in India can’t have access to the same world class CRM applications that the Fortune 500 companies are using to manage their customer relationships.

We also see an opportunity to work more with developers in India. People are often surprised to hear that we have 30,000 independent developers in India developing applications on Force.com, our development platform. Force.com has cre-ated an explosion of creativity and diversity in the developer community and we believe we’re going to see more innovations coming from India in the next few years.

What is the trend in SME adap-tion of cloud computing in India

and what kind of benefits SMEs are going to get?Small companies can benefit a great deal from the use of technology but often don’t want to invite the extra cost or management headache in-house and as such hold back from investing in tools that could transform their business. Often that reticence is reinforced by experi-ences of buying technology that hasn’t deliv-ered the expected value.

“WE TakE Our ParTnEr EnablEMEnT

VEry SErIOuSly”

DaVID raMSay SEnIOr DIrEcTOr, allIancES, aSIa

PacIfIc, SalESfOrcE.cOM

Small and Medium Businesses are normally not savvy to the technology use as it involves higher CAPEX and OPEX. But surely time has come when they can change their mind set. It is about

leveraging the cloud. Cloud computing would save them money, scale their business and remove headaches. SMEChannels spoke to David Ramsay, Senior Director, Alliances, Asia Pacific,

Salesforce.com, to know more about the use of cloud for the SMEs and the involvement of the channel partners. excerpt

SME ChAnnElSapril 2010

26

SME chaT

A first major benefit to cloud computing is that the need for infrastructure and therefore upfront capital expense is greatly reduced. To run business applications many companies would previously have needed high-spec PCs and serv-ers running the applications in-house. Internal networks would also need investment and man-agement. However, cloud applications require no more infrastructure than an internet connection and can even work wirelessly on devices such as iPhones and BlackBerrys.

In addition, with cloud computing small businesses do not have to pay the maintenance streams they incur with legacy client vendors that seldom offer innovation. Cloud computing applications and platforms ensure that innova-tion is constantly delivered at modest operating expenses, a benefit that is increasingly important in times like these.

Speed is also a concern to small companies, especially when it comes to reacting quickly to opportunity or obstacle. Through cloud comput-ing, speed to deployment can in theory be as quick as signing up for any service online. It certainly needn’t take months of installing and configur-ing software as is often the case with traditional, legacy on-premise software. Real-time multiten-

ant cloud computing offers small companies the critical advantage of being nimble and quick to respond.

Also, because software delivered as a service - in the cloud - can be switched off as easily as it is switched on, it means service providers are per-petually accountable and must continually deliver service and support.

“Salesforce has perfectly tailored CRM to our requirements and our productivity has gone up by 10 -15 percent. AppExchange fills operational holes with solutions that resonate across our entire organization. It gives us a single place to find a variety of applications to meet our busi-ness needs.” - Anuradha Acharya, Chief Executive Officer, Ocimum Biosolutions.

Other salesforce.com SME customers in India include Ffreedom and Omnitech.

how IT channel partners are going to be part of mechanism

of delivery? What is the support mechanism?Salesforce.com is 100 percent focused on cus-tomer success so we take our partner enable-ment very seriously. Salesforce.com provides partners with world-class training and certifi-

cation programs focused on both CRM admin-istration and Force.com development. The details for these programs can be found here: http://www.salesforce.com/services-training/training_certification/.

With the cloud computing model, the role of the channel partner is a little different than with traditional software providers. In fact there are many more opportunities for channel partners to do more than just sell and maintain systems. The biggest opportunities for channel partners are:l Referral and resellers l Adding true business value by assisting with

configuration, integration, business process/change managementl Training and educationl Custom application development on the

Force.com platform – this could be building for one company in particular, or developing an application they can market and sell on the AppExchange – www.appexchange.com

We are committed to providing our partners with certification and detailed, in-depth product and go-to-market training. We invest in our part-ners in multiple ways. We are responsible for their on-boarding training, updated product training as well as go-to-market training. sme

“SMall cOMPanIES can bEnEfIT a grEaT DEal frOM ThE uSE Of TEchnOlOgy buT OfTEn DOn’T WanT

TO InVITE ThE ExTra cOST Or ManagEMEnT hEaDachE In-hOuSE

SME ChAnnElSapril 2010

27

SME chaT

Passion to service customers and will to bring extra margin for the partners have helped Amkette to grow.

There is a saying “when things get tough, tough gets going”. This is probably aptly applicable for the domestic storage - and desk-top - peripherals manufacturer

Amkette. It was a time when there was much demand for the global brands in storage media and peripheral products but with the market slowing down, many of the brands found very difficult to sustain their pace. They could not support the partners in the right time and there were issues in the shipment of products. In that scenario, Amkette had supported the partners with a multiple line of products and programs for creating good margin. In the past two years, Amkette has added many models to its entire range of products and unveiled a number of new products. Today, the company takes pride in pro-viding products like flash drives, optical storage media, wireless combo desktop devices, Flash TV, cleaning kits, etc.

Started in the year 1984 as a Storage Company with floppy discs, Amkette had been competing with all international brands. But thanks to the market slowdown, Amkette has again emerged as a major brand in the domestic market. It has near

about 150 products available in about 6000 retail outlets across 110 cities in India and touches 2 million customers.

Amkette’s core competency lies in product development, marketing and customer service. The company never tries to compromise with quality. And the next good thing about Amkette product is that it is affordable compared to other brands. Amkette takes care of logistics through its in house resources whereas its sales part is taken care of by the channel partners.

Even when the market was under pressure to survive in 2009, Amkette had grown around 20-23 per cent. In order to keep the pricing under control, Amkette manufactures some of its products in its Udaipur facility and some in Shenzhen, China. Rajiv Bapna, Director, Amkette, says, “Manufacturing is not an impor-tant issue, rather developing is an important issue. We have a strong in-house R&D team, out of which 12 people are devoted to devel-opment and 25 people are engaged in quality control.”

Part of this team is based out of Amkette’s Okhla office and rest people sit in Udaipur. In fact, Amkette Udaipur facility is sprawling across

Year of

operation

: 1984

India

Presence

: 22 locations

Headquarters : New Delhi

Employees : 240

Key people : Rajiv Bapna

Products : Flash TV

Classic Duo Desktop keyboard

and mouse combo

USB Flash Drives

Wireless keyboard and mouse

4 Port USB HUB

Memory Cards

Cleaning Kits

Website : http://www.amkette.com

By sAnjAy [email protected]

FacTs abouT

bring Pleasure To The business

sTrong

brands

inside ouT AMKETTE

sme CHANNElSapril 2010

28

80000 sq feet area, a large part of which houses central logistics and support functionality of the company.

Another specialty of Amkette is that it does a lot of customization around customers’ requirement. Bapna says, “We are the only com-pany which provides flash drives embedded with customers’ software. For example, in Flash TV products, we customize the solution for a variety of customers in terms of adding their logo and making them look and feel as per their requirement.”

In its journey of 26 years, the company has evolved in three phases. In the first phase, the company has brought out Amkette-branded floppy discs, which was a pioneering step in the Indian manufacturing at that point of time. Later on, CDs, DVDs, Printer Supplies, Peripherals, Storage Accessories and a variety of Computer Care Products were added.

Similarly, 7-8 years ago, Amkette again diversi-fied into peripherals and launched wireless key-board, mouse, USB drives, e-cartridges, etc.

In the last phase, in September 2009, Amkette entered into third phage of growth and added two major categories including all important media player - FlashTV. And, in this phase, Amkette appears to be very aggressive - making a lot of investment in brand building.

Bapna says, “Today, a big confluence is hap-pening among television, computer, wireless, and storage products and Amkette is trying to be in between these major technological changes.”

A 100% channel driven company, Amkette has always been focusing on the home, SoHo and SME market, through the channel partners and the objective is to make the digital life of the con-

AmKEttE UltrA PortABlE FlAsh tVaMKETTE ultra portable multimedia player - Flash TV - enables users to playback their internet downloaded

movies, pictures and music from the USB hard drives, flash drives or memory cards, in high resolution output

of 720p directly on their HD television.

The new multimedia player from aMKETTE connects to a user’s TV or home theater and plays digital movies,

music and photos and also the text files stored in the USB portable drives. The Flash TV offers high resolution

image, audio and video playback complete with a remote control.

it is ultra compact almost size of a wallet and can be carried with your while on the move. it takes almost all

video formats including MpEG 1, MpEG-2 (aVi/VOB), MpEG-4 (aVi/DiVX 3-6x/XviD), DVD (VOB, MpEG), DaT and

MpG, rM / rMVB, etc.

priced at rs. 2,995, this unique media player comes with one year warranty.

“EVEry ProdUct linE thAt AmKEttE hAs is to ProVidE A tAngiBlE BEnEFit to mAKE thE E-liFE EAsiEr”—rajiv Bapna, Director, amkette

sumers easier. Bapna adds, “Every product line that Amkette has is to provide a tangible benefit to make the e-life easier.” Vouching for quality of products, Bapna says, “We have been highly suc-cessful in launching a number of products in last three months, which are priced 50% less than what is offered by the international companies and the products are no way inferior to any inter-national brand.”

As per him Amkette stands neck to neck or at times better than the global manufacturer in terms of quality.

Going forward in 2010, Amkette will add a lot of variants in its existing range of products.

Support being the critical issue for the consum-ers, Amkette handles the support part through its own set of people. “Our objective is to provide best service to the consumers so that they become happy dealing with us. Secondly, Channel part-ners do not have to bother about customer ser-vice.” he adds. Nearly 20 locations, the company has support centres.

Out of Amkette’s 500 distributors, 400 deal in storage products and 45 partners handle lifestyle products, which the company intends to increase to 90 in next 12 months.

Finally…Given the products’ strength and channel sup-port, combined with the company’s philosophy of “business with pleasure”, Amkette is gunning for a growth of 50% this fiscal.

This is just the beginning of a great company but they needs to go a long way from here as Amkette needs to challange international brands in oversease market, which have so far been tor-menting them in their own den.

nEw ProdUct

inside ouTAMKETTE

sme CHANNElSapril 2010

29

“Skill development in termS of Solution

will be one of our key initiativeS”

milind tamhanevice preSident - itS

SaleS, digilink

After successful demerger, DigiLink is all set to create a niche in the Indian structured cabling solutions. SME Channels spoke to Milind Tamhane, Vice President - ITS Sales,

DigiLink, to know about the company’s strategy in the current fiscal. Excerpt

brief us about the present status of digilink india?

Today, according to IDC, DIGILINK is the No.2 brand in the Indian Structured Cabling Systems (SCSs) segment. DIGILINK is the undisputed industry leader in providing the entire end-to-end range of structured cabling solutions for enterprises, small and medium business. Today, DIGILINK accounts for 18% of the market share in the SCS marketplace, giving the DIGILINK Brand a premier position in the domestic market.

which products are going to drive the digilink market for 2010?

This year our focus is on developing products suitable for Data Center, FTTH deployments and 10G over Copper. We would parallelly be working for products for Internet Ready Homes.

what is digilink’ competitive advantage over the

competition? DigiLink has competitive advantage in various space including Research and Development, Intellectual Property Rights, Manufacturing, Marketing and Distribution and Service Support Integration.

how do you focus on channel market from the perspective of

empowering them?We have always been a Channel driven company and our endeavor is to always improvise on our Channel policies and make them best suited for the Channels. We ensure healthy margins and also introduce new products with newer applications to increase the scope of growth for the Channels. These new products and solutions enable the channel to value add and hence can demand more margins from the customers.

Skill development in terms of solution will be one of the our key initiative, as in this age of fast changing technology one has to stay informed about the latest technological developments and trends. This is of more importance to business partners who play a major role in advising the end-customer as to which is the best technologi-cal solution to opt for. DIGILINK understands these issues of our partners and has designed special training sessions to specifically serve this end objective.

Other key elements of our channel policy will be expansion of channel partners, Initiatives towards channel, product expansion, and geo-graphic expansion.

how many distributors and dealers do you have?

We reach out to our customers with our nation-wide network of 24 distributors, 6 National

System Integrators (NSI), +200 Empower value system integrators (EVS), +1000 Empower value added re-sellers (EVAR) and more than 5000 Empower Reseller (ER). The distributors include Goyal Computers based out of Lucknow, Bits & Bytes Compusoft based out of Jaipur, Artek Enterprises having presence Delhi, Haryana and Deradhun, OST Electronics for Chandigarh and Viraj Infocomm for Jammu.

what are your incentivization programmes for the partners?

Our Empower Partner Program has shown great results. Now we aim to build up on the program by launching schemes for the registered partners. One of the highlights of the program is the train-ing on latest technology in Information Transport System Industry, which is provided to the part-ners along with demonstrations of products. We have just completed 45 city road shows “FITS 09”, in which these training were conducted. FITS 09 also helped us in creating mind share with our SI’s over new technologies coming in to passive network.

We have just launch channel reward program “Zip Zap Zoom 3”. The program is designed for DIGILINK Value Added Resellers and System Integrators and will run from 1 March to June 30, 2010. This scheme is available through authorized DIGILINK distributors and

Sme chAnnELSApril 2010

30

Sme chat

Empower Resellers. Last year DIGILINK launched Zip Zap Zoom

1 and 2 schemes. Channel partners showed immense enthusiasm and approximately 300 partners qualified under these schemes and won for themselves an all paid trip to Malaysia, Genting Bangkok/Pattaya and Kerela. These trips were arranged in the month of July 2009 and Feb-ruary 2010.

how do you focus on the service support?

Our high quality and reputable after-sale-services are strategically built to deliver customer satisfac-

tion. We offer first-rate integrated service and support through our special service division, DIGICARE, which consists of RMA centres, DIGICARE Technical Assistance Centre (DTAC) and Direct Service Department (DSD).

DIGICARE has evolved most efficient, skilled and professional state of service infra-structure. It has 18 Direct RMA/Service centres and 6 Service Partners across the country, with as many as 165 skilled personnel. 12 Locations has BGA Machines. All Digicare Centres are located in the Main IT Market of the town. DIGICARE has Unique Web based RMA Online System “iSMART” to Monitor the

service activity, online repair status update, Automated Email and SMS alerts Facility and Warranty Tracking. DIGICARE has excep-tional Repair Yield of 98% local repairs and 96% Cases are closed in 7 working Days.

DIGICARE has over the period attained exper-tise in Repair skill set for all Networking Products, Motherboards, Notebooks, PDA and LCD Moni-tors etc.

what is the strategy to sustain the brand image?

Anchored by an extensive marketing and dis-tribution network, DIGILINK has emerged as a prominent player in the structured cabling cate-gory in India. Well-conceived branding strategies, coupled with a business framework that delivers value, quality and efficacy are instrumental to the Company’s success in a market flooded with com-petition. Integral to its business model, is a wide-spreading marketing and distribution network that ensures deeper market penetration.

DIGILINK consistently adopts a 360o degree approach to address all types of channels, across markets, covering global, regional and small SIs and resellers.

what are the new products you are launching?

We have aligned ourselves for focused approach for few areas like Intelligent Patch Panels, Bigger Fiber Business in LAN/WAN and also in FTTH. In addition we plan to add whole lot of higher end products including high density 48P Patch panels, Residential Equipment cabinets and so on… Our indigenous Development team has created few new patented products about which it would be inappropriate to detail further.

from the vertical perspective, which are the markets you are

focusing? From the vertical perspective we are focusing on Datacenters, Manufacturing, BFSI, PSU, Educa-tion, Govt. and Infrastructure market.

what is the present turnover of the company and what kind of

growth do you want to see this year? Ours is a public limited company hence we cannot offer exact values, we however have reached 2nd position in SCS Industry last year and will continue to maintain the same position next year with comfortable margin from the 3rd position. We will certainly be achieving 5% extra growth than the industry growth of 20%.

“ we aim to build up on the program by launching SchemeS for the regiStered

partnerS.”

Sme chAnnELSApril 2010

31

Sme chat

Ramco OnDemand ERP (RODE) helps partners to maxi-mise their opportunities in the SME market.

Do you know why SMEs always keep their heads drooped? It is because they always find them-selves perplexed with the new development in the technology

arena. They remain concerned about how to acquire the advanced technology. Their pain point is lack of sufficient fund. They can neither afford superior technology nor could hire supe-rior manpower. In the process they lose customers to the large enterprises.

Since internally they are not automated they neither can work in a process nor could they showcase their preparedness to the customers. Therefore, first and foremost they need enter-prise solution which connects each of their work processes starting from the manufacturing floors or development places to the back office - till the retail delivery mechanism allowing them to keep a tab of each of the stages of functionality. Not only that post the production or supply of their products, there should again an enterprise class mechanism to understand the behavior need of their buyers and suppliers. Acquiring all these enterprise solutions is very costly and managing it is also a specialized job. From business stand-point, SMEs also cannot leave these enterprise solutions and forced to integrate solutions which are not world-class, do not have scalability, flex-ibility and they find it hard to integrate all the additional modules later on.

Therefore, there is a need of all these solutions from the world-class vendors but the vendors should choose how to integrate without giving much pain to the customers.

Given this critical situation of the SMEs the domestic champion for enterprise solutions, Ramco Systems part of $800 million Ramco Group, has launched a unique mechanism of delivering ERP solutions. It is ERP through a hosted model or you can say it is SaaS or it is a Cloud model. Ramco is the first mover in the cloud space to offer enterprise solutions.

Elaborating about Ramco’s credentials, R.Sukumar, General Manager – Sales, Ramco OnDemand ERP, says, “Ramco Systems is the only company that offers a world- class ERP in cloud computing model. There are a consider-able number of reference sites across different industry verticals in this model in India which includes big corporate as well. The quality of our product is way ahead in terms of functionality and usability compared to the offerings made to the mid tier companies (emerging corporate) by the competitors and hence we have a compelling value proposition.”

He adds, “Cloud solutions do not need a huge upfront capex. The buyers need not worry about technology and functionality upgrades. The entire IT infrastructure is outsourced thereby eradicat-ing hardware costs and infrastructure mainte-nance costs. It lets customer focus on their core

Founded : 1989

Headquarters : Chennai

Key people : P.R. Venketrama Raja, VC, MD

& CEO

Kamesh Ramamoorthy, COO

Jim Fitzgerald Global

President Aviation Solutions

Industry : Software

Domain

Solutions

: Asset Management, Aviation,

Banking & Financial Services,

Human Capital Management,

Finance & Analytics,

Insurance, Manufacturing,

Transportation & Shipping

logistics, Facility & Hospitality

Management, IT / ITES,

Cement

Revenue : $4.45 m (as of 31st March’10)

Website : www.ramco.com

By Sanjay [email protected]

is the Answer to thesMes’ Growth strAteGy

FActs About

on clouDenterprise ApplicAtion

Co-create. Innovate. Win.

sMe CHAnnElSapril 2010

32

RAMCOsMe buzz

business and leave IT worries to Ramco Systems.”Today, Ramco OnDemand ERP has a com-

prehensive suite of modules to handle various business verticals. It handles a wide range of busi-ness functionalities. The company also provides option to select modules based on the require-ments by the customers. The core strength of the company is continued investment in product research and development over several years which enable Ramco to keep the company way ahead of the competitors and make products very versatile.

Ramco OnDemand ERP is deployed on a multi tenant architecture providing exclusivity for every customer. Each customer has an exclusive data-base. The power of our underlying technology – Ramco Virtual Works provides us the flexibility to be not only multitenant but gives us the ability to customize solutions even in a cloud model. This gives us a strong positioning even in large corpo-rate, which opts for SAS model.

Ramco OnDemand ERP solution comprises of 17 modules that are closely integrated. These modules contain vertical specific functionalities that make the product cater to the needs of mul-tiple industry verticals. Further our continued investment in R&D on Product development gives us a unique advantage to get into niche mar-kets as well.

The challenge here is that people are skeptic about the effectiveness of the solution. But if

customers are demonstrated about their savings in terms of Capex and Opex, probably it is not difficult to win them. Sukumar says, “Customer acquisition and creating a reference base of satis-fied customers is our goal. We plan to step up our gears and expand fast through channel network. We plan to have our next 500-600 customers in quick time. The entire GTM is oriented towards this. Focusing on Industrial clusters with our ver-tical specific solutions is also planned.”

In this delivery mechanism the role of the part-ners is also very critical. They are the people who will sell the product to the customers. Sukumar, maintains, “We already have 50 active partners across the country and over 250 active customers. Our progress has been very steady and we have validated ourselves at every stage to ensure that customers are satisfied and also enable our part-ners in this process.”

To ensure swift customer acquisition, Build-ing Partner network is the topmost agenda for Ramco. Over the next one year, the company aims to expand its partner network to at least 100 part-ners across India. The strategy for the next fiscal is to recruit and groom more partners in each region to enhance domestic presence and widen the reach of the sales arm. Marketing events and partner acquisition programs are planned for the coming year to recruit, train and deploy partners on the field to sell and implement Ramco OnDe-mand ERP (RODE).

Enabling the partners is a key objective of Ramco and the company provides tools and training to make them independent, which include training and sales and implementation, to help them gain better product understanding. Apart from train-ing, we provide them with tools and Go to Market (GTM) kit that guides them to acquire and support customers. He adds, “We will also provide sales leads and help partners in closing and implement-ing the deal. Similarly, partners are incentivized on both sales and implementation fronts. Our partner gets commission on the subscription paid and also on the implementation revenue based on his role.”

Last but not the least is the support part, the company offers a 24/7 call center support and an online issue tracking system to its customers with agreed SLA. An important point is that upgrades are provided every month on the product and RODE remains evergreen in terms of functional-ity and technology.

Finally… Ramco has shown the ways to the customers how they can actually save a lot of cost and con-centrate on their business by leaving the worries to the third party. At least 250 customers have accepted it and if Ramco concentrates on verti-cals and showcase the ROI matrix very aggres-sively the number can be multiple. Of course the company has its own policy and way forward to define growth.

R. SukuMaR, GEnERal ManaGER

– SalES, RaMcO OnDEManD ERP

sMe CHAnnElSapril 2010

33

sMe buzzRAMCO

It was a good opportunity for them to be different from others in the competition by adding value to the prod-ucts they sell by taking very niche products. That was what T2 vendors actually wanted and the entire equa-

tion became a win-win situation for both.


T2 DisTis DefieD

slowDown

All of a sudden for some quarters, T2 distributors looked more active vis-à-vis the large distrib-utors. When the global market was reeling under pressure of

market slowdown, India had shown resilience and most of the small vendors which were facing trouble outside found a safe harbor here to dock for sustenance. But issue was that the large dis-tributors could not take those products without a long evaluation because of their internal process and policy. Therefore it was natural that they came to the T2 distis, which were best fit for them. Their products needed value addition and a lot of efforts to push them, which the T2 partners were best known for. So both the companies’ philosophy jelled well with each other. Mainly the distribu-tors like Cyberstar, Neoteric, Inspan, Jupiter, and Supertron made a strong headway.

Sudhir S, Managing Director, Inspan Infotech, says, “the growth of T2 distributors is based on region centric dynamics, however sentiments are good and encouraging as precaution on spending

which prevailed in the past quarter is slowly dilut-ing and confidence is rising.”

Raj Rathi, Managing Director, Cyberstar Info-com Private Limited, sees Cyberstar making a very good progress in the Indian market. Based on the company growth trajectory, Rathi has set a target of Rs1000crore turnover by 2013 from the current Rs.160 crore.

He says, “Products like Intel and Microsoft are better sold through the large distributors. When it comes to adding value to the products line, there comes the T2 vendors. Therefore, T2 distributors and T2 vendors are the real match.”

In fact, the advantage of the T2 distributors is that they are ready to work hard as they need to grow fast and catch up with the large enterprises. They are more flexible in terms of their approach, whereas the T1 distributors are more structured in terms of their processeses.

There is probably no need of the larger distribu-tors to do some flexible work because of the size of the products they handle. Secondly, their internal process never allows them to do so. For example the credit analysis is done by the T2 distributors in

a day two where as the large distributors take 10 to 15 days time for doing so.

Rashi believes in promoting the brand and selling high end products. The company makes a strategic plan of the marketing initiative in terms of brand positioning. Present in 53 locations and offering service at 64 locations, Rashi vouches for its flat structure and speed of execution. The com-pany believes in promoting brands and products and not just selling them. Therefore, they have an in-house dedicated team for PR and marketing.

Similarly, present in 19 locations, Cyberstar believes in dealing in niche products. For example, Lexmark is completely know for Cyberstar. Simi-larly, other brands like Belkin, Creative, Alvarion, AudioCodes, Hitachi, Panduit, Adaptec, Pro-Curve, Watch Guard, etc., are not just the pull products rather the distributor pushes to the market with a lot of value addition. However, the company wishes to change its image very soon by adding volume products and threfore they are opting to sell Dell products.

Cyberstar has presence through its partners all across India, but North and South are major driv-


34

businessPArTner Corner

ers of their business followed by West and East. Rathi adds, “We are successful because we are

a very process driven and professionally managed company started by first generation entrepre-neurs. We also work lot more transparently with the vendors, which the vendors really appreciate.” The company has close to 2000 partners all over India.

On the other hand, Rashi works with some world famous brands like AData, AMD, Altec Lansing, APC, Asus, Compex, HP, Procurve, Leadtek, Logitech, Netgear, Nexans, Pixelview, Plantronics, Sandisk, Sony, Targus and XFX. Rashi has its own ISO 9001:2001 accredited RP Tech Branded Systems. Its products comprise mostly high end, quality and premium range. Rashi has grown consistently over the period of years and its turnover was Rs. 709 crores for the financial year 2008-09. Today Rashi has more than 9000 reseller base who are working together with the company for distribution of its brands.

Rashi adds a lot of value to its product lines. Rajesh Goenka, VP (Sales & Marketing), Rashi Peripherals, says, “Partner profitability is one of

the core focus areas at Rashi and therefore we run various programmes and reward the partners in kinds - specially gold.” Also the company runs many sell out programmes, which enable partners not only to sell out their stock but also earn addi-tional incentive. In order to keep the partners in good humor, the company conducts regular part-ner picnics and international travel programmes for long term bonding purpose.

With a healthy product portfolio, Rashi is look-ing for a sustainable growth of 20%+ year on year.

Inspan has recognized the market trend clearly and adapting suitably to cater to the changing market. Inspan’s flat organizational structure is definitely a differentiator. Partners appreciate the quick response. Vendors too have recognized this.

Similarly, Inspan had only four brands in 2009, but each quarter the company adds one or two products. For example over last quarters, Inspan has added Genius, CyberClean, A-DATA and ViewSonic, etc. The specialty of Inspan is that it does a detailed analysis of the Partners’ inputs and market feedback before signing a Vendor.

Sudhir says, “We choose the products that we would like to distribute from the entire portfolio. Once signed up, we ensure the faster and larger coverage to the brand with riding on the strong network that we have. Moreover we feedback our vendors with crucial inputs from the market to take suitable actions in terms of products, price, timing etc. Our reach in emerging markets matches very well with the focus of the vendors too.”

From the partners’ perspective, Inspan con-ducts various partner education programs on the products. Apart from these, the company executes attractive schemes, bundled offers, price benefits and seasonal offers for the channel partners.

Inspan has presence in 21 locations in India covering the emerging markets and mid-sized markets.

FInally… This is an interesting time of T2 distributors. With market looking bullish in 2010 beginning, these distributors will surely have a nice time ahead.

“We are suc-cessFul Because We are a very process drIven and proFessIon-ally managed company.”—raj rathi, Managing Director, Cyberstar infocom

private limited

“parTner proFIT-aBIlITy Is one oF The core Focus aT rashI and There-Fore We run varI-ous programmes”—rajesh goenka, Vp (Sales & Marketing), rashi

peripherals

“once sIgned up, We ensure The FasTer and larger cover-age To The Brand WITh rIdIng on The sTrong neTWork ThaT We have.”—sudhir s, Managing Director, inspan infotech


35

PArTner Cornerbusiness

What is your strategy for 2010 in India market? What is your

product road map?Seagate will continue to look at new and emerging market segments that are poised to grow expo-nentially in India.

An overwhelming range of new consumer devices such as high-definition TVs, portable game systems, home media servers, car naviga-tion and entertainment systems and multi-func-tion cell phones are entering the market, fuelling demand for more digital storage at the consumer side. Seagate has been quick to recognize the fast growing end-consumer market and has lead with products for that segment. Secure external storage solutions like Seagate’s FreeAgent family, home media entertainment players such as the Free-Agent Theater+ and a hassle-free backup appli-ance Seagate Replica are recent introductions in the Indian market.

On the other hand, traditional enterprise and desktop PC markets continue to be strong and Seagate has continually innovated with industry-leading storage products for these segments too. In recent times, Seagate introduced the Bar-racuda XT, the world’s first 6Gb/s SAS interface drive – extreme performer suitable for gamer and powerful multimedia PCs. In the enterprise space, Seagate just released the Savvio 10K.4 - world’s

highest-capacity and most reliable 2.5-inch enter-prise-class drive and the 3.5-inch Constellation ES drive - the industry’s first 2TB enterprise-class drives featuring 6Gb SAS.

Seagate strategy in India will be to be an inno-vation leader and offer the most comprehensive line-up of storage drives to suit all kinds of needs and users, thereby be on the top of the consumers’ choice.

How different will you be technologically?

Seagate has been consistently delivering an unparalleled record of innovation to the market and here are some of the technology innovations that enable us to continually be at the forefront of the market.

The Barracuda XT drive mentioned above is the industry’s first to exploit the Serial ATA 6Gb/sec blazing fast data transfer interface for demand-ing applications like gaming and high-graphics multimedia. While, the Savvio 10K.4 is the indus-try’s most reliable 2.5-inch enterprise-class drive. Built for the demands of enterprise servers and to enable new levels of data density in external storage arrays, Savvio 10K.4 is the first HDD to achieve an unprecedented 2 million hours Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) reliability rating.

Seagate is the first to start shipping enterprise-

class self-encrypting drives across its Savvio and Cheetah families, introduced its Solid-State Drive, Pulsar and released its most energy-efficient drives into the market.

What will be Seagate’s advan-tage over the competition?

With 30 years of expertise and proven record of innovations, Seagate is the name of choice for dig-ital storage solutions, from protecting treasured family photos and personal music collections to developing next-generation consumer electronics devices and large enterprise networks.

One measure of this leadership is the fact that Seagate is the first hard drive manufacturer in the world to have shipped 1 billion drives, a landmark that was achieved in early 2008. And now, Seagate is well on its way to its second billion, expected to happen over just next five years – that is way ahead of any other HDD manufacturer.

Today no other hard drive manufacturer matches Seagate’s breadth and depth of solutions as we have the industry’s broadest set of storage solutions. Seagate has a unique advantage com-pared to its competitors in that we understand the needs of our customers, and we have a solid infrastructure to actually deliver and serve our customers at every point. Seagate also leads the industry in research and development, with a

“Seagate ContInuouSly eduCateS PartnerS about

neW oPPortunItIeS”

rajeSH KHurana Country Manager, IndIa & SaarC CountrIeS,

Seagate teCHnology

The increasing digitization of content is changing the customer demand in India, opening up a vast opportunity for the industry. The consumer market is also emerging as one of the strongest

growth drivers in the storage industry. As a leading provider of storage devices, SME Channels spoke to Rajesh Khurana, Country Manager, India & SAARC Countries, Seagate Technology to

know about the company’s India strategy for this year. Excerpt

SMe ChAnnElSapril 2010

36

SMe CHat

focus on bringing to market industry-leading new technologies and solutions.

How about your channel strategy?

Seagate Partner Program, which was brought to India in 2005, is fully supporting partners’ unique business requirements. The Seagate Part-ner Program provides high-powered services to increase profitability of its channel partners and meet their specific business needs. This program includes an interactive web portal for easy access to value-added information, training sessions and customer support.

Further, introduction of the Seagate Regional Customer Councils, Toll-Free call support, walk-in warranty exchange centres are good examples of our ground-breaking initiatives. Especially, the sme

Seagate Partner Program also stays flexible to accommodate the various market opportuni-ties in the country. For instance, as mentioned above, Seagate added a sub-category dedicated to the digital surveillance and security market to the Seagate Partner Program (SPP) in India. This initiative, again driven by a demand in the market, is part of our on-going effort to enhance the footprint of the channel network by providing innovative market solutions.

How about your presence in external drive market?

Seagate is actively looking at the home/retail market. There is a rising demand for storage solutions amongst consumers. The consumer electronics market across the world is witnessing a spiraling growth. In India, the increasing digitiza-tion of content is changing the customer demand. This, in turn, can be a major opportunity for our channel partners. There is a tendency among part-ners to concentrate on the metros and larger cities – but small towns hold a lot of promise. Seagate plans to continue to focus on our highly popular FreeAgent lineup of external storage solutions. The Seagate FreeAgent family offers a variety of powerful yet simple ways to store, safeguard and easily access all photos, music, videos and documents.

do you have SSd products? if yes, pls. elaborate on the strat-

egy of marketing?Seagate has recently introduced the Seagate Pulsar drive, the first product in its new enterprise solid state drive (SSD) family. Designed for enterprise blade and general server applications, the Pulsar drive uses single-level cell (SLC) technology, deliv-ers up to 200GB capacity, and is built in a 2.5-inch small form factor with a SATA interface. The Pulsar drive leverages Seagate’s 30 years of leader-ship in meeting large enterprise customer needs in product development, qualification, and support.

Seagate’s strategy is to focus on volume opportu-nity – we won’t play in every SSD area if it doesn’t make sense from a business/shareholder perspec-tive. Seagate is #1 because it understands the storage business - HDDs or SSDs doesn’t matter - we have the people, infrastructure, knowledge and support to satisfy our largest OEMs on a global basis.

What will be your thriving mantra?

Extensive and close partnership with channels is essential for gaining success in the market. Seagate has been collaborating closely with its partners to deliver an unparalleled record of innovation to the market.

“IntroduCtIon of tHe Seagate regIonal

CuStoMer CounCIlS, toll-free Call

SuPPort, WalK-In Warranty exCHange

CentreS are good exaMPleS of our ground-breaKIng

InItIatIveS”

establishment of the Seagate Regional Customer Councils (RCCs) is an important pioneering initiative from Seagate in the channel space. The RCCs comprise enterprise partners, system integrators, retail partners and sub-distributors invited from all regions of India. This program is to gain direct partner analysis and input as to the effectiveness of Seagate’s programs in India.

How do you want to empower them? What is your support

strategy?Seagate continuously educates partners about new opportunities and carries out regular train-ing on the products and technologies that we are introducing, so that they are able to maximize their results by offering best and optimum storage solutions to their customers.

SMe ChAnnElSapril 2010

37

SMe CHat

“We Completely Understand oUr

CUstomers netWorking reqUirement”

rajesh sahoreVp-Channel deVelop-

ment, d-link (india) ltd.

Networking is one of the vibrant markets in the SME space. Starting from SoHo till the top layer SME companies, every individual and enterprise needs a better

product at a cost effective price point. D-Link is one such company, which is cable of fulfilling the entire requirement of the each vertical market from the stand point of wire and wireless networking. SME Channels spoke to Rajesh Sahore, VP-Channel

Development, D-Link (India). Excerpt

Brief us about the present status of d-link india?

Globally, D-Link Corporation features among the top five networking companies. D-Link has been operating in India for over 15 years & we have been growing consistently over the years. Infact D-Link is ranked amongst India’s Premier Networking brand.

Today D-Link has strong regional presence across the country with 17 branch offices. This is further backed by a strong Pre & post sales sup-port team.

Followings the recent de-merger in 2009, D-Link has realigned its strategy & has adapted a more focused approach while addressing cus-tomers networking requirement. Our objective is to further strengthen D-Link’s position as ‘End-to-End Networking solution provider’. Our key agenda this year will be to reach untapped market & create more awareness at end-customer level.

tell us something about d-link range of products?

D-Link has a wide range of products/ solutions that include Network Switching, Wireless LAN, Routing, Network security, IP Surveillance, Net-work storage, VOIP & Broadband.

D-Link is an award-winning designer, developer and manufacturer of networking, broadband, digital electronics, voice, data and video communications solutions for the Enter-prise environments, Small Office/Home Office (SOHO), Small to Medium Business (SMB), digi-tal home, and Workgroup. It is one of the very few companies to offer end-to-end solution.

Which products are going to drive the d-link market for

2010?Looking ahead, networking will be at the center of a connected world which will be enabled through Wi-Fi and 3G. So you can look forward to more Wi-Fi & 3G products from D-Link. In consumer space we have products like Boxee box, pebble etc. which may be launched in India as well. These products are sure to create a stir in India market.

What is d-link’s competitive advantage over the

competition?D-Link is more than a product company, our strength is in providing complete networking solution & that’s what gives us an advantage in this mega market. As a networking solution provider, we completely understand our customers network-ing requirement. This is one of the reasons why our products are so popular across the vertical.

how do you focus on channel market from the perspective of

empowering them?D-Link has been organizing various regular channel empowerment programs so that part-ners are updated on the latest technological developments in Networking & better equipped to meet customer demands. One such event is ‘Sales Pro’ – A multi-city technology educa-tion program that addresses the networking concerns of partners’ techno-sales & pre-sales team. Very recently D-Link had also launched

sme CHaNNELSApril 2010

38

sme Chat

‘Connection 2010’ – A multicity road show for channel partners in Bangalore, Cochin, Chen-nai & Hyderabad (add new partners).

In addition to this we have also set-up an exclusive‘d-partner’ website for our channel partners, which contains huge D-Link data repository, tools and real case studies and project details. This also enables partners to participate in D-Link education program to achieve higher position in partnership up-gradation as well as more discounts. D-Link offers partner certifica-tion programs through this partner web site, and

work closely with its 25 Regional distributors. To further reach out to more & more Re-sellers

& partners present in smaller cities/ towns in India D-Link has recently signed 82 Business Distributors (BD’s). In addition to this D-Link also has 18 branch offices all across India. With this D-Link is ensuring ready availability of our products/ solutions to partners & end-consumers across India.

What are your incentive pro-grammes for the partners?

D-Link has always had a very channel centric approach as channel is an integral part of our organization structure. We are constantly looking at ways in which we can engage with our partners & support them to grow their business. Last year we had launched a host of channel incentive pro-grams like ‘D-Link Premier League – DPL’, ‘Secure Switch Promotion – SSP’ and ‘Sales Incentive Program – SIP’

This year also D-Link has announced various lucrative programs for its channel partners like, ‘Global Partner Program – GPP’, ‘March Bonanza’ & more. Global partner program (GPP) is aimed at improving the skill sets of partners by provid-ing training opportunities. It also offers better business prospect for partners. GPP is divided into 4 levels i.e.., registered partners, Elite, Silver & Gold. Whereas ‘March Bonanza’ was a unique month long promotional offer for D-Link resell-ers that gave partners an opportunity to choose the reward of their choice.

how do you focus on the service support

D-Link has a very comprehensive and flexible ser-vice support system to match the specific require-ments of our customers. We have set up Technical Support (toll free no. 1800-233-0000 & e-mail service: [email protected]), Web-Based Sup-port (unlimited access to technical documenta-tion that includes installation and configuration guides, release notes, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and a management information database ) and Hardware Support system (replace shipped product if the product is established as Dead on Arrival (DOA) by the Partner’s inspection team within 10 days from shipment).

What is the present turnover of the company and what kind of

growth do you want to see this year?Despite the recent economic slowdown, D-Link was able to maintain its revenue & profitability. Looking forward, we foresee huge potential in India, as networking market for this financial year is showing good signs of growth.

complements this with periodic class room train-ing at regular intervals.

how many distributors and dealers do you have?

D-Link had recently re-structured its partner net-work to widen its reach. As part of its enhanced channel strategy D-Link had appointed Ingram Micro & Redington as it National distributors to provide superior logistic capabilities, strong pre & post sales support & effective end-to-end customer support. At the same time D-Link also continues to

“We haVe also set-Up

an exClUsiVe‘d-part-

ner’ WeBsite for oUr

Channel partners,

WhiCh Contains hUge

d-link data repository,

tools and real Case

stUdies and projeCt

details. ”

sme CHaNNELSApril 2010

39

sme Chat

eSyS MyXerver Pro MX3800

Ideal for hoMe, SoHo and small business, MyX-erver Pro MX3800 Wireless Network Storage extends the functionality beyond a simple file server, providing both fun and useful features to complement the digital lifestyle. The 1TB storage of the device offers practically unlimited space for the targeted segment to store data and pull data from the device through a standard user interface. You can store at least 330,000 photographs of 3Mb size each, up to 60HD movies and 220, 000 MP3 songs. What more you want and the price is affordable.

Besides storage, the biggest advantage of this device is that it can be used as a supplementary access point for an existing wireless network, which can increase wireless signal strength and enhance wireless coverage.

It can be used for a host of utility functionalities. Almost all your office applications can be resided in this storage device. You can use it as File server and the administrator can create account with password and define the quote.

It can be used as FTP Server. This can store files of vari-ous formats including Windows, Mac and Linux /platform, which does not allow the users to keep multiple copies of various files. With active directory support, it enables windows domain user to access shared data with authen-tication. This saves administration time and effort to create duplicate accounts and groups. Last but not the least, the user can put it as print server.

featureSn Storage capacity: 1TB

n Flash Memory: 16MB

n HDD: 1x support SATA I/II HDD

n Network: Gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet,

Wireless 802.11b/g

n USB Port: 2x USB 2.0 support USB

printer, disk, digital camera, thumb drive,

etc.

n Stores: Up to 330,000 photographs

and upto 60 HD movies

n Warranty: 3 years

PrIceINR Rs 14990/-

contactReema Maingi, eSys Information Tech-

nologies Pvt. Ltd. Plot No. 521, Phase-III,

Gurgaon, Haryana-122 016 India

+91-124 3010673(D), +91 124 3010678-79

[email protected]

overall ratIng


For the Small and medium enterprises

communication takes a huge investment.

They use their traditional PSTN connection

for voice and skype or other third party

applications for video discussion. But, things

surely will be changed with Grandstream

GXV3140 phone.

The next generation IP multimedia telephone

system from Grandstream offers an extraor-

dinary video quality, advanced telephony

features and rich applications embodied in

a sleek industrial design, which also comes

with a optional WIFI Dongle for Wireless

connectivity.

This land phone distinguishes as a unique

class of its own. The GXV3140 sports a

crystal clear 4.3” digital colour LCD, a

tiltable 1.3M pixel advanced CMOS camera

with razor sharp clarity and privacy shutter,

dual network ports, rich auxiliary interfaces

(such as SD, USB, stereo headset, audio/

video output, etc), advanced video compres-

sion standard H.264/H 263/H.263+, and a

full-duplex speakerphone.

The user can also collaborate with a number

of popular Web and social networking

applications (such as Web Browsing, IM with

Yahoo/ MSN/ Google, Internet radio, Yahoo

Flickr Web photo album, RSS news/weather/

stock feeds, music steaming, games, etc.),

the GXV3140 creates a powerful platform for

enabling converged IP multimedia applica-

tions that bring unprecedented stunning

user experience.

It is available with Micro Village in India.

grandStreaM gXv3140 enableS free vIdeo call for lIfe

n product: Grandstream GXV3140 Cost: INR Rs.17, 641+taxes Warranty: 1 year, Camera: 1.3m pixel CMOS Contact: Kirubakaran V.R Email: [email protected] ph: +91 80-25295882, +91 80-25280359

SMe ChaNNelSAPRIL 2010

40

ReVIewProduct

carry your deSktoP In Pocket

canon IMagerunner advance c5030

SaMSung ‘MySteco’ SerIeS

Canon

ChECk point

samsung

known aS IMagerunner ADVANCE C5030, the MFD from Canon is powered by Microsoft Office Sharepoint server. It creates a better collaborative workplace and ensure effi-cient and secure document management systems. The MFD lets users scan paper documents directly to Microsoft SharePoint by using buttons on the MFD interface ensuring enhanced security of documents while optimizing time and resources in the workplace.

The enhancements to Canon’s MEAP technology and partnership alliances ensure improved operating efficiency and security.

n product: Canon ImageRUNNeR advance C5030 Cost: Rs.525, 000 Contact: Sunil Bhan , Phone: 9711119697 / [email protected]

PrIce StartIng froM Rs.6,350 Samsung MystEco Series TFT Monitors are the stylish and feature rich monitors. Available in four sizes i.e. 15.6”, 18.5”, 20” and 21.5”, this series offers consumers complete display solutions for their entertain-ment and business needs.

These TFT monitors have power saving capabilities. With the hot key, the power consumption can be set at 100% /75%/50%.The series uses least power in standby mode (0.3W) and comes with a stylish, high glossy cabinet; slim neck and an elegant design with rear wave pattern. Some of the superior performance fea-tures that make the viewing experience truly delightful include a dynamic contrast ratio of 70000:1, lateral plug-in and a 16:9 wide format panel that is ideal for multimedia contents. The TFTs are also HD ready.

n product: Samsung ‘Mysteco’ Series, Warranty: 3 years, Contact: ankush Sabharwal Phone: 95124 – 4881234 / [email protected]

no need to take bulky laPtoPS with you on your business trips as Check Point Abra turns any PC into a fully secure corporate desktop. Abra Provides users access to company emails, files and application anywhere whether offline or online through integrated virtual private network (VPN) connectivity, Abra loads itself automatically on any PC, and contains local encrypted storage to protect any data stored on the device.

Remote workers and contractors accessing the corporate network through per-sonal or third-party equipment can put businesses’ sensitive data at risk and threaten the network. For example, mobile workers storing corporate data on a home PC could inadvertently expose company information when a child or another home user visits a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing site or send attachments via instant mes-sage (IM), Similarly, a contractor could accidentally send a business’ proprietary data to another client. Regardless of the intent, the potential damage from data loss is the same.

But with Abra, you are assured of no threat and once you are over with your work just pull out the dongle and the data snapshot will not even be visible to the next user.

n product: Check Point abra Cost: US$140 for 4GB and US$220 for 8GB, Contact: Srinivas S, Phone: 08022996505 / [email protected]

SMe ChaNNelSAPRIL 2010

42

New aRRIValSProduct

Wireless solutions for • Service Providers• Municipalities• Business & Industry• Public Safety• Utilities

Video surveillance TransportationAlternative operator access (WISP)

Smart GridOil and gas

Point to point backhaulBorder control

Contact Alvarion to support your wireless deployment Tel: +91-124-4003862 Fax: +91-124-4003863 Email: [email protected] Web: www.alvarion.com

Delivering Wireless Broadband with WiMAX™ to Urban and Rural India Today

DEL ENG / 2010 / 3192

sme channels april issue

Documents

right time

large volume

large portfolio

large value

large market places

sme buzz

sme perspective

large enterprises