contents
April 01, 2013 l Volume 2 Issue 11
Cover Story While it is premature to write an obituary of the PC, there is no doubt that the ecosystem is under major threat with the computing landscape transforming rapidly
18 Cover Design : Deepjyoti Bhowmik
NEWS Analyses
Channel Chief
Schneider launches data center in a box
9
QlikTech readies partners for BI opportunities
9
Comguard plans inorganic growth 11 Wipro takes on Tally with Scale
11
Verint seeks partners for physical security
12
NxtGen to sell DC services by energy use
12
READ More Opinion
10
Feedback
10
Channel Buzz
29
New Products
32
Shadow Ram
34
Get Personal
34
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
14 Special Focus Face to face with video conferencing While investment from enterprises remain skewed toward high-end VC solutions and mobility, SMBs are embracing entry-level options and are expected to use cloud services
16 Market Focus
25
Editorial 8
6
Tushar Sighat CEO, D-Link India, who has tripled the company’s turnover in less than two years, speaks about the factors behind growth and how he intends to keep the momentum going
Growing acceptance The digital signage market has reached a critical size and provides partners with abundant opportunities
Role Model Bottomline focussed Biren Shah, Managing Director, Adit Microsys, says that while the topline may give you a feeling of growth, it is the bottomline that is the oxygen of the business
27
edit opinion Is the PC dead?
Volume 2, Issue 11
dhaval valia
I
s the PC era nearing its end? The question merits discussion because the entire IT ecosystem is built around the PC. It is not the first time this question has been raised. However, today this debate has assumed greater significance than ever before, and here is why. Moore’s Law becomes irrelevant: The law that powered Intel’s fortunes for the past three decades has lost its relevance. Factors such as the cloud and virtualization have meant that customers no longer seek the fastest processors. The gap between technology refreshes will continue to increase, rendering Moore’s Law—which states that processor speeds for PCs will double every two years—completely irrelevant. PC ecosystem weakens: Over the few years the PC ecosystem has weakened. Today there are only three global players who make PC building blocks—ECS, Gigabyte and Asus. Intel has already decided to exit desktop motherboard manufacturing. Out of the top PC OEMs—HP, Dell, Acer and Lenovo—two (HP and Dell) are not sure about the future of their PC business. Ecosystem momentum is a critical factor for the success of any product category, and the PC is losing that. Intel’s dominance wanes: Intel has been the single most important factor behind the sustenance of the ecosystem. Till a few years ago Intel’s control of the PC ecosystem was so absolute that its wish was everyone’s command. But the failure of its two big category inventions—netbooks and ultrabooks— suggests that Intel no longer wields the same power. Tablets rise: Intel now admits that it failed to anticipate the momentum for tablets. This from a company which probably invented the tablet category. In 2007, when the Atom was launched, and three years before the iPad, Intel had envisaged both the tablet (ultra mobile personal computer, or UMPC) and the phablet (mobile Internet device, or MID) form-factors. Many OEMs launched UMPCs and MIDs in 2008 and 2009, but due to the lack of a good touch interface and optimized OS platform the devices failed. As things stand today, Intel’s share in the 122 million tablet market (expected to cross 192 million in 2013) is negligible. Intel says that tablets cannot be used for serious content creation, but in the next two years the ARM processor which goes in the tablet will be as fast as Intel’s processors, and Android will become as multi-tasking as Windows. The stock market too seems doubtful about the future of the PC and is betting big on tablets. In November the market capitalization of Qualcomm—which makes the Snapdragon processors that power nearly 50 percent of all tablets— surpassed that of Intel though its turnover is still one-third that of Intel’s. Most probably, the future of the PC will hinge on how the ecosystem partners respond to these steep challenges over the next two years. n E-mail CRN Executive Editor Dhaval Valia at dhaval.valia@ubm.com 8
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
Managing Director Printer & Publisher Associate Publisher & Director Executive Editor Contributing Editor Assistant Editor Principal Correspondent Senior Correspondent
: : : : : : : :
Design Art Director : Senior Visualiser : Senior Graphic Designer : Graphic Designer : Marketing Marketing Head : online Manager—Product Dev. & Mktg. : Deputy Manager—Online : Web Designer : Sr. User Interface Designer : Operations Head—Finance : Director—Operations & Administration : Management Services : Sales bangalore Manager—Sales :
Joji George Kailash Pandurang Shirodkar Anees Ahmed Dhaval Valia Ramdas S Sonal Desai Abhijeet Mukherjee (Mumbai) Amit Singh (Delhi) Deepjyoti Bhowmik Yogesh Naik Shailesh Vaidya Jinal Chheda, Sameer Surve Samta Datta Viraj Mehta Nilesh Mungekar Nitin Lahare Aditi Kanade Yogesh Mudras Satyendra Mehra Jagruti Kudalkar
Sudhir K sudhir.k@ubm.com (M) +91 9740776749
Delhi Senior Project Manager :
Kangkan Mahanta kangkan.mahanta@ubm.com (M) +91 8971232344
mumbai Manager—Sales :
Rajeev Chauhan rajeev.chauhan@ubm.com (M) +91 9811820301
Sanjay Khandelwal sanjay.khandelwal@ubm.com (M) +91 98117 64515
Ranabir Das ranabir.das@ubm.com (M) +91 9820097606
Marvin Dalmeida marvin.dalmeida@ubm.com (M) +91 8898022365 production Production Manager : Prakash (Sanjay) Adsul Logistics Deputy Manager : Bajrang Shinde Subscriptions & Database Manager : Manoj Ambardekar manoj.ambardekar@ubm.com Senior Executive : Deepanjali Chaurasia deepa.chaurasia@ubm.com Head Office UBM India Pvt Ltd, 1st floor, 119, Sagar Tech Plaza - A, Andheri-Kurla Road, Saki Naka Junction, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400072, India Tel: 022 6769 2400; Fax: 022 6769 2426 Printed and Published by Kailash Pandurang Shirodkar on behalf of UBM India Pvt Ltd, 6th floor, 615-617 Sagar Tech Plaza - A, Andheri-Kurla Road, Saki Naka Junction, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400072, India. Executive Editor: Dhaval Valia Printed at Indigo Press (India) Pvt Ltd, Plot No 1c/716, Off Dadaji Konddeo Cross Road, Byculla (E), Mumbai 400027 RNI No. MAHENG/2011/39915 USA Huson International Media (West) Tiffany DeBie Tiffany.debie@husonmedia.com Tel +1 408 879 6666 Fax +1 408 879 6669 Huson International Media (East) Dan Manioci dan.manioci@husonmedia.com Tel +1 212 268 3344 Fax +1 212 268 3355
Japan Pacific Business (PBI) Shigenori Nagatomo nagatomo-pbi@gol.com Tel: +81 3366 16138 Fax: +81 3366 16139
South Korea Young Media Young Baek ymedia@chol.com Tel: +82 2227 34819 Fax: +82 2227 34866
EMEA Huson International Media Gerry Rhoades Brown, gerry. rhoadesbrown@husonmedia. com Tel: +44 19325 64999 Fax: + 44 19325 64998
Important Every effort has been taken to avoid errors or omissions in this magazine. In spite of this, errors may creep in. Any mistake, error or discrepancy noted may be brought to our notice immediately. It is notified that neither the publisher, the editor or the seller will be responsible in respect of anything and the consequence of anything done or omitted to be done by any person in reliance upon the content herein. This disclaimer applies to all, whether subscriber to the magazine or not. For binding mistakes, misprints, missing pages, etc, the publisher’s liability is limited to replacement within one month of purchase. © All rights are reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Mumbai only. While care is taken prior to acceptance of advertising copy, it is not possible to verify its contents. UBM India Pvt Ltd. cannot be held responsible for such contents, nor for any loss or damages incurred as a result of transactions with companies, associations or individuals advertising in its newspapers or publications. We therefore recommend that readers make necessary inquiries before sending any monies or entering into any agreements with advertisers or otherwise acting on an advertisement in any manner whatsoever.
starting line Schneider launches data center in a box n Ramdas S
“ISX is a data center in a box solution developed by integrating technologies from Digilink, Uniflair, APC and APW President”
S
chneider Electric has announced the launch of integrated server room solutions called InfraStruxure (ISX) targeting the SMB and midmarket sectors. “ISX is a data center in a box; it ships with a cooling system and UPS. This is a solution developed by integrating technologies from our various acquisitions including Digilink, Uniflair, APC and APW President,” explained Gurudutt M, Director, Transaction Business, Schneider Electric. ISX ships in sizes of 12U, 24U and 42U; they are scalable and modular, and can theoretically be grown to any capacity. Said Gurudutt, “Each modular rack is fitted with a cooler and UPS, making the unit a ready-to-use data center.” Next month Schneider will
Gurudutt M
Director, Transaction Business Schneider Electric
embark on a 24-city road-show to educate customers and partners. “We are also launching a channel training and certification program for ISX, and our aim is have 100 partners market-ready,” Gurudutt informed. He pointed out that most
customers are currently buying cooling equipment, UPSs, batteries and racks from different vendors, and are often unable to integrate them optimally. “Also, most partners are reluctant to sell power and cooling solutions, but ISX will now ensure that a partner can provide a complete solution.” An entry-level rack fitted with cooling and power could start at less than `1 lakh. “We are providing certified partners with a free configurator tool that will allow them to architect the server room racks and optimize the solution. All ISX products can be remotely managed, so this can present partners with an extra revenue opportunity,” Gurudutt said. According to Schneider, in India there is an annual demand for 60,000 server rooms making for an estimated market size of approximately `1,000 crore. n
QlikTech readies partners for BI opportunities n SONAL DESAI
“Last year we signed 60 new customers. This year, we will scout for opportunities in deep selling around big data, mobile BI and analytics”
Q
likTech, the pure-play business intelligence (BI) provider, is eying opportunities in big data, mobility and business discovery for growth in the country. “In India we are seeing a substantial increase in the demand for BI solutions from verticals such as manufacturing, BFSI, retail, telecom and FMCG. Customers are increasingly deploying BI to make their organizations more efficient and productive,” said Peter McQuade, VP, Alliances & Partner Sales, QlikTech. According to Gartner, the Indian BI software market will grow from $81.5 million in 2012 to $94 million in 2013. “Last year we signed 60 new customers. Today, our total number of customers in India stands at more than 600. This year we want to up our momentum by signing new customers and deep-selling around big data analytics, mobile BI and in-memory analytics to existing customers,”
Peter McQuade
VP, Alliances & Partner Sales QlikTech
informed McQuade. QlikTech’s clientele includes Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, Videocon, Canon, Fullerton, Flipkart, HDFC Life and Godrej Consumer Products. McQuade said that he does not want to increase the number of partners but rather help the company’s existing partners to penetrate deeper into existing
accounts and tap green-field opportunities. QlikTech has enhanced its Qonnect Partner program with more marketing funds, a new sales referral incentive and a new lead-generation engine. “What’s more, we have decided to share the IP of our software with our leading partners to enable them to build customized solutions for customers,” McQuade said. Delhi-based Team Computers is one such partner which is using the IP and has developed customized solutions for the automobile industry. Informed Deepak Rai, CFO, Team, “Having access to the IP has enabled us to better integrate BI with the customers’ applications because the IP allows you to speak to different layers and architectures. We have devised best-practice templates for ready use for the auto sector.” This has helped Team bag prestigious projects at M&M, Maruti, Honda Siel, AMW Trucks, New Holland Tractors and Renault, in the past two years. n
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013
www.crn.in
9
edit opinion Giving back: Business4Better Kelley Damore
W
ant to give a gift that keeps on giving? Give your time and talent. UBM, our parent company, IBM, Salesforce.com, Twitter and other tech companies are doing just that and invite you to do the same. Corporate giving is hardly the sole purview of technology companies. Yet, we in the tech sector have a unique responsibility to give back to those who have less access, opportunity and education than we have. This responsibility is greater than it was 30 years ago when R Edward Freeman’s 1984 Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach helped popularize the notion of corporate social responsibility. Back then, technology was LANs and a server closet for companies to harness and maintain their networks. Today technology is changing the way societies interact, and serves as a platform for global change. Take IBM, for example. IBM has created its World Community Grid, which pools surplus processing power from individual computers into a massive computing system that is used for scientific research, such as studies on malaria or clean water. The company also established a program called Reading Companion, which uses IBM voice-recognition technology to help children and adults learn to read. Salesforce.com, for its part, has donated 360,000 hours of community service and is offering its product for free or at steep discounts to more than 16,000 non profits. It has awarded $40 million in grants since it was founded 12 years ago. Twitter is working with an organization called Girls Who Code, whose goal is to train 13- to 17-year-olds with skills to pursue opportunities in technology and engineering. Our parent company, UBM, is taking a similar approach. We are leveraging the talents we have in marketing services and event management to launch the Business4Better conference in the United States after two successful shows in Brazil and India. On May 1-2, 2013, in Anaheim, California, Business4Better will bring together 2,000 business executives from midsize companies who want to establish corporate philanthropic programs. UBM will also offer free exhibitor space, signage and marketing services to 200 non profits that are looking to create partnerships with midsize private-sector companies. We believe medium-size businesses have the highest potential for impact because of their sheer number, and proximity to their communities. I am very excited and proud to be part of this effort. If you want to create some philanthropic programs or are interested in the conference, please check it out at www.business4better.org. n Email Kelley Damore at kelley.damore@ec.ubm.com 10
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
All that glitters is gold
Opportunities in open source
The recent article on Gems and Jewelry vertical is quite informative and very meticulously explained various opportunities in the segment. Infact, the article has motivated us to seek opportunities in gems and jewelry vertical, especially in Web and ecommerce. We believe that there will be vast opportunity for this in our region. Gems and jewelry is indeed a vertical that has now started to be driven by young generation which is pro-technology and has large disposable money to invest. We appreciate more such vertical-based articles which eventually drive attention toward areas we otherwise tend to ignore. We also liked case studies on recent projects.
I really appreciate the cover story on FOSS software. However, a major challenge to adoption of open source in the country has been lackadaisical attitude by channel partners who would rather deploy pirated software, than charge a small fee to deploy Linux in the organization. The mythical learning curve involved in moving to open source isn’t half as steep or intimidating as it used to be a few years back. Partners need to change the attitude, and must invest in both time and resources. The increased pressure to manage costs is undoubtedly encouraging companies and the resellers who serve them, to take a serious look at open source. As a community we must take advantage of this customer need, and build a foss practice, which will also deliver higher margins.
Amit Khanna Jaipur
Syed Abdul Shah Pathankot
Send your feedback at editor@ubmindia.com or post your views on www.crn.in
Advertiser Index Company name
Page No Web site
Sales Contact
Smartlink
1 www.digisol.com
helpdesk@digisol.com
Smartlink
2 www.digisol.com
helpdesk@digisol.com
HP-IPG
4 www.hp.com
in.contact@hp.com
Cisco
5 www.cisco.com/go/ucsbenchmarks www.cisco.in/servers
HP-PSG
7 www.hp.com/in/zworkstations
in.contact@hp.com
Interop
13 www.interop.in
salil.warior@ubm.com
RDP
31
info@rdpcomputing.in
Asus
33 www.asusservice.in
reachus@asus.com
Biz
34 www.indiaantivirus.com
sales@indiaantivirus.com
Dell
35 www.dell.co.in
www.dell.co.in/domore
Kaspersky
36 www.kaspersky.co.in
sales@sakri.in.
www.rdpcomputing.in
starting line Comguard plans inorganic growth n AMIT SINGH
“We have acquired Converged who is a value-added distributor. Our plan is to grow 10 times to `70 crore in 2013”
C
omguard Networks, the valueadded network and security distributor, has entered the voice & data space with the acquisition of the Bengaluru-based distributor Converged Solutions. With this acquisition Comguard intends to expand its presence in south India and has charted an aggressive strategy for channel and portfolio expansion. “We were looking to solidify our base in south India and felt that organic growth may not be sufficient,” explained Ajay Singh Chauhan, Group CEO of the Dubaibased Spectrum Group, of which Comguard is a part. “We therefore went in for inorganic expansion by merging Converged Solutions with us. It is an established valueadded distributor in the voice & data space with revenue of `6 crore and partnerships with leading vendors.” According to Chauhan, Comguard is targeting exponential revenue growth from `7 crore
Ajay Singh Chauhan Group CEO Spectrum Group
in 2012 to `70 crore in 2013. “Expansion of the channel base and OEM alliances will facilitate our growth in India. Converged already has 20 active partners who will add strength to our existing 20 partners. We will add 60 more partners to this to take our total base to 100 in 2013.” The company is scouting for SMB channels who want to strengthen their networking, security, and voice
& data portfolio. “We are looking for partners focusing on verticals such as banking and BPO, as well as partners operating in the WAN, data center, storage and security space who want some value-add to their portfolio,” Chauhan informed. To connect with partners, the company has already conducted four road-shows, and plans to conduct 10 more throughout the year. It also holds an annual partner summit in Dubai every year to recognize its top performing partners. Comguard leverages its group company, Spectrum Network Solutions (SNS), for value-added solutions. “SNS is Juniper’s largest training partner in the world. We leverage its base of more than 100 engineers for PoCs and training,” Chauhan said. Comguard, which has partnerships with 10 vendors, will double its alliances in 2013. Informed Chauhan, “We are looking for OEM alliances in the storage space to complement our portfolio.” n
Wipro takes on Tally with Scale n RAMDAS S
“Scale is Windows 8-ready, offers data security features, and has the lowest TCO. In short, we offer enterprise-class ERP at the price of a micro ERP”
W
ipro plans to take on market leader Tally in the micro enterprise resource planning (ERP) segment with the launch of its offering Scale which is targeted at small and medium businesses. The company will sell the ERP through the tier-3 distribution channel. “The market for micro ERP is still in its infancy, and there is a huge latent demand which we plan to address using our vast channel network,” said S Raghavendra Prakash, General Manager & Business Head, Wipro Systems & Technology. While Wipro denied that it was taking Tally head-on, the price positioning of the product suggests otherwise. Just like Tally, Scale is available in two versions, single-
SR Prakash
GM & Business Head Wipro Systems & Technology
user and multi-user, and is similarly priced at `18,000 and `54,000 respectively. According to Prakash, Scale will be distributed through Redington, and Wipro will appoint regional
distributor partners. The company has already appointed exclusive regional distributors such as Big C Technologies in Karnataka and Unicare Technologies in Chennai. “We will engage with our vast tier-3 channel network, and intend to activate at least 1,000 such partners to sell Scale,” informed Prakash. Scale is modular and covers sales, purchase, inventory and accounts with extensive reporting. Wipro is positioning the product as a more robust tool than the popular micro ERP softwares currently available in the market. “Our product is Windows 8-ready, offers strong data security features, and has the lowest TCO. In short, we offer enterpriseclass ERP at the price of a micro ERP system,” Prakash said. n
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013
www.crn.in
11
starting line Verint seeks partners for physical security n AMIT SINGH
V
erint, the infrastructure intelligence solutions vendor, has charted an aggressive channel strategy and plans to expand its partner base beyond metros to double its revenue from the Indian market over the next three years. Verint’s video intelligence portfolio spans video management and analytics, intelligent building management, and physical security management and analytics. The enterprise intelligence portfolio consists of workforce optimization, speech analytics, text analytics and enterprise feedback management. “We adds intelligence to infrastructure. In the enterprise intelligence space we are already a global leader. In India, along with the continuing thrust on enterprise intelligence, we are now increasing our focus on video intelligence,” explained Manish Shah, VP, Southeast Asia, Verint Systems.
“We have started gaining strong traction in the video intelligence space and have bagged many projects which have largely been partner-led” Manish Shah
VP, Southeast Asia Verint Systems
According to Shah, eight out of the top 10 BPOs, nine out of 10 top telecom companies, and three out of the top five banks in India are Verint’s customers for enterprise intelligence solutions. “Besides, over the last couple of years, we have started gaining strong traction in the video intelligence space and have bagged many projects which have largely
been partner-led.” The company has more than 60 active partners including regional SIs such as Innovative Telecom & Software, Allied Digital and SAI Infosystems; it now wants to increase its partner base by 50 percent in 2013. “Innovative has done several projects using Verint solutions. They recently implemented the first phase of the Surat Safe City project which is the first-of-its-kind city surveillance project in India using our IP cameras, IBMS solutions, and surveillance management and video analytics solutions,” informed Shah. Verint is seeing increasing demand for its solutions from banks, governments, retail chains, public infrastructure organizations, and petroleum, pharmaceutical and diamond companies. The company also expects demand to come from tier-2 cities, and is hence on the lookout for strong regional partners in those places. n
NxtGen to sell DC services by energy use n RAMDAS S
N
xtGen Datacenter & Cloud Services plans to pioneer a new pricing model for data center (DC) services by switching its billing as per the consumption of KW power rather than compute infrastructure, as is the norm today. “At present DCs offer bandwidth, rack space, power, compute and storage elements separately. It makes more sense for a customer to negotiate the bandwidth directly with a telco, and buy or lease the compute and storage infrastructure directly from a hardware vendor. What essentially remains are the rack space, power, cooling and infrastructure costs,” explained AS Rajgopal, MD, NxtGen. The company is considering a pricing of `15 per KW hour consumed by the customer infrastructure. Continued Rajgopal, “We will not charge for the space as
12
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
“We are considering a price of `15 per unit consumed. Customers can bring their own infrastructure and we will not even charge for the space” AS Rajgopal
Managing Director NxtGen
long as customers bring in blade- or rack-based servers and storage boxes.” According to Rajgopal, partners can make healthy double digit margins by investing into optimal hardware that consumes lesser power and this new model would see adoption of more efficient and less
power consuming hardware. Citing research, NxtGen believes that more than 60 percent of a DC’s costs are power and operational costs. “We are in the power efficiency business, hence we are investing in making our DC more power-efficient. While most Indian DCs cannot house racks which draw more than 7 KW, in our new DC we will house racks that can draw 15 KW. Our DC is 20 percent more efficient than those of our competitors.” Rajgopal also says that NxtGen has the best space utilization ratio at its DCs. “We can house 30 percent more racks in a 1,000 sq ft space than most competitors; our power consumption for cooling is also less.” NxtGen is investing `90 crore to set up a 1.25 lakh sq ft DC in Bidadi near Bengaluru; this DC is likely to be operational by September 2013. The company already has a 30,000 sq ft DC at Whitefield in Bengaluru. n
Shoppers Stop Anagram
Geodesic
HPCL
Honeywell
HUDCO
IFFCO
MSEDCL
Business Standard ICICI Prudential
K. Raheja Corp
Shell
Karvy
M&M Torrent Power
Directi
HPCL
Wipro BPO
National Informatics Centre
Vista InfoSec
Coromandel Murugappa
Heuristics Informatics Java Jugglers
Oerlikon Textile
Mutual Industries
Patni
Toyo Engineering
is
OPPORTUNITIES
Emphasize your expertise and technical leadership within your peer network Showcase your technical expertise and connect with the leading technology companies
l l
Sudhir K | +91 80 49133103 | +91 97407 76749 | sudhir.k@ubm.com
Surajit Bit | +91 11 23233143 | +91 98734 45423 | surajit.bit@ubm.com
linkedin.com/groups/ Interop-India-Leading-IT-Exhibition-2803315
twitter.com/Interop_india
facebook.com/InteropIndia
Follow us:
Showcase your competence to enterprise technology buyers
l
Participate at INTEROP to:
INTEROP invites the valued CRN patrons to present their credentials in fulfilling the most innovative and challenging projects.
Many of our associates such as Priya Group / VXL Instruments have leveraged on INTEROP’s unparalleled potential. The vast industry participation year on year has fuelled business growth at a faster pace.
Mc Donalds
Think London
Walt Disney
Salil Warior | +91 22 61727413 | +91 99875 80188 | salil.warior@ubm.com
To plan your participation, contact:
Aditya Bhuwania Executive Director, Priya Group / VXL Instruments
Piaggio
TAFE
Taj Hotels Tata Capital
Microland
Intelenet Global General Mills
FIAT India Sparsh BPOGMR
Kuoni Group
We had a great experience at INTEROP. The show attracted a whole lot of new clientele that helped us tap newer segments. We generated several good enquiries and look forward to converting them into valuable business.
AIMS
AGC Networks
Cognizant
www.interop.in
CRIS
D&B
Deloitte
GNFC
GMR
Malayala Manorama
Patni
Indian Oil
NABARD
Aditya Birla Group Blue Star Infotech
AIMS
Bharat Fritz Werner
DSK Digital
CESC
SECO Tools
VFS Global
CDAC (n)Code Solutions
BPCL Mundra Port & SEZ
channel chief “We will sustain our growth momentum” Tushar Sighat, CEO, D-Link India, who almost tripled the company’s turnover in less than two years, spoke to Dhaval Valia about the factors behind this growth—and how he intends to keep the momentum going Increasing your turnover from `127 crore to `360 crore in just about eight quarters is no mean task—that too in a slow market. How did you do it? When I came on board in July 2011 D-Link India was going through a transition. We had just de-merged from our more-than-a-decade-long joint venture, and had become an independent subsidiary. The first thing I noticed was that channel confidence in us had severely weakened due to this transition, and that the channel business had suffered significantly. My first job therefore was to reaffirm our commitment to our partners and win back their confidence. I personally met all key partners and distributors to understand their painpoints and took feedback on how we could jointly grow D-Link. Once the channel engine was reinvigorated, we focused on revamping our internal structure. All our teams—sales, marketing, technical—had been working in silos. In order to synergize them we created a framework for collaboration around the three elements of focus, speed and teamwork. This primarily meant being focused on achieving the goals set, getting positive results within the set time-frame at high speed, and inculcating a team spirit.
Could you provide some details about your growth strategies? To drive focus, in the last eight quarters we have created separate divisions. For example, we appointed new teams to drive passive products and the enterprise and security surveillance business. We brought in an industry veteran, Kerman Rana, to drive channel sales. On the product front we unveiled a range of innovative consumer products such as Boxee Box, the Mydlink cloud range, and home cameras. We strengthened our IP surveillance and structured cabling portfolio. The enterprise active networking range was reinforced as we took a comprehensive 5S
“When I joined in May 2011, our teams were disoriented and working in silos; and channel confidence was very low. My first job was to win back the partner confidence” 14
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
solutions approach—Switching, Structured cabling, Surveillance & Storage, Security and Software— with enhanced service support. We also launched the D-Link Academy and introduced professional networking courses.
Which product segments have been the growth catalysts? We have grown at a CAGR of nearly 70 percent in the last two years; all product verticals contributed to this growth. However, the consumer and SMB verticals have been the standout segments because they grew 150 percent in revenue as well as unit and port shipments during 2012. This was largely driven by the launch of cloud-enabled home routers and cameras. It provided us strong differentiation in a market that is flooded by several low-quality Chinese products. Our passive networking portfolio, which was nonexistent two years ago, grew by more than 100 percent CAGR over the past two years. Last year we launched a Cat 6A end-to-end STP solution, and in fiber we introduced OS2 and OM4 cables with accessories. These products helped to boost the overall confidence of our SI partners because they could pitch the products to large enterprises. Our cabling portfolio was well-received, particularly in the government and education sectors, and in 2012 we won several large projects. For instance, we bagged the Goa Broadband Network project which was one of the biggest projects rolled out last year. Other large projects we executed were providing active and passive networks for Crime & Criminal Tracking Network & System, Department of Atomic Energy, and Rajasthan SWAN. Driven by the demand for managed switching and unified wireless solutions from sectors such as retail, manufacturing and banking, the active networking enterprise business grew 45 percent.
Two years back there was massive dissatisfaction among D-Link channels, but today the mood is buoyant. How did this transformation take place? Gaining partner confidence is largely about working closely with them, understanding their pain-points, and helping them to stimulate their business and profits. Our channel engagement over the past two years has been based on the mantra, Let’s Grow Together. The first thing we did was to make our internal organization
channel chief more channel-responsive and transparent. The speed at which we provided partners with product information, training and special pricing improved considerably, thus leading to a faster time-to-market. In addition, we focused on channel profitability in a big way. The profitability of D-Link has improved by 100 percent CAGR over the past two years, while that of the channels has witnessed significant improvement. To make D-Link’s business lucrative we increased the frequency of our schemes and enhanced the incentive structures. All incentive programs are now formulated to benefit both small and large partners. We ensure that partners from smaller cities get equal benefits from these schemes. Further, we have invested heavily in training to ensure that partners are better equipped to meet customer requirements. For instance, following the launch of our cloud-ready home routers we conducted training programs in over 20 cities to educate people about Mydlink cloud services. For structured cabling we have recently rolled out the D-Link Certified Cabling Expert program.
You have set a high benchmark with your recent performance. Will you be able to maintain such high growth rates? We are confident of being able to sustain the growth momentum in FY2013-14, and have already charted a strategy to support high growth rates. In many ways, 2013 will be the year of enterprise focus. We have increased our enterprise sales and will soon roll out a partner program for large SIs. To achieve our goal we will further strengthen our managed switching, unified wireless, structured cabling and IP surveillance portfolio. With several prestigious and large projects executed by us in 2012, we are confident of bagging more government and PSU tenders, and cracking large accounts in the BFSI, ITeS, hospitality and education
“What we have seen at large enterprises is that they are no longer stuck on MNC brands but are willing to work with brands which provide greater value for money” sectors. Our plan is to roll out vertical-specific solutions to provide customers the best RoI. What we have seen at large enterprises is that they are no longer stuck on MNC brands but are willing to work with other brands which provide greater value for money.
What kind of growth do you expect from the consumer and SMB segments considering that this market is flooded with cheap products? We are optimistic that consumer and SMB products will grow at a much faster pace than the overall market. While cheap brands are flooding the market, the consumer still prefers to purchase a known brand if it offers the latest features, and in this space D-Link is the most trusted brand. Our market share in this segment is growing at 150 percent, and in 2013 our aim is to consolidate our share. We are bullish about the launch of 4G/LTE connectivity because it will spur consumer and SMB consumption of connectivity devices. To tap the 4G opportunity we are working with several telecom providers as their preferred OEMs. This market is worth close to $800 million in India, and our aim is to get 10 percent share over the next 2-3 years. The Mydlink cloud platform has been successful because it allows consumers to control, view, share and access network devices from anywhere. Under this umbrella we will introduce a range of routers, cameras and storage devices. Moreover, you will see some exciting product launches for tablets and smart phones. n
Consistent Credible Clear Competent Compassionate Communicative CRN Creative CRN – the 8th C of Channel Marketing
www.crn.in
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013
www.crn.in
15
special focus
Face to face with VC While investment from enterprises remain skewed toward high-end video conferencing solutions and mobility, SMBs are embracing entry-level options and are expected to move to the cloud model n AMIT SINGH
A
re you tired of hopping on airplanes to travel across the country and abroad to attend meetings? Video conferencing (VC) can come to your rescue, as the technology is seeing increased adoption in India. “According to research, the VC market in India was around $110 million, the infrastructure at $25 million and endpoints at about $85 million, in 2012,” shares Saurabh Singhal, Director, Marketing, India and Saarc, Avaya. Singhal adds that in 2013, the VC market is poised to grow to about $146 million. Video infrastructure would be around $41 million and endpoints about $105 million. Video is being positioned as an inherent piece of the unified collaboration (UC) story. Seconds Neeraj Gill, MD, India & Saarc, Polycom, “The market is growing at a CAGR of 20.1 percent and will reach $299.8 million by 2018. VC deployments would be either on-premise or managed by a service provider.” Companies are now seeing the value of VC beyond travel savings. It is reducing time-to-market, increasing customer service, improving crisis management and streamlining decision making. “VC is no longer used in conferencing and training, but in areas such as remote healthcare, banking, live problem resolution in manufacturing, global interviewing in HR and many others,” says Minhaj Zia, Director, Sales, Collaboration Architecture, Cisco India & Saarc.
Vertical wise Verticals like healthcare, banking, IT/ITeS and other industries that have higher number of field workers are adopting VC in a big way. “Manufacturing is using video conferencing for monitoring and keeping quality checks. Education is using it to instruct a large number of students. In fact, we expect education to be a significant market,” explains Deepak Braganza, Country Manager,
16
Computer Reseller News
India and South Asia, LifeSize. The Government—both the center and the states—is emerging as the biggest spender in creating HD video conferencing facilities in various departments. For instance, departments such as defence, jails, courts and schools are switching over to video conferencing. This is in addition to connecting district and state headquarters. “It is estimated that till March 2013, the central government has spent around $20 million to connect various departments via VC,” shares Braganza. “Banking and financial sectors have traditionally been major adopters, and this is expected to continue. Hospitality, travel and retail are other key growth industry verticals with high potential for VC,” says Amit Khanna, Manager, Collaboration, Syndrome Technologies.
SMB play
SMBs, specifically mid-market businesses, present a huge potential for VC. “In 2012, SMBs spent $12 million in VC deployments. In 2013, the number will rise to about $17 million on the back of BYOD, consumerization of IT and affordable technology,” predicts Singhal. Khanna highlights that they have observed increased adoption from SMBs with entry level prices going down. “Almost 35 percent of our VC revenue comes from SMBs where project size ranges from `10 lakh to `30 lakh. The Trends and opportunities customers mainly opt for point to point solutions.” The VC market will grow to $146 million in 2013 Adoption of any technology from $110 million in 2012. By 2018, it will grow to by the SMB sector is gauged $299 million based on lower TCO and In 2012, mid-market customers spent $12 million increasing ease of use. “In India, in VC deployments and are expected to spend $17 many SMBs use a combination million in 2013 of pay per use and fixed monthly fee solutions. While The central government spent $20 million to conaudio conferencing solutions are nect various departments via VC till March 2013 used internally within branches Mobility is increasing opportunities in VC at fixed monthly rates, often, sophisticated solutions such VC as a service will see fast adoption among SMBs as Web or video conferencing
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
special focus “For Jindal Group we implemented a project worth `8 crore entailing 5 telepresence rooms, 10 desktop units and 100 licenses of Cisco Jabber”
“The central government has spent around $20 million to connect various departments via video conferencing by March 2013, and this is a big opportunity”
Rajiv Kumar
Deepak Braganza, Country Manager, India
CEO, Proactive Data Systems
and South Asia, LifeSize
are deployed by senior management primarily, on a pay per use basis, to interact with larger partners or foreign collaborators,” informs Gill.
High definition and multi-point solutions The evolution of HD video quality has almost phased out standard definition. Advanced video codecs including H.263, H.264 as well as scalable video codecs are bringing down the bandwidth requirement while optimizing video quality. This is true of even unmanaged networks. Secondly, the affordability of video conferencing endpoints has risen thanks to the entry of newer players such as LifeSize and Huawei. “End users have become extremely demanding and want a high quality video experience irrespective of the device’s form factor and network connectivity. In fact, about 80 percent of the installations are now on HD with telepresence features,” informs Ranjan Chopra, CMD, Team Computers. Companies like NEC are offering slimmer and lighter displays. “We are soon planning to introduce a SMB specific display at affordable prices. Launch of the affordable displays will further make the VC solution economical and will spur the adoption among SMBs,” shares Abhilesh Guleria, Country Head, Multimedia Product Group and IT Platform Business, NEC India. Moreover, the trend is toward multi-point VC. “Although it is about 30 percent expensive than a pointto-point solution, depending upon additional points and configuration, multi-point solutions offer true boardroom experience with participation from multiple locations at a time,” states Kedar Shah, CEO, Nirmal Datacomm.
Mobility With executives using multiple smart devices such as mobiles and tablets, VC is not an inside-the-boardroom phenomenon anymore. “This is a huge opportunity as integration of mobility in VC requires upgrade of networking as well as WLAN. Further, mobile devices coming on corporate network need authentication and control mechanism, which is an added opportunity. A mobility project may range from $250,000 to $500,000,” informs Rajiv Kumar, CEO, Proactive Data Systems. The company has done several big ticket VC projects with mobility for HSBC, Fidelity and the Jindal Group. “For Jindal Group we implemented a project worth `8 crore entailing 5 telepresence rooms, 10 desktop units and 100 licenses of Cisco Jabber,” details Kumar. Though mobile video conferencing has been around
for quite a while, the trend is yet to pick up among SMBs. “It will take another 2-3 years for mobility to spread to SMBs. Currently, the adoption is majorly from large enterprises with multiple locations,” explains Shah. Shah adds that traction would come from verticals like manufacturing as monitoring quality would become that much easier.
Transition to software-based VC With the explosion of mobile devices for both personal and business use, and growing utilization of cloud-based services, companies have been and will continue to shift from hardware only VC to software-based solutions. “Software endpoints are making video conferencing ubiquitous across form factors—from desktops to tablets and smart phones,” says Gill.
VC on cloud Vidyo’s jargon of ‘open cloud’ and Polycom’s recent announcements of CloudAXIS has shifted the focus to cloud-based VC. However, there are mixed views on whether VC on cloud will find huge adoption. “2012 saw increased awareness of cloud-delivered video-asa-service (VaaS), especially among the SMBs. Infact, partners can leverage on the opportunity by collaborating with service providers to implement VaaS,” says Zia. Gill informs that Airtel and Tulip are using Polycom’s RealPresence Cloud platform to deliver VaaS solutions to SMBs and enterprises. Polycom’s CloudAXIS takes a step further and extends enterprise-grade VC to users of Skype, Facebook, Google Talk, and other business video applications via a browser. “It enables to share documents, record conversation, create unified mailing list besides multi-party conversation over a browser. We expect major adoption from enterprises and mid-market customers with offshore operations,” says Chopra of Team Computers. Players like LifeSize are offering VaaS for as low as $30 per user per month for a desktop client, which includes a camera and hardware to host and manage a video conference session. The subscription allows for unlimited use of the service. “Today, we have many SME customers who are utilizing our cloud platform,” says Braganza.
Conclusion While enterprises will continue to lead the VC bandwagon with adoption of high-end solutions as well as tryst with mobility, SMBs will follow suite with adoption of affordable solutions as well as VaaS, concludes Nupur Singh Andley, Analyst, Forrester. n
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013
www.crn.in
17
cover story
While it is premature to write an obituary of the PC, there is no doubt that the ecosystem is under major threat with the computing landscape transforming rapidly n RAMDAS S
S
ince its origin in 1981, the PC market globally has seen just three years when its year-on-year growth declined—1985, 2001 and 2012. While 1985 was still early days, and in 2001 the markets tanked in the wake of the global recession, in 2012 the reason was the rising popularity of tablets and smart phones. IDC says global PC shipments in 2012 were 352.4 million units, down 3.4 percent from 364 million in 2011. IDC also forecasts that Q12013 global shipments
“Tablets have changed the PC landscape, not by cannibalizing PC sales but by causing users to shift consumption to tablets rather than opt for PC upgrades” Mikako Kitagawa
Computer Reseller News
“Anyone who uses the words ‘death’ and ‘PC’ in the same sentence should look at the number of times the obituary of the desktop has been written” Vinay Awasthi
Principal Analyst, Gartner
18
will be down by at least 8 percent compared to Q12012. While both IDC and Gartner provide a number of reasons for the decline—from Windows 8 being lackluster to the Chinese PC market weakening—the most important reason remains the advent of tablets. According to Mikako Kitagawa, Principal Analyst, Gartner, “Tablets have changed the PC landscape, not so much by cannibalizing PC sales but by causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than opt for PC upgrades.”
Senior Director, Product Category, HP PPS India
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
cover story Both IDC and Gartner have forecast that the PC market will decline in 2013, and both are emphatic that the tablet market will see high double-digit growth for the next four years. IDC says tablets grew by 75 percent to be a 122.4 million unit market in 2012 globally, and will be a 192 million market in 2013. Though IDC and Gartner respectively say that the Indian PC market grew by 3 and 3.5 percent in 2012, discounting the Elcot order of 9,05,000 notebooks sees the market figure drop by -5.5 and -5 percent respectively. With the UP and Tamil Nadu governments ordering 1.5 million and 7,40,000 notebooks, the PC market in the country will again show modest growth rates, but outside these large orders no one is really willing to bet that the PC market will show any growth. To the credit of the PC industry, most PC brands had remained loyal for long to ecosystem providers such as Intel, AMD and Microsoft. However, in the past six months, a number of PC vendors have started shipping tablets based on ARM architecture. In Q42012, Qualcomm, which makes the Snapdragon processors based on ARM architecture seen in leading mobile phones and tablets, passed Intel in market capitalization as the most valuable semiconductor company. Both Intel and AMD admit that they have been caught napping, but have vowed to claw their way into the tablet and smart phone market and will offer, later this year, processors for devices based on the x86 architecture. Meanwhile, AMD has announced that it would license ARM to build processors, including for the server market, by 2014.
Still upbeat Lenovo, India’s No 1 PC vendor in 2012, has been touting the concept of a PC+ era and affirms that the PC is not yet dead. HP, which almost gave up its PC business in 2011, also debunks the ‘death of the PC’ theory. “We are at a point in the evolution of computing where it is going to be very exciting. The pace at which such transformation will happen is yet to be determined, but anyone who uses the words ‘death’ and ‘PC’ in the same sentence should look at the number of times the obituary of the desktop has been written,” asserts Vinay Awasthi, Senior Director, Product Category, HP PPS India, adding, “We expect convertibles, detachables and touch-screens to bring the excitement back to the PC market.”
“Channels must bet on a vendor who can provide thin clients, tablets, laptops, desktops and servers, and can address every need of the customer”
De-growth in the PC market 2011 2012 Percentage (in millions) (in millions) growth
Global PC shipments
364
352.4
-3.4%
India PC shipments
10.8
11.2
3.5%
India PC shipments excluding Elcot order
10.8 10.3 -5.0% Source: Gartner India
In the CRN Future of the PC Survey, cutting across retailers, commercial PC resellers and assemblers, approximately 45 percent agree that tablets and smart phones have already started affecting the PC market. Almost of all them have woken up to the fact that they need to sell tablets. These partners have a few common expectations from PC brands and ecosystem leaders, the most important being to innovate and make technology more affordable especially in categories such as ultrabooks and touch-screens. IT channels in the country have evolved with the PC market, hence many still feel that their fortunes depend on the PC market and the PC vendors.
New form factors Vendors are betting on convergence, and feel that the future could belong to convertibles and detachables, two new emerging PC form factors which are touchenabled. “I believe it will be cumbersome for someone to carry a tablet for user experience and a notebook for content creation. This is why we see devices that combine the two experiences catching on very fast,” says Awasthi. PC vendors such as Dell, HP and Lenovo are also pointing out that client devices are just not enough, and that it is the whole ecosystem which a channel needs to bet on. “Channels must bet on a vendor who can provide everything including thin clients, tablets, laptops, desktops and servers, and who can address every need of the customer,” says Santosh Pandey, Country Manager, Dell Wyse India. “We all need to adapt to and adopt new technologies, new form factors and new ideas,” advises George Thomas, CEO, Aldous Glare Trade & Exports, who has started distributing tablets and smart phones along with his IT business. “There is no point being trapped in a time-warp because change is the only constant.” n
“We all need to adapt to new technologies, form-factors and new ideas. There is no point being trapped in a time-warp because change is the only constant”
Santosh Pandey
George Thomas
Country Manager, Dell Wyse India
CEO, Aldous Glare Trade & Exports
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013
www.crn.in
19
cover story System builders in trouble
With the overall desktop market shrinking, and consumers considering laptops and tablets over desktops, the future of assembled PCs may be confined to niche segments
G
artner Research India says that the system builder market has declined from 3.06 million units in 2011 to 2.33 million units in 2012. Some analysts expect the numbers to be between 2 million and 2.2 million during 2013. Despite such a decline, nearly 70 percent of the 112 system builders who took the CRN Future of the PC Survey said that their numbers have seen moderateto-steep negative growth rates while the rest said that their numbers have grown marginally in the past 12 months. Almost 31 percent of the respondents expressed confidence in system building and said that they would continue to assemble computers. 17 percent said that they would exit PC assembling, while 52 percent felt that assembling could take a back seat to selling branded PCs, laptops and tablets. Explains Sampath Kumar, CEO, Positive Systems, Kochi, “The system builder market has been badly hit ever since the hard disk shortage happened in October 2011. While the entire industry was impacted, the OEMs managed to get better allocations and better prices, and this resulted in assemblers losing considerable market share. Since then, though HDD availability has improved and prices have almost returned to normal, the market has not recovered.” As per the survey, wider adoption of notebooks is the biggest threat for assembled desktops. Nearly 71 percent of the respondents cited the above reason for the misfortunes for their assembled PC business; 51 percent blamed it on the weak economy and high inflation; and 39 percent on customers buying tablets. Almost 18 percent blamed Intel and Microsoft for their lack of interest in the system builder channels. Around 44 percent said that tablets and smart phones are making inroads into the assembled PC market,
especially in homes. “Youngsters are influencing their parents to get them a brand new tablet instead of a home PC upgrade— and parents are willing,” notes Prakash Purohit, CEO, CompuShop, Amravati. Microsoft’s OEM software pricing received flak from the system builders who said the software major is pricing its products much higher for assemblers, thus making it unattractive for them to ship assembled desktops with genuine licenses. What also disappointed them was Intel’s decision to exit from the desktop motherboard market. However, many vendors such as Intel, AMD, Gigabyte, Asus and Seagate continue to invest in system builder channels, and are betting that the market de-growth will soon cease. They hope that, as in other mature economies, around 20 percent will continue to be assembled PCs. According to B Suryanarayan, Director, Sales & Marketing, Intel, South Asia, system builders would be relevant in cases where users are looking for desktops with higher configurations, more RAM or discrete graphics cards, and where the assembled PC price would be 20 percent or lower than that of a branded desktop. However, system builders are advised to think beyond vanilla desktops, and look at opportunities such as workstations and thin clients, and target markets like digital surveillance and PoS. While the AIO market has kept growing, assemblers complain about the lack of availability of building blocks such as an integrated chassis. Unlike in mature economies or even emerging markets such as Vietnam or Indonesia, the serious Indian PC gaming market is still perceived to be less than 1 percent, hence despite promising growth rates it will not add significant numbers. One market that can grow for system builders is the ultra compact form factor-based solutions such as Next Unit of Computing from Intel and Nano PC from Foxconn. n
Almost 31 percent respondents will continue to assemble PCs while 17 percent plan to exit, and 52 percent felt that assembling could take a back seat to selling branded PCs
Nearly 44 percent assemblers said that tablets and smart phones are making inroads into the home market and this demand is being largely driven by teenagers
How has your assembled PC business grown in last 12 months? Grown by less than 10 percent
Grown more than 30 percent 4%
18%
Customers preferring notebooks 71%
No
23%
May be
17%
Customers buying tablets Moderate negative growth
31%
39%
Intel and Microsoft not supporting assemblers 18%
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
26%
52%
Customers buying AIOs 33%
Number of respondents: 112
Computer Reseller News
Will tablets shrink the PC market significantly?
51%
37%
Steep negative growth
20
Will you continue assembling PCs?
Demand for PCs is weak
18% Grown between 10-30 percent
What are the key reasons for negative growth?
44% No
Yes
Yes but will also sell branded PCs
30%
Yes
cover story Retailers feeling the heat from tablets
While it’s difficult to measure the actual impact of tablets on the consumer PC segment, most in the channel feel that it is significant as the young customers are preferring ultra mobile devices
A
ccording to Gartner India, the consumer PC market grew marginally by 6 percent in 2012 with notebooks growing at 23 percent while desktops saw a decline of 17 percent. Says Vishal Tripathi, Principal Analyst, Gartner India, “We expect the consumer notebook market to continue growing at double digits in 2013, but the overall consumer PC market will be pulled down by consumer desktops.” AIOs, which grew at five and nine percent in 2011 and 2012, is the only desktop category likely to grow in 2013. Nearly 68 percent of the 137 retailers who took the CRN Future of the PC Survey said that tablets had impacted their PC sales. It is anticipated that tablets will be almost at par with PC sales in the next 12 months, selling close to 8-9 million units, annually. “What tablets have done is broken language barriers and the need for tech-savviness. Today, a two-year-old as well as a 90-year-old can use a tablet easily,” says George Thomas, CEO, Aldous Glare Trade & Exports, Kochi. Along the way, tablet and smart phone processors have gained significant performance capabilities. Benchmark software vendor Primate Labs says the fastest Snapdragon quad-core processor gets a better Geek Bench score than an entry-level AMD Athlon X2 or the fastest Intel Atom processor in the market, and that the ARM architecture could plug the gap with the best of Intel and AMD in two years. Comments Sunil Srivastava, Manager, Sales & Marketing, Rapoo India, “As the tablets get faster and feature rich with multi-tasking capabilities, we anticipate tablets to become content generation devices and foresee huge demand for accessories and
peripherals.” Some partners believe that PCs may face threat even from smart TVs and LG Smart TV division’s recent acquisition of HP’s WebOS is a strong indicator. “In the next 2-3 years, I believe smart TVs have the potential to become the main edutainment device in homes negating the need for desktops or AIOs,” says Thomas. Most channel partners believe that ultrabooks and convertibles are the best bet for the PC ecosystem to survive and grow. Nearly 51 percent of the survey respondents want the prices of ultrabooks and convertibles to drop drastically, and see that as the only real chance for the market to rebound. Even Intel and AMD realize this, and are readying a road-map to ensure that these two categories do well. Intel too is working to launch its Haswell platform which PC OEMs believe will bring down the prices of ultrabooks with touch to under `35,000 in the next six months, and the prices of convertibles to under `45,000 by the end of the year. “We will soon be launching our Richland platform which will bring down the prices of ultra thins to `24,000-32,000. We also expect the prices of convertibles to come down to `30,000-40,000, and this could give a boost to the PC market because for the price of a high-end tablet a customer can get the benefits of a notebook and a tablet,” says Chandrahas Panigrahi, Director, Consumer Business, AMD. “It will be very unwise for channel partners to not venture into selling smart phones and tablets. Selling only PCs will mean that they are missing out on a market that will easily be larger than the PC market in the country in a year’s time,” remarks Suresh Pansari, CMD, Rashi Peripherals. n
Nearly 68 percent of the retailers who took the survey believe tablets have impacted PC sales. Some even believe that PCs may face threat from smart TVs
Nearly 51 percent of the respondents want the prices of ultrabooks and convertibles to drop drastically, and see that as the only real chance for the market to rebound
Has your consumer PC sales grown in the last 12 months? Grown more than 30 percent
Steep negative growth 15%
3%
What are the key reasons for PC slowdown?
69%
20%
Grown between 10-30 percent
Offer better margins to channels
Online retail gaining share 62%
31%
Grown by less than 10 percent
Consumer spending has come down 49% LFRs gaining market share 41%
Moderate negative growth
Will tablets shrink the PC market significantly? May be
Consumers switching to tablets 68%
31%
What do you think existing PC brands should do?
25% 45%
Make ultrabooks and convertibles very affordable 51% 30%
Offer wide range of tablets 26%
No
Yes
Number of respondents: 137
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013
www.crn.in
21
cover story Commercial PC market to shrink
Virtualization, cloud computing and BYOD are decreasing the frequency of technology refresh among commercial customers and this is expected to shrink the PC market
A
ccording to Gartner India, the commercial PC market in 2012 stood at 2.23 million notebooks and 3.59 million desktops. The market saw a negative dip of about 1.5 percent compared to 2011 when the total commercial PC market was estimated at 5.9 million. However, if you discount the Elcot order, which saw 9,05,000 notebooks being shipped in 2012, the market plummeted by 15 percent. Gartner expects the commercial PC market to further slide outside social sector contracts in 2013. Of the 107 commercial partners who took the CRN Future of the PC Survey, nearly 59 percent said that their PC business grew marginally, while for the rest the numbers were negative in the past 12 months. Nearly 61 percent attributed the decline in PC sales to the slashing of IT budgets by SMBs and corporates, while 48 percent said that customers did not feel the need for technology refresh; 54 percent blamed it on the increase in tablet sales. “Several large corporates are investing in desktop virtualization which reduces the need for PC upgrades, and even SMBs are considering VDI,” points out Kaushal Veluri, Director, Channels & Alliances, Citrix. Others argue that the PC industry has not innovated enough, and that the growth of technology has been incremental. Explains Aman Gupta, Sales Head, Strategic Marketing, Dehradun, “While we have seen multi-core processors gaining momentum, there has been no dramatic performance gain for day-to-day office applications in the past 6-7 years. Computers have also become more reliable. Today, a person using an Intel Core2Duo processor-based system purchased in 2006 has few reasons to buy a new PC if all he uses are Office, browser and email.” While 49 percent of the respondents felt that tablets will impact the PC market adversely at some point in the
future, commercial PC resellers do not see any immediate impact. “I am yet to see any customer replacing his PC infrastructure with tablets or smart phones,” comments Rahul Meher, MD, Leon Computers, Pune. Others point out that while there are plenty of consumer applications which make a tablet or smart phone a suitable PC replacement at home, there are fewer applications which are tablet- or smart phone-ready for an enterprise to use. Says Kshitij Kotak, the CEO of Mumbaibased Fortune Grecells, “At this point of time I am not worried about tablet or smart phone penetration in the SMB or corporate space. Yes, all senior executives are using them to access email, but I will be worried if there are more applications being accessed and created using smaller devices.” While content creation is still said to be in the realm of PCs and notebooks, partners do see a future through smart phones and tablets. “Till some time back, whether you consumed content or created content, you purchased a PC. Going forward we will see tablets and smart phones being used to create content. During this transition you will see increased proliferation of these devices,” forecasts Suresh Ramani, CEO, TechGyan, Mumbai. About 62 percent of the business partners said that slashing the prices of ultrabooks and convertibles would be the best way to revive commercial PCs. Remarks S Ramanujam, Director, Archon Consulting, Bengaluru, “Vendors must make ultrabooks more affordable compared to a high-end tablet.” Nearly 48 percent respondents felt that with better margins they could continue pushing the commercial PC business. Some of the metro-based partners said that they have purposely cut down on the commercial PC business because the increased cost of support is not being covered by the diminishing margins. n
Nearly 61 percent of the partners who took the survey blamed the decline in PC sales to customers’ budget cuts, while 48 percent felt that customers are postponing technology refresh
Nearly 62 percent of the business partners said that slashing prices of ultrabooks and convertibles would be the best way to revive the demand for commercial PCs
How has your commercial PC business grown in last 12 months? Grown more than 30 percent
Steep negative growth
5% 13%
What are the key reasons behind PC slowdown?
What do you think existing PC brands should do?
IT budgets slashed due to economic slowdown 61%
Make ultrabooks and convertibles very affordable 62%
54%
23% Grown between 10-30 percent
Customers feel less need for technology refresh because of virtualization, cloud computing 48%
28%
Moderate negative growth
Grown by less than 10 percent
Due to increase in BYOD adoption
Number of respondents: 107
22
Computer Reseller News
No
Tablet sales is growing
31%
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
21%
Will tablets shrink the PC market significantly?
23%
Offer better margins to channels
49%
48%
28%
Offer wide range of tablets 34%
May be
Yes
cover story vendor view: B Suryanarayan, Director, Sales & Marketing, Intel, South Asia
“Do not write off Intel” According to some analysts, the PC market is shrinking alarmingly. So is the PC era over? There is no denying that we did not anticipate that the smart phone and tablet market would grow at such a tremendous pace. However, do not write off the PC or Intel. We have been investing significantly in R&D, and are readying a roadmap that, by the end of the year, will enable us to offer a better value proposition to OEMs making tablets and smart phones. Already, the fastest smart phone globally—which comes from our partner XOLO— has an Atom Cedar Trail-based processor, so we are clearly on the right track.
Intel has ensured that every time we make a transition of a platform the system builder channels get the first-mover advantage. However, we want the channels to evolve and address opportunities beyond vanilla desktops. We are betting on new form factors such as AIOs and the Next Unit of Computing, and we expect that in a couple of years, 25 percent of desktops will be on these platforms. We are presently working with building-block vendors so that system builder channels can sell competitively-priced AIOs.
It has been two years since Intel launched ultrabooks but you have failed to get ecosystem support and momentum for the category. Does this not suggest that the momentum of the Wintel platform is decelerating? While the volumes of ultrabooks are still low, they have Intel’s decision to exit desktop motherboard manufacturing has led to the perception that it is no B Suryanarayan brought in a series of innovations which our ODM and OEM partners have further improved so that you now longer interested in PC assemblers. have slim notebooks at under `25,000. We are committed to That perception is absolutely wrong. While desktop volumes are making ultrabooks successful, and with the launch of Haswell shrinking, this by no means is the end of the road for desktops. we expect strong momentum for this category. Every matured economy has seen the transition, and the desktop market is healthy everywhere in the world from the US to Japan. Qualcomm today has a higher market capitalization than We expect a similar trend in India. Intel though it has one-third of Intel’s turnover. Does this not say it all? While volumes of ultrabooks are still low, I can’t comment on the competition or the financials of Intel. All I they have brought in a series of innovations which can say is that Intel has led the computing era for more than two our partners have further improved so that you decades. We now have several new technologies up our sleeve, now have slim notebooks at under `25,000” and we also have huge ecosystem support. n
vendor view: S Rajendran, CMO, Acer India
“The PC is alive and kicking” Is the PC market dying? While there’s no denying that the PC market has slowed down, it is alive and kicking. Inflation has really affected fuel and food prices, so the prospective customer’s disposable income has been affected. If you check the sales figures for consumer electronics during Q3 & Q42012 you will note that the numbers were flat, so it is not just the PC market which has been affected.
ARM at attractive price points. However, we are still confident that Intel and Mircosoft are readying roadmaps for tablets which will benefit PC industry players. In India the majority of the market is on the 7-inch formfactor, but this form factor is not competing with PCs. In the commercial segment tablet adoption has been limited to certain sectors such as retail; we are yet to see any serious adoption of tablets to replace PCs. What impact have tablets and smart phones had on the PC market? While three million-plus tablets may have been sold in the country, our estimate is that less than one out of 10 of these tablets has actually eaten into the PC market share. It is significant, but in no way an alarming number.
The tablet market has seen exponential growth, but Acer and other PC makers have not made inroads. For years Acer and other PC makers were dependent on Intel, AMD and Microsoft to provide directions in the PC market, but they have not been able to deliver an S Rajendran You have exited the smart phone market. Outside exciting value or technology proposition for the tablet Apple, few PC makers have found success in this segment? market. We were also late in introducing compelling products on India is a highly competitive market for smart phones that’s heavily retail-driven, unlike other countries where a large For years PC makers were dependent on number of phones are sold through telcos. We believe that the Intel, AMD and Microsoft to provide directions investments needed to reach a decent market share in smart in the PC market, but they have not delivered an phones in the country are out of proportion to the returns. n
exciting technology for the tablet market”
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013
www.crn.in
23
cover story Analyst View: Vishal Tripathi, Principal Analyst, Gartner India
Tablets have hit the PCs hard
and inflation have affected the PC market, the PC industry has collectively failed to address the changing demands of consumers as well as enterprise buyers. Ultrabooks were C vendors have begun accepting that tablets and expected to rake in large numbers, but that has not happened. smart phones have started making inroads into their Ultrabooks still have potential, and with better pricing can help primary market. A year ago processor vendors were also the PC market to climb back. It was the over-reliance on Winunderestimating the impact of tablets on the PC market. dows 8 and the under-estimation of the tablet market which hit However, today Microsoft, Intel, AMD and other building-block the PC market hard. players have woken up and are readying roadmaps to The consumer notebook market will be the only be part of the tablet revolution. segment which will see growth for IT channels in From 2011 to 2012, on paper, the PC market in 2013. Consumer desktops, commercial notebooks and India grew by about 3.5 percent. However, if you disdesktops sold through tier-2 IT channels are not likely count the Elcot deal, the growth rate has been negative to see growth. The commercial PC market is seeing by about 5 percent. This year we expect HP to comlonger tech lifecycles, and VDI and BYOD are two trends plete supplies of more than 1.5 million notebooks to which will further hamper growth in the segment. UP, while Elcot will buy another 0.74 million notebooks The market for cheap 7-inch tablets is the fastest to supply to students in Tamil Nadu. Thus, in terms of growing today, and a number of first-time buyers are absolute growth, the PC market will continue to grow Vishal Tripathi purchasing them. I agree that these are not serious in 2013. However, outside these large deals growth computing devices, but with these users adapting quickly to the rates may be negative, and thus the IT channel will see a negauser interfaces of a tablet or a smart phone, when they graduate tive growth as they will have no stake in these large deals. to a serious computing device they are likely to align with a Once again UP is contemplating the purchase of 2.6 tablet rather than a PC. million tablets, and a number of other states such as Goa and The PC market will need to bring in more attractively-priced Chhattisgarh have also included tablets in their wish-list. and feature-rich products to attract these buyers. However, PCs While macro-economic factors such as the rising dollar will still be relevant, and will be preferred for serious content creation. The best bet for the PC market will be convertibles From 2011 to 2012, on paper, the PC market and hybrids, which, if priced right, could definitely help the PC in India grew by about 3.5 percent. However, if makers to bounce back. n
P
you discount the Elcot deal, the growth rate has been negative by about 5 percent”
—As told to Ramdas S
Distributor view: Suresh Pansari, CMD, Rashi Peripherals
PCs will coexist with tablets
At the same time, we do not expect the desktop market to completely go away. The market will still be around two million units, which is a healthy number, and will still help thousands ver the past few quarters we have seen stagnation in of partners to make a living over the next 2-3 years. the component business, and over the past six months System builders have the fastest access to technology, volumes have shrunk. From a share of more than 70 percent of and several vendors such as Asus, AMD, Intel, Nvidia, Seagate our overall revenue, the components and peripheral business, and Samsung are still investing in the system builder which is driven by system builders, is today hovering channel; we do not see their focus diminishing in the around 50 percent. foreseeable future. We are therefore betting heavily on tablets and However, assemblers must start selling branded have forged distribution deals with Asus for north notebooks, tablets and smart phones to continue and south India. We have also seen the smart phone being relevant, and to expand their opportunities. distribution business—for which we signed up last The industry is transforming at a pace which year—accounting for around 10 percent of our many of us are unable to estimate, but this means revenue. There is no doubt that the tablet and smart new opportunities. In the next few years the real phone markets will outpace the PC industry in a Suresh Pansari convergence between computers, mobile phones couple of years, hence we are urging our channel and consumer electronics will bring in a number of partners to venture into the business. devices across all price points, and this will affect both the commercial and consumer market. There is no doubt that the tablet and smart The PC as we know it will coexist with tablets, smart phone markets will outpace the PC industry phones and smart television—and there’s unlikely to be one in a couple of years, hence we are urging our clear winner. n —As told to Ramdas S channel partners to venture into the business”
O
24
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
market focus
growing acceptance The digital signage market has reached a critical size and provides partners with abundant opportunities n SONAL DESAI
T
he digital signage (DS) market has evolved over the last two years. According to research firm Netscribes, the DS market in India totaled `560 crore in 2012 against `450 crore in 2011, and is growing at 25 percent CAGR. Today’s DS solutions offer wireless and touch interactivity, live feedback, video and demographic analytics, and integration with CRM and BI—all of which is making the CMO sit up and take notice. Says Kalyan Banga, Manager, Product Development, Netscribes, “DS has demonstrated the ability to reach large audiences in a targeted way, and allows marketers the flexibility to deliver messages to specific audiences.” According to Manish Gupta, Zonal Manager, Neoteric, “Organizations are adopting DS due to the growing sophistication in how brands want to manage consumer experience. “Brands want to deliver interactive, personalized and enjoyable experiences to endcustomers on any device. DS can make this happen.” “Over the last two years we have signed 100 customers for DS solutions,” informs ER Ashok Kumar, VP, Sales, Cisco Services, Cisco India & Saarc. “We see this business doubling for us over the next few years. The demand for DS is coming from retail, BFSI, healthcare, education and hospitality. The government is also a large prospect.” Panasonic is another company that is bullish about the DS opportunity in India. “We are seeing a steady monthly sell-out of 100 units of 55-inch video-wall solutions for signage applications,” reveals Vineet Mahajan, Head, Display Products, Panasonic India.
Partner opportunities Although there are opportunities for DS solutions for both
external and internal communication, the opportunities for partners largely stem from in-store or in-premise installations meant for internal communication. Hyderabad-based Shell Networks has deployed 100 point solutions at the Pune unit of telecom giant Vodafone. Says AL Srinath, CEO, Shell, “It was Vodafone’s HR department that wanted to display congratulatory messages for employees’ birthdays, anniversaries, etc. The demand for onsite deployments is huge across all industry verticals.” BFSI is another big segment for DS. Today, banks are using DS at all their branches to display new offerings, schemes, forex conversion rates and customer benefits. Mumbai-based Niche Softek is upbeat about the demand in the BFSI segment. The company recently installed DS solutions for 65 retail branches of SBI for a project worth `1 crore. “We are expecting a bigger order from SBI on the back of the successful implementation, and also from other banks,” says Deven Limayae, CEO, Niche. “Share broking houses, financial services companies and hospitality are deploying DS in a big way.” Vardhaman Technology is another Mumbai-based company that is bullish about DS. With its own brand of DS solutions, Vardhaman has done several projects for information kiosks. “We have been in this segment for the past five years. We have our own portfolio of solutions and have experienced strong growth. Having been successful in India we have now ventured into the American market to target SMB customers there,” says Amit Rambhia, Director, International Sales, Vardhaman. One of the recent projects Vardhaman did was for Kalyan Janata Sahakari Bank, where it installed DS solutions across the bank’s 33 branches in Maharashtra
“DS has demonstrated the ability to reach large audiences in a targeted way, and allows marketers the flexibility to deliver messages to specific audiences”
“Over the last two years we have signed 100 customers for DS solutions. The demand is coming from retail, BFSI, healthcare, education and hospitality”
Kalyan Banga
ER Ashok Kumar
Manager, Product Development, Netscribes
VP, Sales, Cisco Services, Cisco India & Saarc
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013
www.crn.in
25
market focus “Android-based signage is entering the market, and customers are converting tablets into signage, which are placed on retail shelves”
“A display with a CPU is available for as low as `25,000. The low price has made it affordable for SMBs and thus increased the market for digital signage”
Amit Rambhia
Siril M
Director, Vardhaman Technology
for `15 lakh. The company also has several projects in the pipeline from the government sector. Informs Rambhia, “We are piloting projects for the city bus service in Mumbai to set up information and ticketing kiosks at bus stops; these will display information such as the arrival time of a bus and the bus routes.” Ahmedabad-based Innova Systems has deployed DS solutions for a large fashion house. “We have deployed the entire solution stack including point solutions, media players, networking and content solutions for three stores of the fashion house in Gujarat, and have bagged a repeat order for more installations,” says Apurva Dave, CEO. Retail has seen increased spending on DS. “Retail stores are branching, and the CEOs are taking close interest in the performance of each store. Retailers are therefore investing in interactive screens for live feedback, and are constantly changing the messages to meet the expectations of their target audience,” says Siril M, Sales Manager, Foxconn, Middle East, India & Africa. Education is another promising vertical. “Private institutes are opening branches, and are looking at solutions to display uniform mission and vision statements across all the branches. Schools are therefore looking at large display screens to be installed at the reception areas, essentially for internal communication,” notes Abhilesh Guleria, Country Head, Multimedia Product Group & IT Platforms Group, NEC India. Further, vendors and partners are tying up with content providers to tap opportunities in this segment. Foxconn, for instance, has partnered with Educomp Solutions for content in the education segment. “We realize that partners cannot provide content on their own, and need to be enabled. We are tying up with more content providers so that our partners do not have to go scouting for content and lose projects to the competition along the way,” explains Siril. A new area of focus is mobility and Android-based signage solutions. “Android-based signage is entering the market, and customers are converting tablets into signage, which are placed on retail shelves,” says Rambhia. Vardhaman is working on a pilot with a large FMCG company. “We will deploy tablets on retail shelves. The tablets will constantly play product ads of the brand and also the offers available,” Rambhia informs. Not to be left behind, resellers and solution providers are also looking at opportunities in the government which they say are huge and mostly untapped. For example, Niche has integrated live TVs with the token management and queue management for Passport Seva Kendras in 10
26
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
Sales Manager, Foxconn India
locations in north India for a project worth `1.5 crore. Similarly, the government has opened up spaces at railway stations, metros, bus stops and public venues for displaying popular information on DS boards. Southern Railway has installed a DS system at Egmore Railway Station in Chennai to provide passengers with clearer and quicker updated information. “This is a huge opportunity if you count the number of key stations across the length and breadth of India—and there will be multiple signages deployed at each station,” points out Limayae.
Vendor strategies To aid the sales growth, DS vendors are launching new products in smaller form-factors, and are investing in partner training and certifications, Foxconn has launched Nano PCs based on Intel technology, priced under $200. These are 40 times smaller than micro-ATX PCs, are equipped with USB 3.0, HDMI ports, n-series Wi-Fi, gigabit LAN, digital audio, an internal speaker and a card reader. “A display with a CPU is today available from `25,000 to `1 lakh. Because of the low price, SMBs are also looking at DS solutions which were earlier out of range for them,” says Siril. Intel is promoting the Next Unit of Computing, its new platform which provides ultrabook-level performance in an Atom-powered box for less than `20,000. “It can work as a primary PC and also be used extensively in embedded systems such as smart interactive outdoor signage,” says S Natarajan, Country Business Manager, Embedded Market, Intel, South Asia. Intel has also launched the Audience Impression Metrics (AIM) Suite, a software solution which provides video analytics based on responses to visual messaging. “AIM profiles viewers based on gender, age, viewing time and duration. It uses anonymous sensors and sophisticated computer algorithms to accurately count the potential and actual audience for visual messages and merchandising,” Natarajan informs. Cisco is encouraging its partners to obtain certification in its Authorized Digital Media System Partner Program to enable them to sell and support Digital Media Systems and focus on digital media and video solutions. “We have enabled more than 100 partners for DS, and are helping them with lead management and pre-sales,” Kumar says. Meanwhile, NEC has developed a dedicated solution for the education vertical. The company is positioning its comprehensive DS solution comprising point solutions, projectors, media players, storage, servers, networking and content for educational institutes in the country. n
Role model Bottomline focussed Biren Shah, Managing Director, Adit Microsys, says that while the topline may give you a feeling of growth, it is the bottomline that is the oxygen of the business n amit singh
B
iren Shah, MD, Adit Microsys, is highly respected by the channels as a thorough gentleman with great integrity and high technical acumen. Although Adit is small in terms of revenue compared to its many peers, it is recognized for its technical skills and solutions capabilities. “While the topline may give you a feeling of growth, it is not sustainable without the bottomline. The bottomline is the oxygen of your business. All these years we have never compromised on our bottomline for the sake of the topline. We have never created business plans with a topline focus either,” says Shah. Shah has also been a board member of ISODA since its inception, and is currently its Chairman.
The journey Shah had no inkling that he would join the IT industry. After completing his mechanical engineering from BITS Pilani in 1981 and post-graduation in industrial engineering from NITIE Mumbai in 1983, Shah worked with Premier Automobiles and then Dalal Consultants & Engineers. In 1985 he went to the US for higher studies and completed his MBA from Case Western Reserve University—and that’s when he decided to change tracks to IT. Shah then rejoined the management services division of Dalal Consultants which he had left to pursue his MBA. “When I returned they offered me a project to launch their software development business. Conceiving the project ground-up and running the software development division helped me to use my management skills, and I learnt the nitty-gritty of the business. But I had always thought of becoming an entrepreneur.” He set out on his own path in October 1990 by forming a proprietary concern called Microsys with zero investment. Then in 1993 he formed Adit Microsys
“We work with customers only with an advance. For any new customer we stress on 100 percent, and for known customers we work with 25-50 percent advance”
as a private limited company. “I leveraged my educational background and experience in the software development business, and convinced vendors and distributors to extend credit for software reselling and implementation.” The company tied up with Tata Unisys to resell Microsoft products including MS-DOS and Windows 3.0. It also started reselling Protector Plus antivirus. “We targeted corporate houses, PSUs and government departments. The margins were good—we made 20-25 percent on the transactions,” recalls Shah. From 1990 to 1998 Adit took significant strides in the business by becoming the national distributor for Protector Plus. It was also recognized among the top Microsoft sub-distributors in the country. Major changes took place in 1999, when Tech Pacific and Redington expanded their coverage in Gujarat. Says Shah, “With the presence of large distributors our margins started eroding, hence we parted with the Microsoft sub-distribution business and focused exclusively on the end-user business. Besides, Protector Plus was not able to compete with the MNC players that captured the market with advanced solutions.” In 2000, Adit transformed itself from a sub-distributor to a software solutions provider. The company then moved to provide Web designing and solutions to capitalize on the dotcom boom. It also introduced its own personal finance software called Easy Life. In 2002, Adit developed www.mahitishakti.net, a Web portal for the Gujarat government which won it several accolades. This success motivated Adit to focus more on government accounts, following which, between 2002 and 2007, the company established itself as a preferred solutions provider for egovernance projects in Gujarat.
Current business Adit’s turnover grew from `8.7 crore in FY2011-12 to `11 crore in FY2012-13. Shah attributed this growth to his diversified business strategy. “In 2011 we created a fourth division, social sector projects, to join the three existing ones—software reselling, Web designing and custom application development.” The social sector has been a major contributor to the company’s turnover in the past 18 months, and Adit has
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013
www.crn.in
27
role model
2013
2011
2002
2002
2000
1999
1998
1993
1990
application targeted at individuals. implemented several projects in MILESTONES We expect to launch it in H22013. this sector. One was the Rashtriya Later on we will add more such Swasthya Bima Yojana in Karnataka customized applications to our where Adit was chosen as an Set up Microsys as a SaaS portfolio.” enrolment agency to verify and proprietary firm provide health cards to families in Belgaum district. “We invested Best practices Renamed Adit Microsys and about `20 lakh in card printers, The company has always been made it a private limited notebooks, scanners, etc. Since it strict about credit terms and company was our first such project we had does not extend open-ended no idea about the cost over-runs credit. “While with government Recognized as one of the top and therefore suffered some loss. departments we work on standard Microsoft sub-distributors However, it was great learning, timelines, we never work with any and we understood the operating private entity without an advance. Parted ways with Microsoft as details of on-ground projects. It For any new customer we stress a sub-distributor also enabled us to take on larger on 100 percent advance, and for projects in the government.” known customers we work with Transformed itself into a On the application development 25-50 percent advance. For an software solutions provider front the company has developed an installation project we specify app for the Department of Education the payment to be done after Won an award for www. of the Government of Gujarat to installation or within 30 days, automate the application filing, mahitishakti.net, a Web portal whichever is earlier,” reveals Shah. short-listing and compiling for On the customer management for the Gujarat government recruitment. It has also developed side Shah believes in fairness at all a mobile app for the Civil Supplies levels. “Our customer management Became a preferred solutions Corporation; this app allows the starts at the pre-sales and quotation provider for egovernance registration of godown inventory level; we do not make any false projects in Gujarat through SMS and the generation of commitments. The idea is to monthly reports. make the expectations and scope Created a division to handle Adit’s Web designing business of work clear so that there are no social sector projects is also growing well. “Here we are surprises.” focusing on small and mid-market He says that with this approach Recorded `11-crore turnover customers. We have been adding customers also realize that you are during the fiscal 30-40 new customers every year, not blindly saying yes to everything and currently have more than 100 to grab a deal, hence this eventually customers for services such as increases your credibility. “The website development and redesigning. Last year we also customer will therefore know that the five things you introduced SEO services.” have agreed to will surely be delivered, and that’s the On the infrastructure software front Adit grabbed many image we have created among our customer base.” government projects. It implemented new versions of The company also focuses on the quick execution databases, and helped migrate applications to new servers of its projects. “We do not tend to accumulate orders to in the Gujarat State Data Center. negotiate with distributors or vendors. Accumulating projects for petty bargains increases the risk of mistakes during execution; it also jeopardizes your efficiency and Future agenda ability to execute projects on time,” he points out. Adit is targeting growth of at least 25 percent over the next 2-3 years. Shah says the company will seek more business in social sector projects only after the On a personal note stabilization of its current projects. “We may also join Shah, who believes in keeping things simple and always hands with other partners to try and replicate the being fair to everyone, is a big admirer of Ratan Tata business in some other states.” because of the way he steered the Tata Group. “Tata He has plans to increase their focus on custom Motors was known for its large vehicles, but he took a application development projects. “In addition, we controlled risk by entering the small car segment through will introduce the SaaS offering of our personal finance Indica and achieved great success.” While Shah walks and jogs every morning, and plays volleyball every Saturday morning, his first passion “Customer management starts at pre-sales is Hindi music. He is a good singer, with a sizeable collection of old Hindi songs. level; we do not make any false commitShah also loves traveling, and has stuck to his twoments. The idea is to make the expectations vacations-per-year rule for long. “It is important to spend quality time with yourself and with the family.” n clear so that there are no surprises” 28
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
channel buzz Veeras wins APJ VMware Partner Network Award
Sighat wins Asia Pacific Enterprise Leadership Award The CEO of D-Link India, Tushar Sighat, was recently honored with the Asia Pacific Enterprise Leadership Award n Alex Wong, Interim 2013 for demonstrating Chairman AP-EC, presenting the award to Tushar Sighat, exemplary leadership CEO, D-Link India skills and unparalleled vision for the company’s growth. The company has nearly tripled its annual turnover from `127 crore in July 2011, when Sighat joined the company, to `360 crore in FY2012-13. Sighat was chosen from among the 155 nominations received from across the APAC region and evaluated by an international judging panel. On hearing the news, Sighat said, “This is the outcome of a prodigious team effort. Being recognized on a global platform is truly motivating. Such accomplishments inspire one to continue with the good work.” The award is given by the Singapore-based Asia Pacific Enterprise Cooperation (APEC). A total of 48 business leaders from 14 APAC countries received awards in nine different categories. n
Veeras Infotek won the APJ VMware Partner Network Award in the Business Continuity Competency category at the recently concluded VMware Partner Exchange 2013 held in Las nSudarsan Vegas, US. Ranganathan “We congratulate Veeras on winning a VMware Partner Network Award, and we look forward to our mutual success in 2013,” said Ganesan Arumugam, Director, Partner Channel, VMware India & Saarc. Remarked Sudarsan Ranganathan, CEO & MD, Veeras, “We are elated and excited to be recognized and awarded for our capabilities, expertise and success.” The VMware Partner Network Award was presented to partners globally in 18 categories for their excellence in performance and distinctive achievements during 2012. n
Insight’s blood donation camp Mumbai-based Insight Business Machines recently conducted a blood donation camp in association with the JJ Hospital blood bank. The one-day camp collected 100 bottles from 128 donors who included Insight employees, their family members and friends. Explained Neel Shah, Director, Insight, “We organized the blood donation camp in our office as part of our corporate social responsibility. This being our first such activity we were very excited, and we hope to organize more such activities whereby we can give back to society. The overwhelming response was also appreciated by the JJ blood bank.” n
n Sanjeev Nimbkar, VP, Services and Piyush Vibhakar, MD, Insight
n Piyush Vibhakar donating blood
n Partners with the Asus team at the partner meet in Singapore
Asus concludes channel summit Asus India recently concluded its Giant Lion’s Pride Channel Summit in Singapore. The four-day summit, which was attended by 130 partners, was aimed at empowering partners with tools, services and product knowledge to help them improve their pre-sales, marketing and technical skills. The highlight of the event was the launch of Asus’ new range of notebooks—Taichi and Vivobooks. Partners got a touch-feel experience of the new devices in addition to an opportunity to interact with Daniel Alenquer, Associate Director, Design Team, Asus—the person who has designed the new offerings. “The summit was our new initiative to highlight the importance of channel partners and give them a personalized experience with our innovative product range,” explained Unaez Quraishi, Sales & Distribution Director, System Business Group, Asus India. n
To feature your company’s events in CRN, send write-ups with photographs to editor@ubmindia.com
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013
www.crn.in
29
tech focus issues with Office 365 deployment The CRN Test Center lists a few issues partners might face in installing and configuring Microsoft Office 365 for their customers
L
n EDWARD J CORREIA
ast month Microsoft delivered the new Office 365, its line-up of Webbased office productivity applications. Designed for businesses of various sizes, Office 365 comes in several modules, each having a different set of features and capabilities. At the top of the heap is Office 365 Small Business Premium which is targeted at companies with less than 25 users. Besides adding three new SKUs to the 10+ Office 365 editions it introduced earlier this year, Microsoft delivers some new layers of complexity. For VARs and IT departments, this means they will need to navigate a new set of subtleties for installing and configuring each user so that his desktop and browser apps work in harmony with SkyDrive and other cloud-based storage and collaborative tools. Here is a look at what is in store.
Desktop apps Only Office 2010 or Office 2007 for Windows will work with Office 365. Compatible Mac OS versions are Office for Mac 2011 SP1 and Office 2008 for Mac with update 12.2.9 or later. Earlier versions of Office will not connect with Office 365. Office 2008 for Mac 12.2.9 also will need Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition. Assuming that the target computer meets the requirements of Office 365, it will also need Microsoft Lync. We set up our test machine by signing into the Office 365 portal and selecting Office 365 settings from the ‘Gear’ menu in the upper-right corner. Select Desktop Setup and follow the prompts. This will install the .Net 3.5 Framework and other plumbing to connect desktop apps to their cloud-based counterparts. You
Organizations switching from a perpetual license model to a subscription-based one will have to adjust to the concept of software expiration. If you forget to pay the bill, files become read-only 30
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
also can install Lync and Office apps from there. The process was easy and took only about 10 minutes, but it is manual for each client.
Mobile devices Office 365 Small Business Premium is compatible with the mail and calendar applications of mobile devices running Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian and of course Windows Phone. Thanks to Microsoft’s Lync 2010 client, Office 365 users can perform instant messaging, audio calling and audio conferencing with other Office 365 users, and can get presence information too. The catch is that it requires a Lync Server or Office365/ Lync Online account, and administrators might have to do some manual account juggling if crossing organizations. The Office 365 portal also provides detailed, step-by-step instructions for setting up the mail client on each supported platform. What is more, there is context-sensitive help that IT admins will appreciate more than anywhere else. Our hats are off to Microsoft for the progress it has made with its online help documents.
Sharing files Many companies today share files by saving to a shared resource—a server or NAS device—or use a cloud-based service such as DropBox. Some just use email. Since Office 365 files are automatically stored in SkyDrive, Microsoft’s cloud-based storage service, expect a learning curve. It is not hard, it is just different, and it will take some getting used to by parties on all sides. All of Microsoft’s subscription-based Office 365 versions include 25 GB of SkyDrive storage, and all but the $4 and $8 versions can edit files online. People using Office 2013 with a free SkyDrive account get 7 GB of storage but must switch to a browser to edit those documents online. While Office 2013 integrates with SkyDrive for online file storage, it does not support online editing. Editing Office 2013 documents online requires the Office Web Apps browser add-on which also helps
tech focus facilitate sharing by emailing or posting links on social sites.
Changing domain names Initial Office 365 installation puts all of a company’s users on the onmicrosoft.com domain. This can be changed later, but it requires jumping through a few hoops. The process requires user names and passwords for the domain name registrar and the DNS hosting provider, and a list of user names of everyone who will have an email address using that domain. To prove ownership of the domain, the process prompts for the creation of a DNS record for which it will check. Additional steps include verification of an existing website and user-account creation for each person who will use email. The final step is to redirect all domain traffic to the Office 365 server, which will process it accordingly. The whole process takes about 45 minutes.
Software expiration Organizations switching from a perpetual license model to a subscription-based one will have to adjust to the concept of software expiration. While there is plenty of justification for leasing company vehicles rather than buying outright, leasing
While a few issues remain, overall Microsoft has done an excellent job with Office 365 Small Business Premium. It is a solid addition to the company’s cloud-based solutions software—particularly online software—is much trickier. However, we suppose there is something to be said for the quarterly updates to product features and regular virus definition updates; server maintenance, availability and backup; and Web and phone support, which is available 24x7. Just do not forget to pay that bill because online Office 365 files become read-only if the subscription lapses. How is that for leverage?
Bottom line While quite a few Office 365 issues remain, overall Microsoft has done an excellent job with Office 365 Small Business Premium. This is a solid addition to the company’s cloud-based solutions. It presents a reliable, stable option for any small or midsize business seeking to quickly deploy email, messaging, collaboration and office productivity applications for up to 25 people using Mac OS, or Windows users who work with a variety of mobile devices as well. n
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013
www.crn.in
31
New Products HP Elitepad 900 tablets
H
ViewSonic TD2340 touch monitor
V
iewSonic recently launched its 23-inch touch monitor, the TD2340. The monitor is Windows 8-certified and comes with a 10-point capacitive touch screen. It features a professional-grade IPS panel with full HD resolution and a 20,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. Its ergonomic design allows the user to adjust the monitor’s height, pivot it, or even lay it flat. The monitor is integrated with SRS Premium Sound speakers, and has Energy Star and EPEAT Silver certifications. It can be connected using DisplayPort, HDMI and VGA ports. The monitor is priced at an MRP of `45,990 and carries a 3-year warranty. It is available with ViewSonic authorized distributors. n
Wipro netPower O1511 servers
W
ipro has launched the netPower O1511, an AMDbased server targeted at SMBs and enterprises. The server comes in two variants. One is powered by a quad-core AMD Opteron 3250 and the other by an 8-core AMD Opteron 3280 processor. While the server with Opteron 3250 comes with 2.5 GHz core speed and a 4 MB L3 cache, its Opteron 3280 variant comes with 2.4 GHz core speed and 8 MB L3 cache. The server running on the quad-core is priced at `30,000, while the server which has the 8-core processor is priced at `38,000. n
P has launched its 10.1-inch business tablet, Elitepad 900, in two variants. While one comes with 32 GB storage and Windows 8, the other comes with 64 GB storage and the Windows 8 Pro operating system. Both the variants are powered by 1.8 GHz dual-core Intel Atom CloverTrail processors with 2 GB RAM. The device has enterprise security features such as security manager, credential manager, password manager and device access manager. Other features that make the device suitable for business consumers include Computrace, Sparekey, Drive Encryption and HP BIOS settings. The 1280x800 pixel resolution screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 2. The device is 9.2 mm thick and weighs 630 gm. The tablet has a full HD 8 MP rear camera with LED flash, and an HD camera in the front. The 32 GB variant is priced at `43,500 while the 64 GB model is priced at `52,490. Both the tablets carry a 1-year warranty and are available with HP authorized distributors. n
Zebronics Power Grid chargers
Z
ebronics recently launched its Power Grid line of mobile external chargers that charge two devices simultaneously and work with a variety of smart phones and small devices powered via micro/mini-USB. The chargers, in three variants—ZEB-PG2400, ZEB-PG4800 and ZEB-PG7200— come with 2400, 4800 and 7200 mAH batteries respectively. The devices have LED indicators which tell users when they need to be recharged. The ZEB-PG2400 is priced at `1,450, the ZEB-PG4800 costs `1,990, the ZEB-PG7200 comes at `2,490. All the models carry a 1-year warranty and are available with Zebronics’ authorized distributors. n
The products featured here have not undergone any benchmarking or testing. The trailers contain information provided by vendors and distributors. To feature your company’s products in CRN, send write-ups with photos to editor@ubmindia.com
32
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
shadow ram Controversy around UP notebook scheme
W
hile HP is pleased that it is the only PC maker chosen to supply notebooks to the UP government, it must also be worried about the tug-of-war around this social sector scheme. Opposition parties in the state allege that although the notebooks supplied by HP are bought with the tax-payers’ money, they are being used to promote Mulayam Singh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party supremo, and his chief minister son Akhilesh. There is allegation that if the default wallpaper photo of the father and son is removed, the devices become dysfunctional. UPECL has denied these allegations. However, UPECL has admitted that if the photo of Akhilesh appearing in the BIOS is removed, the warranty on the notebook stands void. n
GET
Personal
“I’d abolish caste system” Seemant Chaudhry, Desktop Transformation Evangelist, Citrix India, is responsible for transforming businesses with desktop virtualization. He has more than 15 years experience in the IT industry, having worked with companies such as HCL, HP, IBM and SAS.
Seemant Chaudhry
If not in the IT industry: I would have been a stock broker or a cricket commentator.
Biggest passion: Music. Behind the wheel: Ferrari. Gadget I cannot live without: My smart phone. Weekends are for: Socializing. Favorite holiday destination: Hawaii. Hate the most: Double standards. Favorite movies: Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and 3 Idiots. Favorite star: Aamir Khan. Role models: My parents. Ultimate ambition: To live to a healthy old age. Wildest thing I have ever done: I am yet to do it. Thing I most want to do in life: Make others happy. If I became the PM: I would abolish the caste and reservation system, and make implementation of the law faster. Celebrity I would like to spend a day with: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. One person I would like to meet and why: Sachin Tendulkar because he is a living cricket legend. Deepest and darkest fear: A life without family and friends. n — CRN Network
34
Computer Reseller News
01/04/2013 www.crn.in
How do you turn 20 gigabytes of streaming data into a faster qualifying time?
Dell Intelligent Data Solutions, powered by Intel® technology, help a Formula 1™ team gain an edge. With an intelligent storage management platform, Dell helps an F1 team turn data into insights into a faster car. By analyzing data trackside, the team can make real-time decisions that improve the car’s in-race performance. To know more on how Dell Enterprise Solutions & Services can help you overcome business challenges, visit dell.co.in/domore
Important Dell Details. DELL’S TERMS AND CONDITIONS: All sales subject to Dell’s terms and conditions, see http://www.dell.co.in/ tnc OR provided on request. MISTAKES: While all efforts are made to check pricing and other errors, inadvertent errors do occur from time to time and Dell reserves the right to decline orders arising from such errors. MORE INFORMATION: Go to http://www. dell.co.in/details. TRADEMARKS: Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Copyright: © 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.
Registered with Registrar of Newspapers under RNI No. MAHENG/2011/39915 Postal Registration. No. MH/MR/NORTH EAST/193/2013-15 Posted at Patrika Channel Sorting Office, Mumbai-400001. Posting date 2nd, 3rd & 16th, 17th Of Every Fortnight.