Crn 01 july 2013 all pages by UBM India

contents

July 01, 2013 l Volume 3 Issue 05

Cover Story Every decision and action they take will have a major impact on the channel business. Presenting the 10 most influential channel leaders and listing out their priorities for 2013

23 Cover Design : Deepjyoti Bhowmik

NEWS Analyses

Channel Chief

Cyberoam plans enterprise thrust

CommScope takes on Tyco with Uniprise

BenQ seeks 30 percent growth

Dell launches converged infra for SMBs

F5 wants more partners

Vishak Raman Senior Regional Director, Fortinet, speaks about the issues raised by partners in the latest CRN Channel Champions Survey. He also shares the trends in enterprise security

18 Special Focus The IT picture Looking at it from a partner perspective, three words are sufficient to sum up the potential of the Indian media and entertainment industry: opportunity, opportunity, opportunity

Editorial 14 Opinion

Feedback

Channel Buzz

New Products

Shadow Ram

Get Personal

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20 Tech Focus

Second chance HP has relaunched the ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 with several new features and is confident of its market success this time round

starting line MUST

Cyberoam plans enterprise thrust

CommScope takes on Tyco with Uniprise

n SONAL DESAI

Read

CommScope has launched its value brand, Uniprise, in the Indian market to take on arch-rival Tyco in the structured cabling segment. Uniprise will be price-positioned 25 percent lower than Systimax products and almost at par with Tyco’s. “With the launch of Uniprise, our addressable market has more than doubled. We are aiming to grow our India business by more than 50 percent in 2013,” said Alamuri Sitaramaiah, Director, Channel Sales, CommScope, India & Saarc. According to CommScope, of the $225 million Indian structured cabling market, the high-end segment, where Systimax is a market leader, is worth $75 million. The mid-end segment, at which Uniprise is targeted, is worth approximately $100 million, while the price-conscious segment is estimated at $50 million. To drive Uniprise products, the company is leveraging the RD model. For every state, CommScope is appointing two RDs. It has so far signed up 14 RDs with many managing more than one state. Some of the RDs signed by the A Sitaramaiah company include Shani Peripherals for Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal, Texonic for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and Sejutronics for Maharashtra. CommScope plans to enroll 150 partners for Uniprise, and has already started training and certifying them under its existing Select program. Uniprise will be sold to price-performanceconscious mid-market and mature SMB customers, and to large enterprises for their branch networking requirements. “Many large enterprise customers use Systimax for their core networking infrastructure but deploy other brands for branch networking. Henceforth our partners will be able to pitch Uniprise for branch networking, thus increasing the size of their projects,” Sitaramaiah explained. The company has plans to manufacture Uniprise locally in order to increase availability and make it more price-competitive. n — Dhaval Valia

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yberoam is banking on enterprises for growth this fiscal. The company is aiming to get 30 percent of its revenue from the segment this year. Said Sunil Sharma, Vice President, Sales, Cyberoam, “With new products and the NG series gaining acceptance among enterprises, we are optimistic about our growth in the vertical.” Last year the vendor had launched the NG series of UTM appliances for its SMB customers, and it recently launched four new SKUs to enhance its enterprise portfolio. The new enhancements include faster network performance, protection against evolving and advanced threats, and support for BYOD, virtualization, regulation and compliance. The company is enabling its 42 Gold and Platinum partners to tap opportunities in the education, IT-ITeS, BFSI, government and defense verticals. It has set up a team of business development managers (BDMs) to help partners with preselling, architecting and deploying solutions. Cyberoam will increase the number of BDMs in the next quarter to increase the breadth of partner penetration across all regions in the country. The company has put in place an inside sales team for lead generation, and launched a direct telephone line for partners to help them with pre-sales and post-sales support. Besides, it is in the process of adding deal registration to the partner portal. Sharma said that there would also be emphasis on partner training and certification. “We have introduced a rebate structure for certified partners. They can avail a rebate of at least 3-5 percent. We have trained 242 partner engineers and presales executives in the last three months. We have also calendarized our training programs, and

“We have set up a separate team to enable partners with leads, pre-sales and business development to get significant share in the enterprise market” Sunil Sharma

Vice President, Sales Cyberoam

will help partners to set up PoCs.” Further, the company has appointed senior executives to head the business of each of the five verticals. It is on the panel of NICSI, and has applied for DGS&D empanelment to push its UTMs in the government and defense verticals. “Such tie-ups enable partners to serve government and defense customers easily since the tender process gets shorter,” Sharma explained. He added, “We are also eying partnerships with large SIs which have a good customer base across verticals. We are on the verge of signing up with a large SI which will pitch Cyberoam as a security solution for all its projects.” Then there are customer events. “We have doubled our marketing budget, and are targeting 3,000 CIOs through outreach events.” The efforts seem to be paying off as the company has already signed more than a dozen enterprise customers with deal sizes ranging from `12 lakh-`30 lakh. “We already have a presence in the enterprise segment where we are securing branch offices,” Sharma said. “So it is a logical extension to tap the same customers for securing their core infrastructure.” n

starting line MUST

BenQ seeks 30 percent growth

Dell launches converged infra for SMBs

n ABHIJEET MUKHERJEE

Read

Dell has launched the PowerEdge VRTX, a new converged infrastructure offering with integrated server, storage and networking targeted at small and mid-size businesses and remote offices in the country. PowerEdge VRTX is essentially a 5U blade server chassis that hosts up to four dual-processor blade servers sporting the Intel Xeon E5 2400 or 2600 series of processors. Each chassis can scale to a maximum of 64 cores, 3 TB of memory and 48 TB of direct storage. The product also has a 1 GbE internal switch module (standard) with 16 internal 1 GbE ports and eight external ports. “Though there have been several architectures offered by our competition, we have managed to crack a price-point that will appeal across all segments,” said S Sridhar, Director, Enterprise Solutions Business, India, Dell. He said that a chassis with two fully configured blades could cost as low as $10,000. Sridhar said that though HP, Cisco and IBM have been shipping converged S Sridhar infrastructure stacks, these are primarily being positioned for heavier workloads, are targeted at data centers, and are priced much higher. He said the VRTX will have universal appeal across all verticals which creates a compelling reason for Dell to woo channels. “With VRTX, enterprise and SMB channels will be able to offer converged infrastructure to just about any customer because of the better value-for-money offered.” According to Sridhar, VRTX uses up to 86 percent fewer cables than non-converged products, and a new system can be installed and set to deploy virtual machines within a matter of hours. He said that the fully configured chassis can host around 100 virtual machines, and is ideally suited for VDI deployment. “You have all the advantages of a SAN storage with the ease of management of a NAS storage.” n — Ramdas S

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enQ India expects growth of 30 percent to garner revenue of `260 crore in 2013 on the back of launching new monitors, and home video and 3D office projectors. “In 2013 our focus will be mainly on expanding to smaller cities and selling more of midand high-end products,” said Rajeev Singh, Country Head & GM, BenQ India. “We will launch more products in these segments and target revenue of `260 crore.” In the projector segment the company has a marketshare of 20 percent. In 2012 it grew by 20 percent in the segment and clocked revenue of `110 crore. Education contributed around `66 crore to this while the corporate sector contributed `34 crore. The home and government sectors contributed `5 crore each. In 2013 BenQ expects the projector business to grow at 40 percent. BenQ has launched its new home video projectors with features such as full HD resolution, 6,000 hours lamp-life and contrast ratio of 50,000:1 priced at `1 lakh onward. It has also launched its wireless home projectors priced upward of `1.75 lakh. For the office segment it launched two new models of 3D-enabled projectors with a lamp-life of 6,500 hours and entry-level price of `30,000. At present it has 40 SKUs in the projector segment including five models for homes, 10 models for education, 20 models for offices, three LED models and two laser models. The company plans expansion into tier-2 and -3 cities by increasing its 150 direct partners to 200, and the number of active resellers from the

“Our focus will be on expanding to smaller cities and selling more of midand high-end products. We plan to grow from `200 crore to `260 crore” Rajeev Singh

Country Head & GM BenQ India

present 600 to 800 by 2013-end. BenQ will train the sales teams of its projector partners through a series of sales programs in the top eight cities to increase its sales volume from the present 50,000 units per quarter to 75,000. In monitors, with 49,000 units per quarter, the company had a market share of 7 percent of the total 28 lakh units sold in the stand-alone monitor market in 2012; it wants to double its share in 2013. BenQ plans expansion smaller cities with its 120 regional distributors. It also has 2,000 resellers, a figure which it intends to increase by 50 percent in 2013. For overall marketing it has allocated a budget of `7 crore which it will use to promote its 27-inch monitors, and 3D office and home video projectors. Through the BenQ Connect partner program it will showcase its entire range of new products to 2,500 partners across more than 40 cities. BenQ also plans to enhance its post-sales support by increasing its number of service partners from the present 130 to 150 and reducing its TAT to 48 hours from the present 72 hours. n

starting line F5 Networks wants more partners n amit singh

5 Networks is expanding its partner base by lowering entry barriers for its Silver partners. The company revamped its Unity partner program and introduced Grid program for joint marketing and lead generation activities. Parag Khurana, MD, F5, said, “While there is no commitment for Registered parers, Silver partners in tier-2 and -3 cities can decide their targets for three quarters. In turn, they should commit dedicated sales or pre-sales and a service person.” The company offers marketing resources through its portal, and access to DevCentral—an online community of about 1,40,000 technical experts to discuss and share technology issues and solutions. F5 has three NDs—Transition Systems, Westcon India and Avnet Technologies, and more than 50 Silver, Gold and Platinum partners. Informed Khurana, “In 2013, we will expand our channel base by about 50

“We have reduced the entry barrier for business commitment from Silver partners. They can decide their own targets for three quarters” Parag Khurana Managing Director F5 Networks

percent, and want partners who have a presence in virtualization, data center, cloud, mobility, security and optimization. They should be able to consult on how to improve the delivery and performance of applications on their customers’ networks.” About the market trends, Khurana said, “Branch offices are witnessing slowdown in data-sensitive business applications and poor

performance in Web-based applications. As more applications are rolled out, data security is a part of the application delivery strategy. Since many Indian enterprises and midmarket entities are investing in data centers, cloud infrastructure and pervasive networks, the scope for ADN is large.” The company’s BIG-IP product family offers services like traditional load balancing, SSL offload and Web acceleration with dynamic caching, application security and access control. It recently introduced Mobile App Manager, a BYOD solution which combines the policy management and secure application delivery features of the BIG-IP Access Policy Manager with the scalability and affordability of a SaaS offering. It also announced BIG-IQ Cloud, a software-based management solution to deploy application delivery and network services across public and private clouds, traditional data centers and hybrid environments. n

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edit opinion Expectations from the influential dhaval valia

n our annual edition of the Most Influential Channel Chiefs we feature 10 leaders whose decisions and actions will have a significant impact on the channel business. The objective is also to suggest an agenda for them based on channel expectations. Rajiv Srivastava has done a brilliant job with the integration of HP’s printer and PC business. He has reinvigorated the HP team which has become more aggressive. However, partners say that Srivastava’s priority for 2013 must be to ensure partner profitability. Partners expect Alok Ohrie, who recently took over as Dell India head, to bring focus and stability to partner engagement. One key partner demand is that Dell should refocus on its PC business. In its efforts to focus on the enterprise market the company in 2012 de-focused from its core PC business. For Amar Babu, 2013 is when Lenovo’s journey beyond being just a PC player begins as it makes a serious bid in the tablet, server and storage markets. He will have to lead and manage that transformation. Tushar Sighat has put D-Link on an exponential growth curve by almost tripling its turnover in last two years. To maintain this momentum his key priority is to improve the company’s post-sales support which has come under severe criticism. The partner agenda for EMC’s Pravin Sahai is to bring more services to the table and also address the issue of dwindling margins. EMC’s Growth partners want more enablement from EMC and its distributors. Pradeep Khemani has brought stability and consistency to HP’s enterprise channels, and the company has done well in servers. However, in storage HP lacks a strong solutions story, and in networking it needs to spruce up its act. IBM’s new STG head Ajay Mittal joins at a time when the vendor is transforming itself with the declared intention of getting out of the x86 server business. According to partners, Mittal must review the recent realignment of channel teams which has increased conflict. Oracle’s Neeraj Kaushik started the year with roll-out of an aggressive SMB strategy. He needs to consistently deliver on partner commitments before he is able to win their confidence considering that in the past Oracle hasn’t been very channelfriendly. Cisco’s Pramodh Menon has to push the collaboration and UCS business which hasn’t performed as per expectations. Partners want Cisco to consolidate the number of specializations and also counter the competition from HP and Juniper. Symantec’s Anand Naik has a tough job ahead to please partners because they are disappointed with the company’s channel engagement. Partners want Naik to improve this and focus on enabling them to sell solutions. n E-mail CRN Executive Editor Dhaval Valia at dhaval.valia@ubm.com 14

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Volume 3, Issue 05

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

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Kangkan Mahanta kangkan.mahanta@ubm.com (M) +91 8971232344

mumbai Manager—Sales :

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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

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edit opinion Security remains elusive Srikanth RP

he goal-posts in information security are constantly changing, and what is considered safe today may be compromised tomorrow. Every known security mechanism designed to protect or authenticate users and transactions has been broken. Consider passwords first. Deloitte has predicted that in 2013, more than 90 percent of user-generated passwords— even those considered strong by IT departments—will be vulnerable to hacking. The company says that a dedicated password-cracking machine employing readily-available virtualization software and high-powered graphics processing units can crack any eight-character password in 5.5 hours. While 2-factor authentication adds another layer of security, it is susceptible to fraud. If a hacker succeeds in getting access to the user name and password, and obtaining a fraudulent SIM card by reporting it as stolen, he has easy access to the one-time passwords that are generated by the bank. This method allows fraudsters to bypass the commonly-used two-factor authentication in the form of mobile messages banks provide. Even digital certificates, which guarantee the authenticity of a file signed by a person, and which are provided by authorized certificate authorities, have been known to be compromised. This year, security researchers were alarmed to discover a banking trojan that came with its own built-in digital certificate. The banking password sniffer was signed with a valid digital certificate. The Common Computing Security Standards Forum reports 16 legitimate digital certificates that are associated with malware. In the face of such sophisticated attacks, global organizations are adding more layers of security. For example, recognizing that stolen passwords are put on sale on underground websites, Google’s security system does more than just check if a password is correct; the search engine giant uses more than 120 variables to detect fraud. Globally, efforts are on to create a future where passwords will never have to be used. Google, for instance, is doing research on a slim USB key that proves the user’s validity when plugged into a computer. The FIDO Alliance has launched a set of standards to reduce reliance on passwords. This could be in the form of a security chip installed in a PC, or a fingerprint scanner. PayTango, a start-up, has launched a solution which links your cards to your fingerprints. If successful, PayTango can end the inconvenience of carrying multiple cards. Ultimately, even with the greatest advances in technology, humans are and will remain the weakest link in security. But if organizations succeed in creating a robust security culture by spreading more awareness, the greatest of attacks can be prevented and foiled. n Srikanth RP is the Editor of InformationWeek. Email him at srikanth.rp@ubm.com

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Countering slowdown The CRN Channel Confidence has some interesting findings. It’s interesting to note that despite slowdown the enterprise channel have grown at 19 percent average rate. However, a point worth mentioning here is that the vendor support needed by partners in terms of better pricing and margins, and consistent partner policies is seldom provided. Not only this, vendors have been poaching partner accounts and in many cases favoring large national SIs against smaller partners. The first thing they need to understand is that we are their partners and not competition. Suresh Shah via email

The birth of Unity IT The recent decision by 9 leading HP World

partners to form a separate company to start a multi-brand retail chain is a clear indication of the growing dissatisfaction among partners toward lethargic attitude of vendors to ensure partner profitability. Vendors are purely focused on ensuring their own margins and for that they pressurize partners with unrealistic targets and dump products. This results in a rippling effect on the partner profitability as it blocks the capital in an already slow market, which then forces them to clear aging stock at low or no margins. I believe this is an opportune time for partners to come out of this vicious cycle and form a consortium, which will give them economies of scale. What the nine partners have done could be a beginning of a revolution. Sushil Kumar Tomar via email

Send your feedback at editor@ubmindia.com or post your views on www.crn.in

Advertiser Index Company name

Smartlink

Page No Web site

1 & 2 www.digisol.com

Sales Contact

helpdesk@digisol.com

HP-IPG

4 www.hp.com/in/monoink

Cisco

5 www.cisco.com/go/ucsbenchmarks www.cisco.in/servers

Canon

www.canon.co.in

in.contact@hp.com 1800 180 3366

Kestone 9 Checkpoint

11 www.checkpoint.com

indiasales@checkpoint.com

RDP

info@rdpcomputing.in

www.rdpcomputing.in

Delta

13 www.deltapowersolutions.com

Interop

15 www.interop.in

salil.warior@ubm.com

CLS

17 www.crn.in/Isummit

anees.ahmed@ubm.com

TP-Link

33 www.tp-link.in

sales.in@tp-link.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.

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channel chief “We are a 100 percent channel company” Vishak Raman, Senior Regional Director, Fortinet, spoke to Ramdas S about the issues raised by partners in the latest CRN Channel Champions Survey. He also talked about trends in enterprise security One of the allegations made by some of your partners in the Channel Champions Survey was that you were aggressively selling directly to customers.

which some of the partners have faced. They blame it on the new FortiOS, as well as on the fact that you have lost some good technical resources.

We are extremely surprised by this allegation. We are a 100 percent channel company. In India we neither have the infrastructure nor the necessary tax registrations to bill any product. Even our professional services are billed by our partners. The only possible explanation could be that in the past couple of years we have built a strong team. This has increased our engagement with customers and may have created the perception that we are dealing directly with many of the named accounts. Our presence at the customer’s place is only to ensure that partners are enabled to close business. However, if there is such a perception we need to clear it among our partners.

In Q42012 we had a major upgrade in the form of FortiOS 5.0 to which we added as many as 150 new features. The migration for customers as well as partners was not easy, and once we recognized it we took cognizable steps to fix these issues. As of today we believe we have resolved all such challenges, and several customers have reported satisfactory roll-out of their new UTM hardware. We have not lost any tech support people, but I guess that such an impression may have been created because six of them traveled to the Middle East to handle some large projects as part of our professional services offerings. Today we have more than 20 tech specialists in the team.

The other allegation has been about nontransparency in deal registration.

Partners have complained that you were rigid in your special pricing and that as a result they lost many deals to the competition.

This again is unexpected. Just last year we implemented a comprehensive deal registration program which is integrated with our Salesforce.com platform. This has made the entire process from deal identification to approval or rejection to price clearances very transparent.

The third allegation has been that you poached employees from some of your leading partners. To the best of my knowledge, over the past two years, in a team size of 70 plus, we have hired just three people who have worked with our partners. Of these three, one person joined as a regional manager, and we hired this person based on approval from the partner. We also hired two technical team members; however, they applied for a job, and the sales team does not have a say in our technical team hire.

The fourth allegation is about the technical issues

“In India we neither have the infrastructure nor the necessary tax registrations to bill any product. Even our professional services are billed by partners” 18

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I do not believe we were or are very rigid with prices. At the same time we haven’t been offering huge discounts as many of our competitors have. We believe this impression has been formed because some of our competitors went very aggressive on some tender contracts where they gave discounts of around 80 percent while we were not willing to go below cost. We believe we are fairly priced for the features we offer on our product line. While price opportunism may get our competitors a few deals, heavy discounting eventually upsets channel hygiene, MOP and finally the margins of both the vendor and the partner.

Many of your leading partners said that all these issues were consistently escalated to Fortinet’s senior managers. However, there was no response. Whenever any issue has been escalated to me or my regional managers we have addressed them and resolved them. I cannot comment on specifics unless I know the right context.

What are the various channel initiatives planned by Fortinet during the next 6-12 months? Over the past 18 months we have made significant

channel chief investments in the country including enhancing our presales and technical support teams. Apart from a dedicated country manager driving the channel business we have appointed channel managers in each region and channel account managers in three Class B cities. We will continue investing as the market grows. Over this period we have increased our market and partner coverage. Today, we engage with nearly 300 partners. We are currently consolidating our existing channels, but at the same time we are open to new partner engagements. We have also recently set up the Fortinet Partner Advisory Council for which we have enrolled 10 tier-2 partners based on their understanding of the security business; our aim is to take their views and feedback on strategy, policies and programs. Going forward, all programs and policies will be based on the feedback received from the advisory council.

What are the challenges impacting your channels and how are you helping them to navigate these challenges? The biggest pain point for channels is the lack of quality manpower particularly in the information security space. To address this challenge we have hired a dedicated training manager and reduced the cost of certification considerably—for a 5-day intensive training, with all expenses paid, we are charging less than $500 per person.

How has Fortinet’s performance been in the last fiscal? The information security space is growing at a much faster pace than the overall IT industry. Last year India and Saarc grew 30 percent. As per IDC numbers, we rank second both in terms of unit and value in the overall enterprise security hardware market, just behind Cisco.

“We have set up the Fortinet Partner Advisory Council consisting 10 partners. Our aim is to take their views and feedback on strategy, policies and programs” Fortinet has launched professional services in India. Will you co-deliver them with channels or compete with them? As I mentioned, our professional services are billed through channels. We encourage our partners to get certified and offer the services themselves. Professional services have been rolled out specifically for those customers who are demanding exclusive Fortinet-led implementation services. These services are not cheap, and cost roughly $600 per person-day.

The information security appliance market is going through a major transition. What are the notable trends? One of the interesting trends we have seen is the demand from enterprises to opt for a single vendor to manage their firewall environment. The main reason for this is that customers expect cost and operational efficiency in managing their security infrastructure. Security buyers are also seeking products which can provide a combination of firewall options—such as next generation firewall, UTM, and virtual and stateful firewalls—to meet a wide range of enterprise needs from data centers to branch offices. Advanced Persistent Threats is a new jargon that’s caught on. New multi-vector attacks are designed in such a way that they are dormant after infiltration for a long time, and then exfiltrate data. Also, with Web applications on the rise, the need for specialized Web application firewalls increases. n

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special focus

The IT picture

Looking at it from a partner perspective, three words are sufficient to sum up the potential of the Indian media and entertainment industry: opportunity, opportunity, opportunity n Amit singh

ccording to PWC, the Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry is growing at a CAGR of 17 percent and is expected to top `1,76,400 crore by 2016 from `80,500 crore in 2011. “The digitization of TV and print, and the growing adoption of mobile apps and the Internet, are driving IT investments in the M&E segment. Today, every TV channel and newspaper is trying to reach out to a wider audience across different media,” says Aditya Rath, Associate Director, Strategy & Architecture Consulting, PWC. According to industry estimates, the M&E industry spent `1,130 crore on IT last year. This will increase with several new policies being rolled out by the government. For instance, the cable TV digitization drive by the government is likely to see more investments by cable network companies to update their networks. The four metros have currently been digitized, and nearly 55 more cities are mandated to be digitized. In addition, the impending auction of licenses for phase-III of FM radio channels is also expected to create more demand for IT solutions.

increasing proliferation of live TV apps. This has led to channels overhauling their core networks from 10 G to 40 G, and some large players have even upgraded to 100 G.” Insight recently executed a $2 million project for TV content provider Prime Focus which overhauled its data center to meet the demands IT infrastructure of HD content creation. With the increasing popularity of HD content, television “With many new TV channels coming with new organizations are investing heavily in state-of-the-art content, there is huge demand for servers, storage production facilities. Moreover, the digitization of and workstations for establishing rendering farms, content, the spread of the Internet, and mobile device where the animation and special effects on content proliferation for accessing content are necessitating are composed into a single frame. The demand for a robust IT infrastructure. rendering farm may range from 10-1,000 servers with “The dependence of TV channels on ads is slowly high-throughput storage needs running into petabytes,” decreasing as people are now paying for subscription to says Amod Phadke, CEO, FusionStor channels,” says Alok Sharma, Head, Technologies. M&E Division, Autodesk India & The digital distribution of movies Saarc. “As a result, the focus will be Sector snapshot and versioning them for online and on the quality of content. According Industry size*: `94,185 crore mobile media are creating significant to one estimate, the subscription Industry data: 7,000+ media companies opportunities for partners. Delhirevenue is likely to reach `22,400 based Compton Computers has crore by 2017 from `7,000 crore in Demographics: Pan-India been doing plenty of business in 2012.” IT spend: 0.5-1.2 percent of annual this space. “With the digitization Adds Neel Shah, Director, Insight revenue of movie-making and distribution, Business Machines, “Some 20-odd Opportunities: Media asset customers are using high-end channels have already gone HD, management, high-performance specialized equipment which is and many more are in the process. computing, workstations, storage, being integrated directly with Creating HD content requires TV archival solutions, post-production the compute infrastructure,” says and content companies to upgrade applications, information security, video Sandeep Vahi, Director, Compton. their infrastructure. The need for conferencing, online solutions In the past 12-18 months the high-performance computing and Source: PWC company has done several large storage has also increased due to the

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special focus “There is demand for servers, storage and workstations to establish rendering farms, where animation and special effects are composed into a single frame”

Case study: Insight Business Machines

Very radio active

Amod Phadke

CEO, FusionStor Technologies

projects. One of these, for Century Communications, and worth `3.5 crore, involved 120 TB of direct data network storage integrated with a digital film scanner. Another project, worth `4 crore, was for Pixion Media; this required the vendor to deploy and integrate editing machines, film projectors and the projector room set-up with sound-proofing. The forthcoming third phase of license auctions for FM radio, which will more than double the current capacity of radio stations, will bring in more business. “We have a good reputation in the FM radio market where between 2006 and 2009 we set up 144 radio stations for 18 FM companies. We have a strong partnership with AirCheck, an Australian provider of digital broadcasting solutions,” informs Shah. “The IT and allied technology investment required in each radio station is `70 lakh-80 lakh.”

Media asset management Media asset management (MAM) is a necessity among large and mid-sized media houses, especially TV channels and online players. “Since digital content has increased substantially and legacy content is being digitized, media houses need to archive it all for future reference. Video- and content-on-demand are also boosting the need,” comments Sumit Sood, VP, Middle East & Asia, Virtusa Corporation. “Ad agencies are also demanding MAM solutions because these help them to keep track of the ads created earlier. The ads are also useful as reference material, hence a document management system is handy for ad agencies,” says Pawan Khurana, CEO, QuantM Net Technologies. MAM solutions gel with archival solutions. “In the last one year we have done four projects where we integrated MAM software with tape libraries. The total project cost comes to around `1-2 crore, where the cost of the tape library ranges from `20-50 lakh,” reveals Manish Tandon, MD, Questa Software. Additionally, online business management in

“Companies like Book My Show and PVR Cinemas are spending heavily on their online business. An online business set-up project may cost about `50-60 lakh” Pawan Khurana

CEO, QuantM Net Technologies

umbai-based Insight Business Machines stepped into the M&E vertical as a system builder offering its Cinemax range of workstations to the likes of Yash Raj Films, BR Films and producers such as Harry Baweja in 1998. However, it soon wound up its system building business due to competition and moved on to branded workstations. Insight then started focusing on networking solutions and leveraged on existing customers in the vertical. “We partnered with Cisco and also started offering white-labeled storage boxes, and servers from IBM. This enabled us to get into the SI business,” recalls Neel Shah, Director, Insight. The company formed a team of eight sales and pre-sales personnel, and invested about `30 lakh in training and manpower. Insight adopted a unique strategy to collaborate with those entities offering consultancy to M&E customers. “This helped us to double our customer base and acquire clients across the Neel Shah country,” Shah says. The company also tapped a TRP company, Time Monitoring, and implemented a networking solution which led to bagging big names like Sony and Zee Network. Insight has also been successful in establishing IT infrastructure for private FM radio stations throughout the country. The company provided workstations, servers, networking and storage for 144 radio stations of 18 FM radio companies between 2006 and 2009. “We still manage the IT for six FM radio stations,” he informs. The company has large customers such as Sahara, Prana Communications, Century Communications, Quality Labs, Crest, Red Chillies and Prime Focus. “We have expanded our team strength to about 19, and the M&E vertical currently contributes about 16 percent to our overall business,” adds Shah. n

We have expanded our team strength to about 19, and the M&E vertical currently contributes about 16 percent of our overall business M&E is a big opportunity as media houses and online entertainment companies are focusing on the customer experience to drive traffic to their websites and generate revenue through online ads and paid content. Notes Khurana, “Companies like Book My Show and PVR Cinemas are spending heavily on their online business; purchases include server, storage and data center at the backend, front-end applications, as well as payment gateway, SEO, website management and BI tools. An online business set-up project may cost about `50-60 lakh.”

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special focus Case study: Compton Computers

Carving a niche

elhi-based Compton Computers entered the M&E industry in 2002 with a reference from an existing customer. However, the entry was not a cake-walk. Recalls Sandeep Vahi, Director, Compton, “IT vendors were not guaranteeing that specialized media software would run on their servers, hence we had to buy servers and test the software on our own. Moreover, the software required high-end networking with very high throughput which most networking vendors were not offering at that time.” The company got its first project in 2002 to establish five servers for Century Communications. “That project was a great learning experience because we created the PoC and tested the applications in-house. Creating the PoC and successful execution led to further orders of 25 and 80 servers from the same customer,” says Vahi. In 2007 the company tied up with storage vendor BlueArc. For networking it partnered with Force 10 in 2007 and with Extreme Networks in 2010. Says Vahi, Sandeep Vahi “The correct set of partnerships enabled us to offer appropriate solutions for the high-throughput needs of this vertical. Then in 2008 we bagged a multi year large project worth `50 crore from Century to establish a data center and supply film scanners.” Compton currently has customers such as Century, Eros, Reliance Media, Zee Network and Equinox. “The M&E vertical contributes about 40 percent of our total business,” discloses Vahi. n

The Century project was a great learning experience because we created the PoC and tested the applications in-house. Successful execution led to further orders Post-production software Post-production tools are used for animation, visual and sound effects, voice correction, 3D modeling, and content and page designing. “The demand for post-production software is increasing significantly due to HD content creation because there has been a spurt in movies high on animation and special effects. Gaming and cartoons are also boosting demand,” says Sharma. He points out that many international production houses are now outsourcing visual effects and animation jobs to post-production houses in India, and that this is generating more demand for animation tools and support infrastructure. “There is opportunity for selling licenses and integrating software applications with hardware infrastructure for post-production applications. Media houses spend anything between `1-`5 lakh or even

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“A project around DLP may cost about `20-25 lakh, whereas a comprehensive solution for website and data security may cost up to `1 crore” Vishal Bindra

CEO, ACPL Systems

more for buying licenses,” informs Harinder Salwan, MD, Tricom Multimedia. While information is being consumed through various media such as TVs, PCs, smartphones and tablets, it is also being transformed and compressed to enable streaming. Says Shah, “Post-production tools are being used to re-version the content for streaming to various media. A 5-minute HD video on digital cable may require space of up to 1 TB but can be compressed to 35-40 MB for Internet streaming.”

Information security Security players identify media houses as a great opportunity for information security, DLP and information rights management (IRM) solutions. “Publishing houses and channels are serious about availability solutions to keep their websites up and running. In-house, they are using DLP and IRM solutions to restrict access to confidential information,” explains Vishal Bindra, CEO, ACPL Systems. In the last one and half year the company has done five projects in DLP, IRM, data security and availability solutions. “A project around DLP may cost about `20-25 lakh, whereas a comprehensive solution for website and data security may cost up to `1 crore. Managed security is also a good opportunity which usually adds 25-30 percent of the project cost,” Bindra informs. MIEL e-Security has provided a data protection and ILM solution to Star TV for archiving digitized TV software. “The solution was deployed with a DR system to meet compliance and regulatory requirements,” informs Anuj Gupta, Director, Sales, MIEL.

Cloud Cloud adoption is currently slow in this industry, but partners expect the uptake to increase in the next couple of years. “Players who offer video-on-demand use compute and storage on the cloud to enable their services. This trend will percolate to the medium players,” says Vahi. On the SaaS front, customers are testing the cloud products of companies like Adobe, which offers the Creative Cloud with all pre-, post-production and designing tools. “About 32 users across 23 customers have signed up for the cloud offering. Creative Cloud is currently available at a discounted rate of `2,300 per user per month. It currently looks attractive and many are showing interest, but we are not sure about the sales next year when Adobe will increase the prices to `4,500 per user per month,” says Salwan. n

cover story

Every decision and action they take will have a major impact on the channel business. Presenting the 10 most influential channel leaders and listing out their priorities for 2013 n crn network

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cover story PRAMODH MENON, Managing Director Partner Business Group, Cisco, India & Saarc

ALOK OHRIE

Managing Director, Dell India

Watch the competition

Bring focus and stability

t’s been two years since Cisco launched its new partnerled GTM, and Pramodh Menon, MD, Partner Business Group, has done a good job of executing this strategy on the ground in India. Under Menon’s leadership, Cisco’s channel GTM has seen a significant increase in market coverage; its active partner base also rose from 1,400 to 2,700. As a result, the contribution of SMBs to its business has grown from 15 percent to 30. Remarks Gunjana Shah, Director, Insight Business Machines, Mumbai, “Menon took up the channel responsibility at a time when the market was slowing down. Cisco is no longer the company it was three years back when its focus was only routers and switches. Its portfolio and addressable market have increased significantly since then. Considering this, Menon has done a good job.” Partners say that the company has one of the best SMB programs in the country. “Cisco has created a fabulous white space in the SMB and mid-market, and is going allout to enable partners to tap these opportunities. Besides, some of its initiatives are motivating partners to build new specializations,” adds Shah. Still, going forward, a lot needs to be done by Menon and his team. Competition for Cisco is getting intense in its networking business, with HP, Juniper and Huwaei getting aggressive. “Both HP and Juniper have been extremely active over the past 12 months. They are enrolling and enabling partners, and providing support and benefits which are better than what Cisco is currently offering. Cisco needs to watch out,” cautions Prarthana Gupta, CEO, Cache Technologies. What’s more, Cisco’s collaboration and unified computing business hasn’t grown as per expectations, and it still hasn’t been able to gain traction for its server business. On the collaboration front the company has only recently started working on a channel strategy for its Tandberg range of products which is targeted at SMBs. Partners also want Cisco to consolidate the number of specializations and extend better support for new specializations. “Over the past two years, as Cisco ventured into new tech areas, there has been an exponential rise in terms of the certification a partner requires, and this has increased costs,” points out Gupta. “Cisco should consolidate its specializations and also provide more leads and hand-holding for partners investing in some of the new specializations.” n

Cisco’s collaboration and unified computing business hasn’t grown as per expectations, and it still hasn’t been able to gain traction for its server business

Partners believe that Ohrie, with his leadership, industry experience and credibility among the channel can help Dell to win the confidence of the channel

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lok Ohrie, MD, Dell India, will be the most watched channel chief in 2013. His move to Dell India took many by surprise—one, because Dell is going through an uncertain phase, and two, because nobody expected him to leave IBM as the STG business he headed was doing well. Ohrie’s big task is to bring focus and stability to Dell, and manage its transition from being a PC vendor to becoming an end-to-end solutions provider. In this the channels will be instrumental. While Dell has been working with channels for the past four years, it hasn’t yet been able to gain their trust. Also, in the past 12-18 months, Dell’s channel engagement and management have been in some disarray, with many channel managers leaving the company. This has resulted in an increase in direct sales and related conflicts which have further impacted channel confidence. Partners believe that Ohrie, with his leadership, industry experience and credibility among the channel can help Dell to win the confidence of the channel. “Ohrie is a veteran,” states Ajay Maitin, CEO, Graphic Trades, Patna. “He can help to create a channel-friendly culture at Dell, and that should also be his priority because if Dell wants to do well in India it has to work closely with channels.” Although Dell, through its various acquisitions, has all the pieces of technology needed to become an endto-end solutions provider, it has failed to do so. “Dell hasn’t been able to integrate its various acquisitions to create an end-to-end solutions stack which is easier to buy and sell,” says Vipul Dutta, CEO, Futuresoft Solutions, Delhi. Partners also want Dell to refocus on the PC business. “From being the largest PC maker Dell has slipped to the fourth spot today,” points out Dinesh Nair, Director, BigC Technologies, Bengaluru. “In its efforts to focus on the enterprise market it has defocused from its core PC business. Ohrie with his understanding of the Indian market will bring back that focus.” Many skeptics believe that Ohrie, having spent several years at IBM, will find it difficult to manage Dell which has a very different culture. They point out that Ohrie had earlier ventured out of IBM but eventually returned to Big Blue after short stints with EMC and AMD. n

cover story TUSHAR SIGHAT

PRAVEEN SAHAI

CEO, D-Link

Vice President, Channels, EMC, India & Saarc

Sustaining momentum

Give us more services

fter joining D-Link India as CEO in June 2011, Tushar Sighat has put the company on a highgrowth curve, nearly tripling its turnover from `127 crore in FY2010-11 to `353 crore by the end of FY2012-13. He has reinvigorated the D-Link channels which have seen significant growth of their business during the past two years. Remarks Chetan Kumar Timbadia, CEO, DC Infotech, Mumbai, “Before Sighat rejoined D-Link the company was struggling to grow. He aligned the internal organization to become more partner-focused and at the same time pushed the partners to achieve more. D-Link has acquired a new direction and focus under him.” Under Sighat’s leadership D-Link has expanded its portfolio, venturing into structured cabling, enterprise solutions and IP surveillance. On the consumer side, products with unique features have helped differentiation in a market that is becoming very competitive and fragmented due to the influx of several Chinese brands. “Sighat’s advantage is that he knows D-Link and its partner ecosystem inside out because he was among the first few employees of D-Link when it came to India. He has the pulse of the market in terms of which products will work and which will not, and how partners need to be motivated to deliver numbers,” says Ankit Desai, Director, CDP India, Mumbai. However, with strong performance comes stronger expectations. Adds Desai, “There is bound to be considerable internal and external pressure to maintain the growth momentum the company has acquired over the past two years. Secondly, while D-Link has done well on the SMB and consumer front, it has yet to make any significant gains in the enterprise segment though it has been trying hard to win deals.” Partners opine that D-Link needs to strengthen its enterprise portfolio and invest in smart marketing to find acceptability among enterprise customers. “Compared to the big networking players, D-Link still has a very limited portfolio. It also needs to work on improving its brand perception among enterprises,” opines Edward Jeevan, Director, Binary Systems, Bengaluru. Another big challenge is to improve D-Link’s postsales support which has received flak from partners. While D-Link recently announced a direct support initiative called D-Link Direct Service to address this challenge, many issues remain. n

Sighat has tripled D-Link’s turnover over the past two years. To sustain future momentum it needs to wins share in the enterprise networking market

The most important demand from partners is for EMC to strengthen its professional services delivery model through partners. This is where they can make more money

t’s been just over a year since Praveen Sahai took over as Vice President, Channels, EMC, India & Saarc, and during this time he has had many hits and a few misses. After he joined, he introduced a new partner strategy whereby he identified 27-30 focused partners with whom EMC works very closely. The rest of the partners, categorized as Growth partners, are managed by distributors. This strategy helped the partner-led business to grow manifold, with as many as 10 partners doing business of more than $1 million, 16 partners doing more than half a million, and 30 partners contributing more than $200,000. However, this strategy also created some discontent among some Growth partners who felt that they received less attention from EMC than they used to get earlier. They also felt that the distributors weren’t as aggressive in their channel enablement and engagement as they were expected to be. To Sahai’s credit, EMC took these partner concerns on board and has now devised a new value-add distribution strategy whereby distributors will be paid extra incentives based on the quality of partner enablement. The company’s products and solutions mix is by far the widest in the industry today. A key demand from channels is to continue to enable them for higher-end products for archival, disk-based archival, big data, cloud, security and scale-out NAS, among others. “EMC has done a creditable job in enabling channels in enterprise storage products. Now Sahai and his team need to enable channels to sell specialized information lifecycle management product lines such as Isilon, Data Domain and Greenplum, as well as the Flash product lines,” says Jagganathan N, CEO, Fourth Dimension Technologies, Chennai. EMC had promised more services opportunities for partners, but it still needs to deliver on that commitment. “The most important demand we have from Sahai is that EMC should strengthen its professional services delivery model through partners. This is where we feel channels can make more money,” says Vasudevan Subramaniam, CEO, New Wave Computing, Bengaluru. At the same time, partners do not want EMC to compromise on partner profitability at the cost of high growth. Says Deepak Jadhav, Director, VDA Infosolutions, Mumbai, “We would like Sahai to take note of the depleting channel margins in the last couple of quarters and address the issue immediately.” n

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cover story PRADEEP KHEMANI, Country Head

RAJIV SRIVASTAVA, VP & GM Printing and Personal Systems Group, HP India

Channels & SMB, HP Enterprise Group

Boosting networking

Ensure profitability

radeep Khemani, who has been heading HP Enterprise channels for just under four years, also manages the SMB business at HP. Though he keeps a low profile, partners acknowledge that he has managed the channels well through the transformation the enterprise business division has gone through. The next 12 months are critical for HP’s enterprise business because enterprise buying has slowed down globally. Cloud computing is impacting the bread-andbutter hardware business, and competitors such as Dell, IBM and Cisco are turning extra-aggressive. His biggest priority is to align his two dual functions to ensure that the partners’ SMB business grows. Partners note that that since 95 percent of HP’s SMB business is driven through channels, a common head for both teams could deliver more. “Khemani is on the right path, and he should ensure that his SMB team works with the partners’ sales teams throughout the sales process. With the enterprise market slowing, the SMB space is where HP can help the channels to grow,” says B Shankar, Director, Ashtech Infotech, Mumbai. Of the three components of the HP Enterprise Group, the company is the market leader in servers. With the launch of Project Moonshot, the updates to Proliant Generation 8, and its converged infrastructure portfolio, HP is in an advantageous position. On the storage front Khemani needs to do a bigger job in building a stronger story for channels. Remarks Ujjwal Mhatre, Director, Orient Technologies, Mumbai, “HP is not behind the competition in storage in terms of products or technology. However, to make it easier for us to sell, we need HP to build a larger image around storage to take on specialist storage vendors.” Partners are appreciative of HP’s aggression when it comes to cross-subsidized deals where the customer needs storage and servers. It’s in networking where HP is lagging. 2012 was not a great year for HP Networking with technical glitches, flaws in its GTM, and channel management problems. However, channels say that with Prakash Krishnamoorthy taking over the networking business, the aggression is back. According to Jayesh Mehta, Director, Futuretech, Bengaluru, “HP has ironed out most issues, and it also has a compelling product portfolio in networking. All the company needs to do is instill more confidence in channels to churn out more numbers.” n

HP has ironed out most issues, and it also has a compelling product portfolio in networking. All it needs to do is instill more confidence in channels to churn out more numbers

The biggest challenge the HP channel faces is that of profitability. HP needs to address the issues of over-distribution and overcapacity

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or Rajiv Srivastava, 2013 will be a very important year. Last year his main job was to execute the integration of the PC and printer business, and draft a new GTM for the combined division. This he did very well. “Srivastava has to be commended for the way he led the integration of the two divisions. It was smooth, and partners were regularly informed about the changes in policies and people,” observes Rajesh Tayal, Director, Computer Touch, Ambala. Under Srivastava’s leadership, HP has become more aggressive and responsive in the marketplace. “Being a channel-focused person, Srivastava is focusing on increasing interaction with partners, has created regional partner advisory boards, and has made it mandatory for the category heads to attend each of these advisory meets. This has led to swift resolution of partner issues,” remarks Paramjeet Singh Juneja, MD, Secant Technologies, Chandigarh. Srivastava was also integral in winning the UP government notebook tender, which, according to partners, will keep the company at the top position for the next couple of years. HP is the first company to win such a large deal single-handedly. Even so, partners say there is still a lot that Srivastava needs to do. According to them, the first issue he needs to address is that of falling partner margins. The profitability of HP’s business has come down drastically, especially for exclusive retailers. As a result, a few leading partners of HP have already decided to give up their HP Worlds in favor of MBOs. “The biggest challenge the HP channel faces is that of profitability, so HP needs to address the issues of over-distribution and over-capacity. Although the company is doing well on stock audits and giving price protection, a lot still needs to be done to achieve profitability similar to the competition,” states Juneja. Partners believe that over the past two years HP has lost its technology leadership in the PC market where, compared to Dell and Lenovo, it is slow to launch the latest products. Adds Tayal, “With the integration over and the new GTM and partner programs in place, HP now needs to focus on regaining its technology leadership. This not only means leadership in the PC and printer segments but also in new categories including the tablet space.” n

cover story AJAY MITTAL

RK AMAR BABU

Director, Systems & Technology Group, IBM India

Managing Director, Lenovo India

Big shoes to fill

Managing transformation

jay Mittal, who took over as Director, Systems & Technology (STG) Group, IBM, a few months back, has plenty on his plate. First and foremost he follows in the footsteps of Alok Ohrie, who is regarded as a tall leader. Second, Ohrie has joined IBM’s arch-rival Dell, and speculation is that many senior managers from STG are likely to join him. Third, IBM is in the process of transformation, and has declared its intention of exiting the xSeries server which has been the cornerstone of its channel GTM. This exit will impact IBM’s addressable channel market. Nevertheless, partners who know him well swear that Mittal is a focused and an aggressive sales leader with a no-nonsense approach and is perhaps the ideal person to lead IBM STG through its transformation. Observes Neel Shah, Director, Insight Business Machines, Mumbai, “Mittal is an aggressive sales and relationship person, and this characteristic will help him drive STG through the slowdown and impending transformation. His priority of course will be to stabilize the organization as there is too much speculation around the xSeries business and which senior manager will join Ohrie.” IBM is on a strong footing as far as most of the STG business goes. Its Power series is the only server platform growing in the RISC-Unix market. Pureflex has found acceptance among customers, and partners are happy with the traction seen so far. IBM’s GTM for storage has also been appreciated. According to partners, Mittal needs to focus on further improving the company’s channel programs and engagement. “The first thing I would like Mittal to review is IBM’s decision earlier this year to split its channel engagement into two teams—Channel Business Sales Specialists and Business Sales Specialists. He should also review the role of the coverage team from IBM General Business in partner-led accounts. There is no clear customer demarcation between all these teams, and as a result multiple partners and IBM reps are interacting with customers,” adds Shah. Partners also complain that over the past 6-8 months IBM’s decision-making around deal registration, rebate pay-outs and special price clearance has become timeconsuming. Says Suresh HR, Director, Central Data Systems, Bengaluru, “In the fast few months IBM has lost its market aggression and agility at a time when other vendors have become more aggressive.” n

Mittal takes up the new role at a time when IBM is planning to exit the x86 server market which is the mainstay of its channel business

Lenovo is moving beyond PCs as it moves into tablets and servers. Babu will have to lead and manage this transformation

nder RK Amar Babu, MD, Lenovo India has grown from strength to strength to become the PC market leader in 2012. 2013 is when Lenovo’s journey beyond being just a PC player begins, and Babu will have to lead and manage that transformation. At one end is the consumer segment where Lenovo needs to create a strong strategy to drive its tablets and smartphones. At the other end the company needs to make a mark in the server and storage space. So far none of the PC OEMs has been successful in the tablet and smartphone market despite efforts over the last couple of years. Still, Lenovo is keen to make its mark in this space which it defines as the PC+ market, and it has appointed an industry veteran to drive this business. Lenovo’s entry in the Indian server market in 2010 failed. Now, with its global CEO announcing servers and storage as key focus areas, Babu will need to draft a servers and storage GTM. Partners feel that the potential acquisition of IBM’s X-series could be a perfect fit for Lenovo and provide them extra price aggressiveness. “In 2008, when they launched their servers, things were different. Lenovo’s focus was then on the PC business and it didn’t have a large portfolio. But now if it launches servers it has a good chance of success since x86 servers are essentially commodity products and Lenovo has a better team now,” comments Prarthana Gupta, CEO, Cache Technologies, Delhi. On the channel front, skeptics say that Lenovo has too many exclusive stores—more than 1,200— which is double that of HP—across the country. Says Binay Rateria, Partner, Satyram’s, Raigarh, “With consumer PC sales slowing down, exclusive retailers like us want Lenovo to help us augment our business by creating demand for their tablets and smartphones. Amar Babu has assured us that exclusive stores will be integral to their GTM for smartphones and tablets.” While the consumer channel is happy with Lenovo, the commercial channel isn’t satisfied and is complaining about the lack of profitability. Remarks Gupta, “Lenovo should stop running after the No 1 spot and consolidate its PC business. Babu’s No 1 focus should be on increasing partner profitability, especially for commercial and relationship partners.” n

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cover story NIRAJ KAUSHIK, Senior Director, Commerical & Channel Business, Oracle India

ANAND NAIK

Managing Director, Sales, Symantec India

Need a clear GTM

Consistency to win confidence

iraj Kaushik, Senior Director, Commerical & Channel Business, Oracle India, has his job cut out in 2013 as Oracle tries to woo the SMB channel and embark on a massive market and channel expansion. So far the company has had limited channel engagement for both its software and hardware business acquired from Sun, and it also didn’t rate high as a channel-friendly company. Kaushik’s first challenge will be to overcome this image of Oracle in order to onboard partners. Kaushik has started 2013 on a good note with an aggressive channel GTM with its Remarketer program, and has reinvigorated its internal channel teams and also its distributors. It has simplified its channel engagement by creating a single-window approach which means that partners have to work with a single person for selling all Oracle products. Informs Manish Tandon, Director, Questa Software Systems, Mumbai, “Over the past six months Oracle has been aggressive in enrolling SMB partners to sell its software and hardware products. There is a new level of engagement, and they are working closely with partners on deals. It has also launched SMB-specific software products, and this is definitely helping to create traction in the SMB space.” Adds Vinod Menon, Director, Technology, Ashtech Infotech, Mumbai, “Kaushik and his team have become focused on partner enablement and specialization by organizing 1-2 boot-camps every month. They are enabling partners to up-sell and cross-sell Oracle. Moreover, Oracle has recently started offering MDF to help partners to do joint customer events.” While the start has been good, partners opine that Oracle has a long way to go to earn partner confidence. “Most partners are looking at how consistently Oracle will drive its new partner focus. Consistency is what will help win partner confidence,” states Tandon. On the product front, partners want Oracle to be more price-competitive with its x86 offerings and also increase its focus on storage. According to Menon, “While Sparc continues to do well in the Unix space, in the x86 server segment Oracle lacks price aggressiveness. Although the company has a strong storage portfolio it lacks customer mindshare.” Another demand, particularly from SMB partners, is for Oracle to allow them to offer annual technical support. “Oracle currently provides services to end-customers. Ideally this should be provided through partners because it will provide partners with more margins and customerstickiness,” argues Tandon. n

Most partners are looking at how consistently Oracle will drive its new partner focus. Consistency is what will help win partner confidence

Many leading Symantec partners had hoped that Anand Naik would bring focus and direction to the company’s channel strategy. Most of them are disappointed

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any leading Symantec partners had hoped that Anand Naik would bring focus and direction to the company’s channel strategy and partner engagement when he took over as Managing Director for India Sales in April 2012. Many of them have are disappointed. Naik’s biggest challenge has been the frequent churn in the channel team which has impacted the company’s consistency in partner engagement and restricted him in deploying a clear partner-led GTM, particularly for those focused on SMBs. Says Jiten Mehta, Director, Magnanimous IT Systems, Mumbai, “Symantec’s overall partner engagement has been on the downhill for the past couple of years so the expectations from Naik were huge. However, the slowdown and the constant churn of channel managers have perhaps limited him in executing his strategy during the past one year. Going forward he must make it his priority to work on the issues challenging partners.” Symantec is the largest security player in the country, and has a wide portfolio, hence partners expect the company to lead the way. “According to me, the key priority for Naik is to define a clear GTM for Symantec, which it currently lacks,” a long time Symantec partner comments. “Although the company has a large portfolio which includes data back-up, archival, and mobile device management, there hasn’t been much focus on enabling partners to sell these solutions. Many of us want to specialize in new areas—but we aren’t getting any support from the company.” Partners focusing on SMBs want Naik to improve the company’s engagement with them because they believe that in its efforts to bag large deals through large partners it has neglected the SMB channel. They opined that with customers no longer upgrading to new clients, the sales of client security has come down, which is why they want Symantec to help them with newer solutions, particularly data backup. Partners who know Naik well say he is resolute person and has been working silently to develop the team, align the internal structure, and put in place a strong strategy. According to them, Naik and his team have taken several of their concerns on board and are working to improve Symantec’s partner-led GTM. Some big announcements are expected in July. 2013 will be crucial for the company, and it is imperative for Naik to deliver on partner expectations. n

tech focus Delivering solid value Canon Color ImageClass MF8580 includes a color printer, copier, scanner and fax with network control, and Ethernet, USB and Wi-Fi interfaces n EDWARD J CORREIA

anon delivers solid value with its Color ImageClass MF8580Cdw Color Laser Multifunction printer. For a list price of $599 in the US, the 8580 includes a two-sided color printer, copier, scanner and fax machine with network control and Ethernet, USB and Wi-Fi interfaces, all standard. With its 40,000 page-per-month duty cycle, fast time-tofirst-page and fairly high paper capacity, it is suited for the small office or busy department. With its 17-inch by 19-inch footprint and 26-inch vertical clearance requirement, the 8580 stands a prominent figure. Its handsome black-and-putty design and sturdy look and feel instill confidence that the unit will outlast its 1-year warranty. For the cost-conscious home or small business, the printer automatically enables twosided printing and can tuck itself into a 2-watt sleep mode after a selectable number of minutes. It wakes itself for print jobs arriving over the network, but when making copies, a manual press of the sleeper button is in order. Canon ships the unit with its four toner or fuser cartridges pre-installed, and sings the praises of combining the two functions to save on maintenance time and increase convenience. We found helpful the messages displayed on the color LCD control panel during set-up prompting for the removal of protective tabs and toner tape materials before using the machine. Another nice touch was the panel’s offer to enable color correction and to connect via Wi-Fi, both by default. We declined the first and accepted the second. We later enabled color correction, with mixed results. Canon includes several useful features we’ve seen only on higher-end MFPs, including a secure print feature that holds print jobs until a unique number is entered at the control panel, and unique user IDs, which enable management to monitor usage and help

For the cost-conscious home or small business, the printer automatically enables two-sided printing and can tuck itself into a 2-watt sleep mode

limit costs and consumption. A trade-off is a lack of a PostScript driver; the unit supports PCL. The 8580 offers the usual scan-to-USB, server or email capability, and can accept walk-up print jobs through its frontpanel USB port for printing without a computer. Mobile devices can output to the printer using Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print and Canon’s own Mobile Printing application for iOS. An Android version is in development. It prints a maximum of 21 pages per minute when outputting letter-sized, single-sided pages in color or black. It lived up to its rating in tests, cranking out 21 of our black-only text pages and color with graphics pages in nearly the same time. We also tested Canon Easy-PhotoPrint for Android and discovered a few things about the printer in the process. We learned that the 8580 supports Ethernet or Wi-Fi, but not both at once. So to print from our Android test device required a trip to the control panel to switch from wired to wireless Ethernet. The app itself is handsome and responsive, and presents a simple, no-nonsense interface that gets the job done. Capabilities are limited to controlling the scanner and printing ondevice pics and scans. While on the subject of the control panel, Canon’s is nicer than most and offers more convenience. Dedicated hardware buttons along the top provide instant access to the unit’s primary functions of copying, scanning, faxing and direct printing, and LEDs on each indicate which function is enabled. A bright, backlit 3.5-inch LCD shows the corresponding functions and is easily navigated with smaller buttons and keys that surround it. We never had a doubt about how to do anything or where to find a particular setting, thanks to logically worded menus and concise titles. Along the right edge is a pair of programmable Scan-toPC buttons to which specific network destinations for scanned PDF, JPG and TIFF files can be assigned, plus copy and secure print keys. Well done Canon. For standard paper capacities, the 8580 offers a 250-sheet cassette plus a 50-sheet multipurpose bin. A second 250-sheet cassette is optional. The output tray holds 125 pages; duplex printing is standard. For the small office looking for an all-in-one with very good color and black print quality that won’t break the bank, the $599 MF8580 is worth a serious look. n

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tech focus Second chance

HP has relaunched the ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 with several new features and is confident of its market success this time round n EDWARD J CORREIA

ewlett-Packard is hoping the second time’s the charm. The company recently began shipping the HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8, an all-new version of the file sharing appliance for small business it introduced two years ago. With input from channel partners and customers, HP redesigned the desktop appliance, which it positions as a manageable alternative to NAS devices for workgroups of 10 people or less. The CRN Test Center had a chance to test the Wintel based device this week and found it to be a sturdy appliance that performed well beyond its $449 starting price. The first thing resellers are likely to notice are improvements to serviceability. Removing a pair of thumbscrews at the rear grants access to a completely redesigned motherboard, its memory slots and expansion slots. Replacing Gen7’s single AMD option, Gen8 offers a dual-core Celeron at the low end and Intel Core i3 (Ivy Bridge) in its top-end model. Its two DIMM slots double capacity to 16 GB of DDR3 ECC memory and speeds up to 1,600 MHz. Total storage capacity has increased to 12 TB from 8 TB. HP’s latest MicroServer also now provides two Gigabit Ethernet ports, which can be configured for failover protection or aggregated to double the available bandwidth. The new device maintains the same seven USB ports as its predecessor, but two (in the rear) are now USB 3.0 compliant, offering transfer rates as fast as 5 Gbps. The Gen8 device loses an eSATA port and a PCIe x4 slot, but keeps its PCIe x16 slot. Unlike prior generations, HP is now okay with allowing the 150-watt power supply to be replaced by a qualified service provider. And to prevent lost front-panel keys, the lock has been moved to the bezel; there’s also a Kensington lock port to secure the entire unit. The front panel is available in four colors and hides it four non hotswap drive bays. The tested unit was equipped with a 2.8GHz Intel Core i3-32220T dual-core processor, 8 GB of 800MHz DDR3 memory and two 2-TB SATA hard drives configured as a RAID 0 array. Testers were not particularly impressed

Replacing Gen7’s single AMD option, Gen8 offers a dual-core Celeron at the low end and Intel Core i3 (Ivy Bridge) in its top-end model 30

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with the Gen8 MicroServer’s Geekbench scores, but we’d chalk that up to its less than stellar Matrox G200 GPU. Testing was conducted with the unit set for its maximum resolution of 1,280x1,024. We downloaded Geekbench 2.4 from Primate Labs, which turned in performance scores that were never lower than 7400 and peaked at 7874. More impressive were the MicroServer’s transaction processing and throughput performance numbers, as reported by IOmeter 2006. Its two-drive array was able to crank out a peak transfer rate of 195 MBps and a sustained rate of about 187 MBps when tested with 32K packets. Perhaps more important is its ability to process transactions, which we measured at a sustained 43K IOPS with 4K packets and a steady 117K with 512-byte data. In most cases, the optimal transaction queue size was determined to be eight.

Second chance HP introduced the MicroServer in 2010, pricing it at $349 with an AMD Turion II dual-core processor and 250-GB drive. It saw moderate success in EMEA, but US resellers stayed away. “One of the reasons our channel partners have stayed away from this segment is because of the small revenue,” said an HP spokesperson, speaking of the shared-storage market for small workgroups typically dominated by NAS devices. “You have to be reasonably technical for NAS, so we thought that with a managed, easy-to-use, remotely deployable and manageable device, channel partners could have access to the segment and make it up in volume.” The ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 now includes support for iLO 4, the company’s Integrated Lights-Out embedded management engine, which makes it possible for service providers to remotely monitor, manage and configure the server. It also allows remote admins to mount media, install software and reboot, even if the machine is otherwise not responding to input. In addition to Windows Server, the HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8 also can be ordered with Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Suse Enterprise Linux Server; a VMware ESXi MN option is in the works. For its versatility of pricing and configuration, and the new ability to be remotely managed, the Test Center recommends HP’s latest ProLiant MicroServer for small organizations and departments. n

channel buzz

n Digilite partners

pose for a group photo in Phuket during the Digilite Channel Yatra

Digilite takes partnes to Thailand Digilite took 40 channel partners to Phuket, Thailand, as part of the Digilite Channel Yatra which was organized from June 16-18, 2013. The two night-three days trip to Phuket was packed with lots of exciting activities that included a visit to Coral Island, water sports such as undersea walking, and para-sailing. The highlight of the trip however was the Fantasea show. “Our channel partners and distributors are an imperative force behind the success of Digilite, and

n From right- Raj Jadhav, VP, Solutions, Consulting & Support and Pankaj Shukla, IT, D-Link, Paresh Shah, Partner, PH Teknow, Satabdee Hait, Partner, Technical Services, Cloud Solutions and Syed Jafar , PAM, Depth, West, Microsoft

PH Teknow discusses MS roadmap PH Teknow, the Mumbai-based solutions provider, recently conducted a customer event to discuss the technology roadmap of Microsoft products. More than 50 customers including Thomson Reuters, BPCL, Financial Technologies, Prince Aly Khan Hospital, Nirmal Bang Securities, US Interactive, the Mirah Group, Packt Publishing, and Shamrao Vithal Bank attended the event. Sanjay Panchal, Marketing Executive, PH Teknow, spoke about the history of the company and its future plans. Satabdee Hait, Partner, Technical Services, Cloud Solutions, Microsoft, gave an overview of new developments in Lync and SharePoint, and their different features. n

we consider them an integral part of our team. In appreciation of our partners’ support for making Digilite a huge success in India, this year we took them to Phuket,” explained Rajan Sharma, VP, Sales, Digilite. Manoj Kejriwal, Director, KBS Computer, said, “It was indeed a pleasure to be a part of the Digilite partner event. The trip came as a welcome break and gave us a chance to spend some quality time in Phuket in a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere.” n

n Tadahiko Sumitani, MD, Konica Minolta Business Solutions India, lighting the lamp at the annual partner meet

Konica Minolta’s meet at Ramoji Film City Konica Minolta recently concluded its third annual partner meet from June 13-15, 2013 at Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad. More than 90 channel partners attended the event. The annual meet is a partner engagement program where the top management of Konica Minolta communicates with partners about the company’s annual strategy. This year the theme of the meet was The Year of Challenge. Another objective of the meet was to share knowledge about new technology and product domains. Konica Minolta also recognized its performing partners—under its Perfect Partner Program—by presenting them with various awards. n

To feature your company’s events in CRN, send write-ups with photographs to editor@ubmindia.com

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New Products TP-LINK M5350 router

iBall 3G-7334i tablet

Ball recently launched its new tablet, the 3G-7334i, under its Slide series. The device comes with a 7-inch capacitive display offering 1,024Ă&#x2014;600 pixel resolution. It runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and is powered by a dual-core Cortex A9.1 GHz processor with 1 GB of RAM. The tablet features 16 GB of internal memory which can be expanded up to 32 GB on microSD. The tablet also offers dual cameras, with a 2 megapixel rear camera (with flash) and a front camera which can be used for video calling. In terms of connectivity, the tablet offers dual-SIM support both of which come with 3G compatibility. The 3G-7334i has Bluetooth and GPS/A-GPS and FM radio. It comes with a 3,000 mAh battery that can provide up to three hours of Internet browsing. Priced at `10,499, the tablet carries a 1-year warranty. n

Zebronics Zebpad 7c tablet

op Notch Infotronix has entered the tablet segment with its 7-inch tablet, the Zebpad 7c, which comes with a 5-point capacitive touch-screen display of 800x480 pixel resolution. The tablet sports a 1 GHz Cortex A8 processor, a Mali-400 MP 3D GPU, and runs on the Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The tablet also features a 2 megapixel rear camera and VGA front camera. It has built-in Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, and supports the 3G network via an external USB dongle. The tablet has a 3,200 mAh battery that allows three hours of Internet browsing. It sports 8 GB of built-in memory expandable to 32 GB through the micro SDHC slot. The Zebpad 7c is priced at `5,499 and carries a 1-year warranty. n

P-LINK recently launched its new 3G mobile Wi-Fi router, the M5350. The device combines the mobility of 3G broadband connections using its internal 3G modem and the flexibility of wireless 802.11n. It is powered using a 2,000 mAh internal rechargeable battery which is able to operate for 10 hours. The device can be recharged via a micro USB cable connected to a notebook, portable charger or adapter. Its internal microSD card slot has storage up to 32 GB and can be used as a portable hard drive. It sports a SIM slot supporting HSPA+3G broadband connections with download speeds up to 21 Mbps and upload speeds up to 5.7 Mbps. The device comes with a pebble-like design and OLED status display. The router is priced at `2,500 and carries a 2-year warranty. n

BenQ BL2411PT monitor

enQ has launched a 24-inch flicker-free monitor, the BL2411PT. The monitor features a 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio with 1,920x1,200 maximum resolution. Reproducing 100 percent sRGB color, it eliminates flickering at all brightness levels through its automatic eye protector sensor and anti-glare display supported by the Senseye reading mode, and prevents eye fatigue. The eye protector sensor automatically detects ambient light levels to help adjust the monitor brightness throughout the day. The eco sensor feature automatically switches the monitor to eco mode when it is moved away from the computer, and thus helps to save power. The monitor is designed with slim bezel technology for multiple displays, and has a touch control key and DP connectivity. The BL2411PT is compatible with Windows 7 and Windows 8. Its height adjustment stand allows the monitor to tilt, pivot, stroke and swivel. The monitor is priced at `25,000 and carries a 3-year warranty. n

The products featured here have not undergone any benchmarking or testing. The trailers contain information provided by vendors and distributors. To feature your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s products in CRN, send write-ups with photos to editor@ubmindia.com

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shadow ram Huge influx of fake batteries

n the past three months there has been a huge influx of fake notebook batteries into the Indian market across major brands including HP, Dell and Lenovo. Vendors have been quick to respond to this, and have issued warnings to their channels to beware of the counterfeit menace. HP recently issued an alert about a large quantity of fake versions of its 6-cell battery model KS 524AA entering the market, and has warned its partners to check the genuineness of the products before purchasing them. The company has also warned of strict action if any of its authorized channel partners is found selling fake products; it has even threatened termination of their contracts. Said an HP authorized volume partner in Bengaluru who didn’t want to be named, “The influx of fake batteries is so huge that there is suspicion that many authorized tier-2 volume partners of PC OEMs may also be involved. Most vendors have issued strict warnings and asked their partners to immediately report any fake battery they come across.” n

GET

Personal

“I would like to meet Nelson Mandela” Vijayant Rai, 43, is Director, India & Saarc, Nimsoft & Data Management, CA Technologies India. He has more than 20 years of experience in IT sales and marketing, and has worked in senior positions at Oracle, Trend Micro and HCL-HP If not in the IT industry: I would have been a doctor.

Vijayant Rai

Biggest passion: Sports, especially cricket and swimming.

Behind the wheel: It’s an SUV at the moment. I enjoy long cross-country drives. Gadgets I can’t live without: iPhone and iPad. Weekends are for: Catching up with exercise and sleep. Favorite holiday destination: Andaman & Nicobar islands. Hate the most: Double standards. Favorite movie: Blood Diamond. Favorite stars: Tom Hanks and Amitabh Bachchan. Role model: My parents. Ultimate ambition: To run a successful enterprise, and give back to society as well. Wildest thing I have ever done: Saved a child from a cobra attack. Thing I most want to do in life: Make a difference to the less fortunate. If I became the PM: I would invest heavily in strengthening our healthcare and broadening the education infrastructure for all to create a healthy, progressive and inclusive India. Celebrity I would like to spend a day with: Sachin Tendulkar. One person I would like to meet and why: Nelson Mandela. He epitomizes forgiveness, reconciliation, and the spirit of unity for the rainbow nation and the world. Deepest and darkest fear: That we will leave behind a world which is a lot poorer and less habitable for our children thanks to our rampant disregard and exploitation of nature. n — CRN Network

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