CRN India- April 15, 2011 by UBM India

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Dell to double retail footprint Dell India plans to increase the market coverage of its consumer business by expanding its network of Master Sales Affiliates (MSAs) and doubling the number of exclusive Dell stores in 2011. “In keeping with our strategy to expand market coverage, we will increase the number of MSAs from 35 to 42. We are also focusing on increasing the number of Dell exclusive stores from 50 to 100. Most of the expansion has been planned for upcountry locations,” informed Sanjay Yadav, Country Head, Retail, Dell India. Like Lenovo, Dell is planning to create, in class C and D cities, small format retail stores which have a lower break-even for retailers. Yadav said that over the past six months Dell’s retail portfolio has expanded, thus providing more opportunities for retailers and MSAs. “Apart from our PC portfolio, we now have a range of products such as flat panel display, printers, mobile phones and projectors. We are pushing these products through our consumer channel Sanjay Yadav because it gives them a bigger opportunity; also, they can up-sell and cross-sell to customers.” Dell’s contention is that in smaller cities, even SOHO and SMB customers tend to buy from retail stores. “There is a thin line between home and SOHO and small business in smaller cities where they buy from retail stores,” Yadav explained. “That’s why we have positioned our entry-level printers and even our SMB PC range Vostro at Dell exclusive shops.” He informed that starting last month Dell has launched a new initiative called Dell Empowerment Program aimed at improving consumers’ experience with and loyalty to the Dell brand. “The program works at two levels. At the channel level, it incentivizes partners for up-selling and getting repeat customers for various Dell products, while for customers the program creates a lasting engagement with specific loyalty programs.” n — Abhijeet Mukherjee

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Microsoft Intune with MSPs n sonal desai

icrosoft’s recent release, Intune, a new hybrid cloud and on-premise product, is a solution that brings together cloud-based PC management and end-point protection with upgrade rights to Windows 7. According to Sumeet Khanna, Director, Windows Client Business Group, Microsoft, “Intune consists of a set of infrastructure management tools that provide services such as asset management, software upgrades and patch management, event and incident management, client security management with an endpoint antivirus offering and even virtualization management. It is aimed primarily at SMB customers who don’t have a proper IT organization.” Microsoft has priced Intune at $11 per node per month which includes the management service as well as Windows 7 Enterprise upgrade rights. “Customers having Business, Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise versions of Windows XP and Vista can move up to the Enterprise version of Windows 7 for free by subscribing to Intune services. Discounts are available for customers with 250 and more PCs,” said Khanna. Microsoft plans to enable partners to offer managed services by using cloud-based Intune. “We will host Intune on our data centers and provide the managing console to partners. Partners can become managed service providers (MSPs) and earn services revenues,” he added. Paresh Shah, CEO, PH Teknow, a Microsoft partner, said that Intune offers partners regular revenue, customer loyalty and a complete portfolio of services. “Microsoft has the brand advantage, and to get into the market they can bundle Intune with other products and services because they already have more than 80 percent share of the

“Customers with Windows XP and Vista can move up to the Enterprise version of Windows 7 for free by subscribing to Intune services” Sumeet Khanna

Director, Windows Client Business Group, Microsoft

software market.” Shah believes that the free upgrade rights to Windows 7 is a good strategy: “When you consider the free upgrade option, Intune works out to be reasonably priced. I am sure that as Intune becomes popular, Microsoft will rationalize pricing as they have done with its other cloud offerings.” However Sandeep Salman, VP, Futuresoft Solutions, a Microsoft partner isn’t very optimistic and believes that Microsoft is yet to come up with a clear partner strategy for Intune. “Except a few partners, others aren’t aware of what Intune is. There is no clarity on how partners can benefit.” He also feels that the pricing for Intune is expensive. “I’m working on a project where I’m offering remote infrastructure management services by using another software hosted on Azure for `1,100 per endpoint per annum. India is a price-sensitive market and the cost of `450 per month is really expensive for SMBs. Mind you this is over and above the AMC that customers have to pay,” Salman opined. He further added, “Infrastructure management software from companies like Kaseya is platform-agnostic and supports all client and server OSes, while Intune supports only Microsoft platforms.” n

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contents

April 15, 2011 l Volume 4 Issue 24

Cover Story The academic buying season has just started. We list 10 business opportunities for partners in this space

20 NEWS Analyses

Channel Chief

Microsoft Intune with MSPs

Dell to double retail footprint

HP unveils cloud strategy

Microworld revamps distribution

Citrix plans channel facelift

Leo Apotheker, HP President & CEO, discusses his view of HPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s channel, the role partners will play in cloud computing, and how his software and sales background will help shape HPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new direction

14 Special Focus Digilink By Schneider: Win-Win? The Smartlink-Schneider deal took the industry by surprise. What lies ahead?

RAH strengthens distribution portfolio 13

Editorial 10 Opinion

Feedback

Shadow Ram

Get Personal

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Role Model Ajay Maitin, CEO of the Patna-based Graphic Trades, talks about the evolution of his company from a reseller of professional printers to a leading government VAR in the region

Tech Focus Mobile Malware A list of recent threats that have knocked on the doors of smartphone users around the world

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Microworld revamps distribution In a bid to be among the top three antivirus players in India, Microworld is revamping its distribution strategy. It is demarcating its strategies for SOHOs and small businesses (SBs), for SMBs and large enterprises. While it will continue to work with SIs for large enterprise accounts, it will appoint 12 RDs across India for the SMB segment, and 5-6 sub-distributors per state for SOHOs and SBs. Explained Sunil Kriplani, VP, Global Sales & Marketing, Microworld, “So far SOHOs and SBs contributed 70 percent, SMBs 20 percent and enterprises 10 percent to our overall revenue. Going forward we want to SOHO and SBs to contribute 50 percent of the overall revenues, and SMB and enterprise to contribute the balance 50 percent. Also, India contributed around 20-22 percent of our revenue in the last fiscal; we want to increase that to 30-35 percent.” The total addressable antivirus market in India is pegged at `1,000 crore, of which the SOHO and retail segment is estiSunil Kriplani mated at `200 crore and the corporate and SMB segments at around `800 crore. “At present our antivirus brand eScan has a market share of around 6-7 percent; we are looking to acquire 10-12 percent share by the end of 2012 and become one of the top three antivirus companies,” Kriplani stated. Microworld is building a vertical-specific sales team to cater to customers in the BFSI, government and telecom segments. “We are also upping the number of people in our enterprise sales team. In addition, the company has developed an annual training calendar for SMB and SOHO partners,” informed Kriplani. The company also wants to leverage the LFR market. It also plans to increase its marketing budget. “We will continue to advertise with the broadcast medium for the consumer segment. For SMBs and corporates, we will develop a connect with the CXO community,” averred Kriplani. n — Sonal Desai

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HP unveils cloud strategy n RAMDAS S

P will rebrand and revamp its enterprise data center strategy around cloud computing, including its go-to-market campaign through channels. To start with, existing blade system partners will soon be called CloudSystem partners, and the vendor is all set to unveil a range of products that partners can take to the market. The HP India team expects many of its existing partners to reposition their business model and transform it into IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS). While much of the exercise seems to be a rebranding of HP’s converged infrastructure (CI) and blade system matrix (BSM) architectures, the HP think-tank is quick to point out that several innovations are being added to the new HP CloudSystem. “It’s true that CloudSystem starts from the same premise and philosophy as CI. However, what we will be bringing to the table goes well beyond what we announced for CI,” said Santanu Ghose, Country Head, CI Solutions, HP. “CloudSystem integrates and automates system management, servers, storage, networking and security to address the challenges of today— the need to speed innovation, accelerate business processes, and reduce time-to-revenue. It will be the fastest route for customers to move to cloud computing.” According to Ghose, many new solutions have been added to HP CloudSystem; many of these have originated from HP Labs, a few have been borrowed from HP Software. HP has updated a set of tools under HP Thermal Logic which helps partners plan, automate and deploy power and cooling infrastructure in a data center. To reduce floor area within a data center, HP will release new versions of its ‘Everything Bladed Approach’ for entire stack of servers, networking and storage line of products.

“ITaaS is a reality, and our plan is to help some of our partners to transform their business into an ITaaS model” Santanu Ghose Country Head, CI Solutions, HP

HP will announce a new product line under the HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric series of routers and switches. The ensemble would have products from HP Software and tools from ArcSight, to be used for managing security and monitoring events. There are even updates to HP’s server management tool (shipped along with Proliant servers) that can help customers start off on the path to cloud computing. “We will integrate other tools that help customers to manage, secure, orchestrate and provision cloud-based services,” Ghose added. “In other cases, such as for core virtualization platforms, we have forged strong relations with Microsoft, VMware and Citrix to build complete packages for partners and customers.” Ghose said that HP will start working with the top 25 blade system partners, and will soon launch the CloudSystem Partner Program. “ITaaS is a reality, and more customers are looking forward to the new approach. Our plan is to help some of our partners to transform their business into an ITaaS model. It’s a long haul, and we are at the beginning of an exciting journey. We are seeing much traction for cloud computing in India, especially among SMB customers in tier-2 cities, and partners do have a role.” n

edit opinion Volume 4, Issue 24

Learning, earning dhaval valia

he Indian education market is pegged at between $50 billion and $80 billion for 2010 by different independent research agencies. According to various estimates, it’s also set to grow at a CAGR of 10-12 percent over the next five years. A study commissioned by MAIT says that over the past few years technology penetration in the education segment has resulted in an IT market opportunity estimated at `10,000 crore. The biggest drivers for growth in the segment are the several government initiatives which have been announced over the past few years. Since early 2000, every budget has increased the outlay for education. The introduction of special revenue generation efforts such as the Education Cess, separate outlay for rural education, and the recent Right to Education Act have been progressive steps taken by the government. In the last union budget there was an allocation of nearly `30,000 crore for primary education alone. Overall, the government has increased its plan allocation for education by 16 percent in the last two budgets. Apart from these, through the UGCE and other schemes as part of both the central and state budgets, an estimated `50,000 crore is expected to be spent on education by the government this year. After the government relaxed the rules for the privatization of education a number of investments have been made to set up private universities. There has also been an increase in the number of corporates and their promoters investing in education as part of their social responsibility. The Azim Premji Foundation has announced investments of $1 billion in various initiatives in education. The Vedanta Group is another example; it has earmarked `500 crore for investments in rural education, including the setting-up of 3,000 Anganwadis. These investments, coupled with technology at the core, will revolutionize the education segment. The entry of foreign schools and universities will raise the technology bar among private Indian educational institutes. Already, many schools having collaboration with international institutes are investing in advanced solutions. A few of them are investing in collaboration platforms to connect students across their schools in the country to their international affiliates. Most partners today are only leveraging the traditional IT opportunities in the segment by providing PCs, IT infrastructure and services. While this pie will continue to grow, bigger opportunities may lie in providing emerging solutions, but this would require a focused approach to the education segment. For now, we present the top 10 IT opportunities you can leverage this back-to-school season. n

E-mail CRN Executive Editor Dhaval Valia at dhaval.valia@ubm.com 10

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Managing Director Printer & Publisher Director Group Commercial Director Executive Editor Contributing Editor Assistant Editor Principal Correspondent

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4/7/2011 12:01:46 AM

edit opinion Leadership in the industry Robert Faletra

eo Apotheker, HP’s CEO of just a few months, stepped into the spotlight recently in an interview with CRN and in a separate presentation to investors where he began to set forth what the future of HP looks like. He clearly sees a future driven by the cloud and mobility, and very different business models that revolve around service—a future that is solution service-oriented and very different from the one currently driven by product development and delivery. But what interests me most about the Apotheker comingout party is its contrast and potential. First the contrast. Former CEO Mark Hurd was more about cost-cutting and efficiency than driving technology innovation. In his defense, it’s perhaps what was necessary for the time, but Hurd missed an opportunity to be more than a CEO focused on the immediacy of the job. As CEO of the largest computing company in the world, there are some advantages that come along with the position. When the leader of a $130 billion company makes a comment on where the market is headed it carries more weight than when a player a quarter of that size makes a statement. This industry has largely lost many of its dynamic visionaries. The newly-minted entrepreneur billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sergey Brin of Google are smart and have built amazing companies, but they are not driving the public discussion. Bill Gates was a master at it. Even if Microsoft was late to the game, Gates could steer the discussion his way, and the market would react and often wait for Redmond’s answer. Cisco became a dominant force in its category because John Chambers would see the opportunity in the market that no one else did. He still carries enormous weight, but Cisco’s size is a fraction of HP’s. Certainly, Steve Jobs still fits the visionary market leadership role, but Apple’s lineup is focused on consumer electronics. Apotheker holds the reins to a company that one could argue is more important to the channel than any other player. The size and importance of HP give him a power that he certainly didn’t hold when he ran SAP. He made a statement in his CRN interview that shows he’s aware his channel partners can influence customers. The new CEO of HP has the ability to steer his channel partners in a particular direction. They, in turn, have enormous influence over the customer base. Apotheker can also steer the discussion around business models and technology. That’s a very powerful position to be in, and leveraged properly, could be very interesting to watch. n Email Robert Faletra at robert.faletra@ec.ubm.com 12

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Sunil Dutt exits HP Sunil Dutt is an icon personality and will always be. It is the vision and mission that makes a person a leader and it doesn’t matter whether he belongs to IT or telecom. His vision and mission to transform the IT business has been outstanding. However, for every change there are a set of people who are opposed to it. Many people who felt threatened by the changes made by him would celebrate his exit from HP. Now they will continue their own old way of doing business. In fact, these partners should be worried about their own future rather than worry about the future of others. Jatin Sharma Sharma Electronics, Kangra

The distribution model introduced by Dutt has helped the channel. Under Dutt, HP has become very aggressive and has become quick in reacting to market situations as compared to

the past. However, I believe Dutt should have continued with the same IT partners to implement his new business model rather than bringing in telecom partners. It’s always better to let the same channel continue in every industry as experience always counts and channel partners who have pioneered their markets shouldn’t be superseded by new entrants just because they have financial muscle. Reeta Budhay Business Algorithms, Nagpur

Finally! We have all been waiting for the past one year. Now what will the future of core telecom partners be? Will HP commit the same mistake of continuing with the core telecom partners? Dutt’s decision to bring in telecom partners was the worst decision. Undisclosed India Computers, Ludhiana

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

Infotrend

2 www.infotrend.in

Microsoft

3 www.microsoft.com/india/visualstudio

Rashi Pheriparals

Compuage

7 www.compuageindia.com

info@compuageindia.com

Fujitsu

9 www.fujitsu-india.com

info@fujitsu-india.com

Dell

11 www.dell.co.in

dell_enquiries@dell.com

Texonic

23 www.texonic.com

info@texonic.com

Symantec

34 www.symantec.com

Mega Networks

HCL

36 www.hclsmb.in/partners

hclpartners@hcl.com

Unistal

36 www.unistal.com

marketing@unistal.com

Biz Secure

sales@indiaantivirus.com

Zyxel

37 www.zyxel.in

info@zyxel.in

Riverbed

www.riverbed.com

marketingindia@riverbed.com

Iomega

www.iomega.com/nas

indiasales@iomega.com

www.rptechindia.com

sales@infotrend.in scandisk@rptechindia.com

www.meganet1.com

www.indiaantivirus.com

starting line Citrix plans channel facelift n RAMDAS S

“Our immediate goal is that existing partners upgrade their skill sets and are able to build a profitable practice around Citrix”

itrix India is realigning its channel strategies now that market acceptance for desktop virtualization is growing beyond enterprise customers. It plans to upgrade several of its Citrix Solutions Advisors (CSAs) to Citrix Light House Partners (LHPs) over the next few months. The company has also roped in Avnet Technology Solutions as a VAD. Earlier, in 2009, Citrix had announced plans to double its partner base to target SMBs. The plans did not work. “The market was not mature, and getting partners ready for a major push was not the best move,” explained Sanjay Deshmukh, Area VP, Citrix India. “Hence, in Q12010, we consolidated the partner network to around 12 LHPs and 20-25 CSAs. We focused most of the business on the LHPs, worked hand-in-hand with them, and went after the 500 large enterprises in the country.”

Sanjay Deshmukh Area VP, Citrix India

While the CSAs were allowed to quote for and sell Citrix products, the marketing dollars were spent only on LHPs. “Now we want to work closely with our existing CSAs and upgrade most of them to LHPs. The market has grown, and many of the CSAs address customers who are actively thinking about the cloud and virtualization.” Deshmukh said that while the company would add more CSAs, there is no number target. “Our

immediate goal is to ensure that our existing partners upgrade their skill sets and are able to build a profitable practice around Citrix. With the market growing, new partners will join, but we are in no hurry.” On adding Avnet as a VAD Deshmukh said, “We are very happy with Redington. However, as we empower more CSAs, we need another VAD who can help partners with the entire lifecycle of selling and deploying solutions on top of the Citrix product line.” He brushed away allegations that Citrix has lost its focus on server virtualization and left the market for VMware to dominate. “I admit we haven’t been aggressive on server virtualization. We have the best stack of solutions across all virtualization platforms, and with our application acceleration product line we can be the best end-to-end virtualization provider for any customer. This would be our biggest marketing pitch this year.” n

RAH strengthens distribution portfolio

resources and infrastructure related to pre-sales, channel management and post-sales. Plans are afoot to increase the sales team,” said Ashok Kumar, CEO, RAH. The company will look for tier-2 partners in states such as Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra

where infrastructure projects are underway. “Our strategy is clear: we do not want to do run-rate products so we won’t sell products like PCs and printers,” Kumar said. There will also be emphasis on strengthening post-sales. Informed Kumar, “Besides a toll-free number, a senior person will monitor the time taken by our regional teams for postsales resolution. While all the product replacements will be off-the-shelf, in rare cases when it has to be sent to a service center the TAT will be two working days. We have tied up with Kingfisher Airlines so that products are air delivered to customers in metro cities within eight working hours.” With this expansion in mind, RAH implemented all the 12 modules of SAP B1 in 2010. In addition, RAH is planning to develop partner and customer portals. n

Computer Reseller News

n Sonal Desai

“We will invest `50 lakh per brand in resources and infrastructure related to pre-sales, channel management and post-sales”

elhi-based RAH is betting big on value-added distribution of active networking, wireless and network security. The company is aiming at `15 crore in turnover for the current fiscal year from the distribution business. It expects active networking to contribute `6 crore, network security `5 crore, and wireless products `4 crore. RAH currently distributes UTM appliances from Astrao, and wireless and wired networking products from Maipu, SMC Networks, Microtik, and Alfa Network. It plans to sign on five more vendors in 2011. “This year we will focus on building our pure channel-based value-added distribution business. We will invest `50 lakh per brand in

Ashok Kumar CEO, RAH

15/04/2011

www.crn.in

channel chief “We will make sure that partners have a great future with HP” In a recent interview, HP President & CEO, Leo Apotheker, discusses his view of HP’s channel, the role partners will play in cloud computing, and how his software and sales background will help shape HP’s new direction You’ve been meeting with HP partners. What opinion have you formed of the HP channel? It is no secret to you that our channel partners are a huge asset to HP, and I had the opportunity to reconfirm at every meeting how important the channel business is and how important the channel business will remain for HP. I heard good feedback from our channel partners. They really enjoy working with HP, which is good. Like in any relationship there is always something you can improve, and that came out as well. The first message I wanted to convey to them is that, for HP, the channel partners are a strategic asset and we will do whatever we need to do to make sure that they have a great future with HP.

In the light of your software background with SAP, tell us a little about your future vision for HP and its channel partners. Let me point out that HP already has a very powerful software portfolio. Take the security portfolio that we have which is extremely relevant. As I pointed out to the partners in our discussions, security is top of mind for everyone on this planet, and it is growing exponentially. I also told our partners that I believe that their business model needs to evolve over time and should move more toward providing solutions to their customers so that they can broaden the kind of business relationship they have with their customers. Be it vertical or horizontal, that is up to each partner to decide what they would like to do.

“Partners should change their business model so they work with the customer of the future, not with the HP of the future. It is a customer-centric world out there, not HP-centric” 14

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15/04/2011 www.crn.in

What’s your message to partners about the cloud? I have said this many times—that the cloud is different for everyone, and that the pervasive business model of the future for the cloud is going to be hybrid clouds, some private clouds, and some public clouds. What is going to change is the engagement model that people will have when they are going to have to deal with the cloud. This means they need to have a more service-based business model. My advice to channel partners that I met was: ‘Guys, look at your business model, look at the value-add you provide, see how you can scale this with the help of the cloud. Because if you don’t then you are going to end up doing maintenance and not future business.’ It might take 10 years. It might take five years. It might take three years. That is a different discussion. I don’t know when.

So how do partners have to change their business model to make sure they are going to work with the HP of the future, the HP that you are building? Actually, can I say this slightly differently if I may? They should change their business model so they work with the customer of the future, not with the HP of the future. Both HP and the channel partner would like to service the customer. At the end of the day, it is a customer-centric world out there, not an HP-centric world, and I think they have to adjust to that. So what are the major things happening? Talk about mobility, talk about the cloud, talk about all of these various intersection points. That is where the future of our channel partners needs to gradually move toward. Because at the end of the day, that is what the

channel chief world will want from them.

The call to action for partners then is a call for innovation from the partners. What is your channel vision? My channel vision is to turn the partners into a proactive force that innovates business models, go-to-market models and service models where we all share the overriding objective to make the channel and HP truly delight our customers.

What are your plans for growing, emerging markets? As I have said on numerous occasions, I personally have a real issue with the term ‘emerging markets.’ I will tell you why. It is hard to describe a country which has a 4,000-year history as ‘emerging.’ It is not like they kind of popped out of the ocean. For example, China is one country where people who are literate can read the original text of the first written text in Chinese in the original version. They might not understand every Kanji character, but they can still read it, and that is pretty impressive. That is why I have an issue with the term ‘emerging.’ Fast-growth markets are top of mind of course. This is an area where HP is already pretty active, but wants to be way more active, which is why, when I go to these markets, I never miss the opportunity to meet at least once with a group of partners.

What’s the biggest misconception about you?

“Even at SAP, where I built probably the world’s best direct sales force, it was hugely leveraged by channel partners. Without the channel partners, SAP would have never become what it became” I know that many people in the channel were afraid that I was known to be a direct sales, proprietary, get-out-ofmy-way kind of person. That is totally untrue. Even at SAP where I built probably the world’s best direct sales force, it was hugely leveraged by channel partners. Hugely leveraged. Without the channel partners, SAP would have never become what it became. Not even close. So I have always worked with partners, and if I could use this opportunity as I am talking to you I want to convey the message again and again that I embrace channel partners in any language you would choose.

One of the big things partners are concerned about is whether you will be involved in account engagement like your predecessor was. Yes. I am a sales guy at heart. I carried a bag. So I sympathize with these people. So they can call. And I told them that in all of our meetings. ‘Here is my number. Here is my e-mail. If you need help, call.’ We will do whatever we need to do to help these guys sell. n

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channel chief “We need to correct our India go-to-market strategy” On a recent visit to India, Andrew Miller, President & CEO of Polycom, spoke to Dhaval Valia about the company’s partnership-led GTM, how video is moving out from the boardroom, Tandberg’s acquisition by Cisco, and Polycom’s India plans Is this your first visit to India? What’s on the agenda? I have been to India several times before, but this is my first time after joining Polycom. There are three main reasons for my visit. The first is the launch of our first Executive Briefing Center in India at Delhi. This is the 16th such briefing center globally, one that displays the entire bouquet of Polycom’s unified communications offerings along with our partners’ offerings. We had an impressive launch with 100 of our top partners and customers from around India participating. The Executive Briefing Center requires significant investment and is indicative of the importance we attach to the Indian market. The second reason was to visit our development center in Hyderabad. Several new technologies and products are being developed at our center there. I met up with the product engineering teams to discuss our future technology roadmap. The third reason was to get a first-hand experience of the domestic marketplace, and meet with our India sales and marketing teams, partners and customers. I am taking a lot of feedback and inputs from this visit; these will help decide the future course of Polycom’s India strategy.

Could you share some of the key learnings you are taking with you? How will they help develop a growth strategy suited to India and its market characteristics? Many companies make the mistake of looking at different markets through the lens of the US market and customers there. They deploy their GTM strategies in regional markets based on their US experience. My learning from this visit clearly indicates that we need to course correct our go-to-market. India in terms of growth opportunities is unparalleled. For a country

“India is a vast market which is valueconscious. This means we have to provide products and offerings at the right price or develop new offerings that are affordable to the Indian SMB marketplace” 16

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that has been starved of good broadband connectivity, the 3G and LTE rollouts are expected to drive the largest broadband infrastructure build-out within the next five years. This spells great opportunity for a unified communications and visual collaboration company like Polycom. We expect a manifold increase in video-based services across industry segments, and hence we need to be market-ready for this massive opportunity. The other learning is that India is a vast market which is value-conscious. This means we have to provide products and offerings at the right price, or develop new offerings which are affordable to the Indian SMB marketplace. That is exactly what our Hyderabad development center is working on—developing nextgen technology solutions and services for the cloud, mobile and broadband which are suited for Indian SMB customers in terms of price-performance.

channel chief How do you rate Polycom’s performance in India? We have done well in India and are a clear market leader. We have over 50 percent market share in the video conferencing space; in the government it exceeds 75 percent. We have the most deployments of telepresence in the Indian government segment compared to any of our competitors. We have also built a unique partnership with Reliance to set up public video rooms across 250 locations. This has made video conferencing more accessible to consumers and SMBs. We have developed a unified communications solution for the Indian BFSI segment. It has been deployed with leading organizations, and is now being rolled out to other international markets. We are piloting a very ambitious project with the Indian government in the education and health care segments; the project has reached an advanced stage. Thus, India has been a well performing market for Polycom, and we have been at the forefront of developing new applications and driving new opportunities. But are we happy with the overall growth of the video conferencing, unified communications and collaboration market? The response to that is no. India still has huge potential waiting to be realized. Visual collaboration has great relevance for a country like India where there is immense emphasis on creating equal opportunities for people in terms of access to health care, education and employment.

There has been speculation about Polycom being acquired. Do you think that a pure-play company of your size can compete against a networking giant like Cisco? Last year when I took over as the CEO of the company I had clearly stated that Polycom is not for sale. Even today that is my position. We are proud to be the largest publicly-traded unified communications company in the world. Polycom’s business model of creating partnerships has worked very well for us. Today, we work with what we call the Big 8 partners: Microsoft, HP, IBM, Avaya, Juniper, McAfee, Riverbed and Siemens. Most of these companies compete with Cisco, just like we do, and they don’t have a unified communications portfolio, which makes the partnership stronger and mutually beneficial. In addition, the partnership-led model helps us to work shoulder-to-shoulder with these companies. Their sales initiatives, combined with ours, increase the addressable market opportunity multifold. The stock market too seems to like our go-to-market;

“The stock market too seems to like our go-to-market; that’s the reason our stock prices have risen by 83 percent in the last 12 months”

“The Tandberg acquisition has been the best thing that happened to us because it created this market perception of Cisco versus everyone else” that’s the reason our stock prices have risen by 83 percent in the last 12 months.

You were the CEO of Tandberg and have spent a very long time at Cisco. How do you analyze the acquisition and integration of Tandberg by Cisco? The Tandberg acquisition has been the best thing that happened to us because it created this market perception of Cisco versus everyone else. I don’t think the integration will be an easy process. Both companies have very different cultures. One is a Norwegian company while the other is a typical Silicon Valley company. The integration of people is the biggest challenge in acquisitions of this size; transitioning technology and products is another issue. This has created a window of opportunity for Polycom. As Cisco integrates Tandberg, we are winning market share. In 2010, we gained 2 percent market share from Cisco.

While Cisco is talking about unified communications, collaboration and ubiquitous video, Polycom is still talking about boardroom video conferencing. Customers don’t view you as anything more than a video conferencing company while Cisco has a large architecture play. That is exactly the misperception we are trying to address, and the opening of the Executive Briefing Center in India is a step in that direction. You need to walk into this center to see the wide range of unified communication and visual collaboration solutions and services we offer with our partners. We, along with our partners, have unified communication applications across various verticals such as government, retail, education, BFSI and health care. Video is moving out of room-based conferencing and becoming ubiquitous and client-agnostic. Visual collaboration is about being anywhere and using any device. Polycom is a software company, and we have the best unified communications software platform. That’s exactly what we have been leveraging. We have created strong partnerships with tablet manufacturers such as Samsung and Motorola; our visual collaboration client is natively available on Galaxy Tab and Zoom. In India, to reach the vast base of SMBs in rural areas, the best way is to put our software on the telcos’ networks and deliver visual collaboration as a service. n

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special focus DIGILINK BY SChneider: WIN-WIN? The Smartlink-Schneider deal took the industry by surprise. What lies ahead? n SONAL DESAI

he recent acquisition of Digilink structuring cabling business, owned by Smartlink Network Systems, by Schneider Electric for `503 crore took the industry by surprise. The transaction includes the Digilink brand and trademarks, the manufacturing facility at Goa, the distribution network and employees. Smartlink has also agreed to a non-compete condition for five years for the passive networking business. Many have questioned the reasons for Schneider’s costly acquisition. Schneider paid close to 3.25 times Digilink’s CY2010 revenue of `155 crore, which many in the industry believe is high. Schneider thinks otherwise. “The acquisition is right for us and has come at the right time. Energy is turning digital, and hence the association makes the two technologies—structured cabling and energy management—complementary. Digilink products are closely associated with the IT business and the lifespace business of Schneider Electric. It makes the offering complete and competitive in the Indian market, and forms a strong value to data centers,” explains Manish Pant, Director, Strategy & Alliances, Schneider Electric India. With the manufacturing facility of Digilink, Pant says Schneider is also looking at a strong export opportunity. “We expect the structured cabling market to continue to grow fast as Internet penetration continues to rise in homes and IT continues to be a strong enabler for productivity improvement. For our Lifespace business we have one manufacturing facility in Vadodara. The manufacturing facility and development center of Digilink in Goa is going to be key to the network connectivity business for the Asia Pacific. We would look at export opportunities in the Asia Pacific, Russia, Brazil and Middle East,” he says. Digilink is Schneider’s fourth acquisition in the last two years in India, and the second in the area of IT. These

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include Conzerv Systems, provider of energy efficiency solutions, in June 2009; two electronic security system business units of Mumbai-based Zicom Security Systems for `224 crore in March 2010; Meher Capacitors in August 2010; and a majority share acquisition in data center rack manufacturer APW President Systems in January 2011. There has also been recent speculation about the company acquiring Indian industrial and home inverter company Luminous. Some analysts have also begun to see the merit of the acquisition for Schneider. “Schneider, due to its focus on the electrical distribution and building automation business, is better entrenched in the commercial and residential realty sector which is emerging as the biggest consumer of structured cabling products. It can drive this connect to push Digilink in this segment. In addition, they have a strong presence in sectors like utility and government which could also help create strong crossselling for Digilink. On the other hand, Digilink has a strong position in the government and education segments, and in the private sector in the SMB segment,” opines TR Madan Mohan, Managing Partner, Browne and Mohan. Mohan believes that as with the earlier acquisitions, Schneider will continue to retain both brands by coining

“The manufacturing and development center of Digilink is going to be key for our network connectivity business. We would look at export opportunities in the Asia Pacific, Russia and Brazil” Manish Pant, Director, Strategy & Alliances, Schneider Electric India

special focus “Schneider has a strong presence in sectors like utility and government which could also help create strong cross-selling for Digilink”

“Our financial and operational strength now allows Smartlink to accelerate its growth by pursuing inorganic growth opportunities and investing in new and evolving businesses”

TR Madan Mohan, Managing Partner,

KR Naik, Executive Chairman, Smartlink Network

Browne & Mohan

‘Digilink by Schneider’ branding. “While using the mother brand it will retain Digilink as an associate brand for recall intact. This has been a proven strategy for Schneider in all the acquisitions.” For Smartlink, the sale of its flagship Digilink brand will give it and its promoter KR Naik the essential funds to execute their inorganic growth strategies. It will also help to firm up their new active networking brand Digisol, their RMA business under the Digicare brand, as well as their plans to venture into other IT product categories. In addition to the windfall of `503 crore, the company already has a strong cash reserve of `152 crore. Naik has already stated that Smartlink is actively looking at prospects and has already appointed a financial consultant for the same. The company is looking at acquiring companies having hardware products in the 3G and 4G segments. In addition, it is planning to introduce other IT peripheral and component products. For its Digicare brand the company has announced plans to double its RMA and service centers from 53 to 100 in the next 12 months. “Our financial and operational strength now allows Smartlink to accelerate its growth by pursuing inorganic growth opportunities and investing in new and evolving businesses like Digicare and Digisol and also venturing into new product categories,” says Naik, Executive Chairman, Smartlink Network.

What about the channels? The big worry among the Digilink partner community is the impact the Schneider acquisition will have on their business. There’s the perception that Schneider may do more direct business, and may revamp the distribution network. However, Anand Mehta, VP, Marketing, Smartlink says, “One of the reasons Schneider has acquired Digilink is because of its channels and its market leadership. Channels and our channel-focused teams are a key element of the valuation of Digilink. The regional distribution model would continue for Digilink with no change in the partner network. In fact, for the next one year, while the integration process is executed, the Digilink business will be run from Smartlink’s premises.” On its part, Schneider has assured the partners of Digilink that it would be business as usual. This has calmed the concern among the community regarding any changes it may introduce in the partner network. Kshitij Desai, Director, Shani Peripherals, an

Ahmedabad-based Digilink distributor, states that Digilink partners will now have access to Schneider’s wider portfolio. “The acquisition will give us the opportunity to distribute Schneider’s various products such as their wired networking and video transmission products.” Partners feel that Schneider’s MNC tag would benefit the Digilink products in gaining better acceptance in large projects. “So far Digilink was lacking an MNC tag, and I think Schneider’s acquisition would help Digilink in gaining better market acceptance. Since Schneider is very aggressive in its power management business, and was looking for a product portfolio in the structured cabling business, Digilink’s acquisition would help the company globally in this segment,” says Milind Choure, MD of the Nagpur-based Unilogic Systems and a Digilink partner. Concurs Umang Vyas, Head for Networking Projects at Orient Technologies, and a Digilink partner, “Despite having strong price-performance, Digilink wasn’t embraced by large enterprises, both Indian and MNC. Compared to it, a lesser-known Clipsal was empanelled by banks and certain pharma companies. This is essentially because of the perception that Digilink is an Indian brand. Things would now improve since it would also have an MNC tag.” Edward Jeevan, Director of the Bengaluru-based Binary Systems, another Digilink partner, believes that it will be a win-win for both. “Schneider has presence in the structured cabling business with its product Clipsal, which is not a strong brand. Digilink will help Schneider in fulfilling this gap globally. The company was also looking for a volume product, and the Digilink brand provides it.” Rahul Meher, MD, Leon Computers, and a Clipsal partner, opines that Digilink would give Schneider entry into B and C class cities where a lot of infrastructure projects are underway. Once Schneider starts integrating Digilink and increases production at the Goa plant, the prices of Clipsal products would reduce because they would be locally manufactured. Digilink has more than 3,000 resellers in the country, and a strong network of systems integrators. Schneider would leverage these distributors to sell other product ranges to reach out to the customer segments that these resellers are servicing. The channel believes that ‘Digilink by Schneider’ will be a win-win for them. Time will tell if they’re right. n —With inputs from Abhijeet Mukherjee

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cover story

ith schools and colleges across the country soon starting a new academic year, the back-to-school (BTS) buying season is also starting. Vendors and channel partners believe that the 2011 BTS buying season could be one of the best ever. “We are optimistic that the BTS opportunity this year will be bigger than that of 2010 which was just coming out of the fear of difficult times and hence purchases were on a cautious note. By contrast, 2011 is on full throttle on this front. Computer education at school is also tending to become the norm,” says an HP IPG spokesperson. Considering that there are as many as 1,300,000 government schools, 300,000 private schools, 100,000 colleges and polytechnics, and 80 million students who are expected to have access to computers during this academic year, it’s not surprising that there are at least 10 reasons why you should think of going back to school.

Client Infrastructure

Almost all PC vendors are expecting this BTS season to be big. The Intel India sales team has shared an estimated figure of up to a million notebooks being sold to the segment during the months of April to September which are traditionally believed

to be the BTS buying season. At an average price of Rs 25,000 per notebook, this market alone is estimated to be worth Rs 2,500 crore. “We believe we are in for a big BTS season, for two reasons—the expected increase in the adoption of smart class projects among private educational institutions, and the faster implementation of government-funded ICT projects,” says Saji Kumar, Head, Product Marketing, Acer India. Kumar says that according to their internal estimates, Acer has around 40 percent share in the BTS market, and is looking forward to increase this. Other PC vendors are also targeting the market. “We will be launching our campaigns targeting the BTS buying season, and apart from a multimedia campaign we are enabling partners to go after local educational institutions. Our branding exercises have been centered on the youth, and our new messaging should connect with students,” says Rajesh Thadani, Director, Consumer Business Unit, HSB Lenovo

The academic buying season has just started. We list 10 business opportunities for partners in this space n RAMDAS S & ABHIJEET MUKHERJEE

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cover story “We certainly want a bigger share of institutional purchases, so this would be a key focus for the year, along with the government and large enterprises”

“We are in for a big BTS season due to expected increases in the adoption of smart class projects among private institutions, and faster implementation of government projects”

Rajiev Grover, Director, Enterprise, PSG, HP India

Saji Kumar, Head, Product Marketing, Acer India

India. Even HP, which has been reluctant to participate in price-driven institutional deals in the past year or two, has turned aggressive. “We certainly want a bigger share of institutional purchases, so this would be a key focus for the year, along with the government and large enterprises,” says Rajiev Grover, Director, Enterprise, PSG, HP India. The governments at both the center and states have been big buyers through various schemes. However, most of the large deals have the direct presence of the vendor or are routed through a large national SI. “Large deals in education have stringent tender requirements, and often only a national SI qualifies,” says Ajay Maitin, CEO, Graphic Trades, Patna. Till two years ago only top management colleges were buying laptops for their students. However, last year, many engineering and undergraduate colleges also opted to buy laptops. This is where channel partners can play a role, says Kumar of Acer. “We are training our partners to address the exact requirements of the customer and act as advisors while suggesting tailormade solutions depending on the client’s budget, application, usage, etc.” For large institutes, Acer and Lenovo are planning to offer specific specs which would be different from the normal specs to avoid price leakages and special price clearance violations. What’s more, student-specific schemes are being worked out with partners, and this year vendors are considering options including zero percent financing, bundling schemes and even co-branding with other youth-oriented brands. Thadani expects BTS buying to create repeat customers every couple of years. “In the US, students buy or upgrade computers as they move to a new year in school. We may not see the same trend in India, but we may see students upgrading every 2-3 years.”

Connectivity & Broadband Solutions

Campuses are opting for Internet connectivity, and this presents one of the juiciest opportunities for partners. Several partners have tied up with ISPs to provide last-mile connectivity. “We have tied up with Sify to provide broadband connectivity to organizations. There has been demand from schools and colleges which are looking at extending Internet services to campuses. We expect more schools and colleges to start asking for

connectivity within campuses,” says Badri R, Manager, Business Development at Webkraft, a Sify partner. Bengaluru-based Value Point Systems has set up a dedicated business unit to go after the education opportunity; it is focusing on providing network services and connectivity to campuses. “The demand from schools and colleges for quality broadband services is good. When you provide connectivity to campuses, it starts generating demand for other services and products,” notes Ganesh Mahabala, Senior VP, Value Point. With nearly 100,000 educational establishments expected to offer connectivity within their campuses by 2013, industry pundits are expecting education to be the biggest consumer of Internet broadband. “It’s safe to estimate that the bandwidth requirements would easily surpass both the enterprise and data center markets if even a small percentage of schools and colleges start offering free Internet on their campuses,” says Vishak Raman, Regional Director, India & Saarc, Fortinet. Wireless connectivity within the campus is a priority for many educational institutions. “We believe that education is the most advanced user of Wi-Fi,” says Manjit Singh, MD, India & Saarc, Ruckus Wireless. “There’s vast demand for high-speed connectivity, strong security, coverage and reliable connectivity. Demand for Wi-Fi is also seen in places—such as common areas, temporary classrooms and on-campus housing—where no Ethernet cabling can go.”

Core Infrastructure & Security

While client infrastructure is expected to be the fattest BTS opportunity, a number of higherend educational institutions are investing in IT infrastructure including servers, storage and security. Many of them are planning their decisions in the coming months. “All of a sudden there’s a data boom inside Indian schools and colleges,” observes DR Bhaskaran, Managing Director of Machs Data, which represents NAS maker Drobo in the country. “Textbooks are getting digitized. Much of the learning content is going digital. This has presented new opportunities for server, storage and related services.” Networking campuses has been a major priority for the University Grants Commission (UGC) and various state education departments. “Most educational institutions are upgrading their infrastructure; this also means relaying new cables and opting for WAN

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cover story “Most educational institutions are upgrading infrastructure; this also means relaying new cables and WAN connectivity. Since decisions are decentralized, opportunities for partners are excellent”

“Demand from schools and colleges for quality broadband services is increasing. When you provide connectivity to campuses, it starts generating demand for other services and products”

AL Srinath, CEO, Shell Networks

Ganesh Mahabala, Senior VP, Value Point

connectivity. Funds are being allocated through different schemes, and since decisions are decentralized the opportunities for partners are excellent,” says AL Srinath, CEO of the Hyderabad-based Shell Networks. There’s also a focus on providing services to students. For example, universities and technical colleges have started offering e-mail facilities to students. While security was not a priority so far, things are changing. “With millions of students accessing the Net, we see a lot of opportunities in connecting and collaborating. Recently, a leading institution was alerted by the government that there was a bot network residing in its campus network and attacking users across the globe. While connectivity and broadband is great, school and college networks can also be hotbeds of nefarious activities,” says Raman. He feels that apart from traditional UTM solutions, data loss prevention and content filtering are necessary for any educational institution connecting to the Internet and offering free broadband to students. Antivirus software vendors are also seizing the opportunity. “We are offering special pricing to schools and colleges. Students are predisposed to worms and malware because they explore the Internet. Also, with improved content filtering, you are able to stop the viewing of inappropriate content,” explains Srinivasan S, VP, Channels, K7 Computing.

Peripherals

A number of specialized educational tools are being positioned for the segment including printers, projectors, digital whiteboards and markers. Projectors are expected to contribute the maximum, with forecasts of figures being between six lakh and 10 lakh units for the academic year. “We see huge potential in the education segment especially for our projectors,”

“The market for technologyenabled learning solutions in the Indian school segment has seen double-digit annual growth over the last five years” Sanjaya Sharma, CEO, Tata Interactive Systems

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says Rajeev Singh, Country Head, BenQ India. “For example, in 2010, we sold close to 180,000 units to this segment while in 2011 we expect to sell 250,000. For us, it’s a segment of prime importance as it has witnessed a 100 percent growth rate.” Singh informs that BenQ has around 75 focused partners going after opportunities as the BTS season begins. Epson says it has been preparing for the BTS market for the past one and half year. “We expect BTS buying to account for 30-40 percent of our revenue this year. We have revamped our product lines to offer some unique products in projectors. We are also expecting demand for printers to kick in as students are increasingly using computers for class projects and reports,” says Ramprasad SM, Senior Business Manager, Consumer Product Group, Epson India. Interactive digital whiteboards is another segment which is set to explode. The penetration in India is still in the single digits, while, according to a Becta Harnessing Technology Schools Survey, 98 percent of British schools have invested in an Interactive Whiteboard. “Basic estimates of the market size are about 40,000 units a year, but we expect it to grow exponentially as more schools are taking an active interest in the solution,” says Anand Sunny, Product Manager with Almoe Solutions, partners of Promethean, a leading digital whiteboard maker.

Digital Classrooms & Content

According to Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), which recently ventured into interactive learning and digital classrooms for the school market, the next 10 years will present a $15 billion sales opportunity. Explains Sanjaya Sharma, CEO, TIS, “The market for technology-enabled learning solutions in the Indian school segment has seen double-digit annual growth over the last five years. India’s current literacy rate is still a low 65 percent, and the government is keen to promote educational initiatives to achieve 100 percent literacy by 2020. Technology-enabled learning will be critical in revamping India’s education system which has over 15 lakh schools in both the private and public domains.” A number of e-learning content developers have entered the marketplace, including NIIT, Manipal K-12, Educomp, TIM Education, IMS Learning, Everonn, TIS and ILS Learning. “Between these vendors there are close to 50

cover story add-on modules and packages so that e-learning systems which are being “There are close to 50 schools and colleges have ready business licensed at rates between Rs 30 and templates for their different needs from 1,300 per student per month,” says Raj e-learning systems admission management to fee collection. Kamal, Managing Partner of Bengaluruwhich are being “The accounting practices and business based Interactive Learning Systems, a licensed at rates requirements of educational institutions reseller focused on the education market between Rs 30 and are different from those of other businesses. who resells and trains using packages 1,300 per student per This year we are expecting a large number from Educomp and IMS Learning. “The month” of educational institutions to start investing opportunity lies in not just reselling but in in ERP,” says Shoaib Ahmed, President, deployment, training and support.” Raj Kamal, Tally Solutions. “We have created an Maitin of Graphic Trades informs, Managing Partner, ecosystem for partners to take these “We are working on a project where 1,300 Interactive Learning solutions to the market and make them schools across Bihar are going in for digital Systems available at affordable prices to schools and learning. The project was delayed because colleges.” of elections last year; we hope it will be Apart from accounting and ERP applications, executed in the next academic year.” schools have started investing in CRM applications and Vendors such as Dell and HP are also offering also specific systems such as attendance management complete automation solutions for schools; these systems and scheduling systems. “A complete ERP, solutions are being promoted through partners. CRM and business implementation for a school can cost “Through its ability to stimulate learning at multiple up to Rs 10 lakh,” informs Jois of Compusol. levels, technology can enhance the classroom experience for both teachers and students,” remarks Neeraj Gupta, General Manager, Public Sector, Dell Software Licensing India. Noting that colleges were using a high percentage of pirated software, the All India Council of Technical Education had issued a Collaboration & Social Networking diktat last year asking these colleges to stop using such Apart from e-learning systems, schools and software. Result: partners from educational hubs have colleges are investing in modern Web 2.0 already started reporting inquiries for legal software applications and taking to social networking from engineering colleges and polytechnics. tools to connect with parents, students and teachers. “These days we are seeing low levels of piracy in “Most schools have started thinking beyond basic educational institutions. They are also cash-rich, and Websites, and are using the Web to communicate key are better pay-masters,” says Harinder Salwan, Director information such as the performance of students to of Tricom Multimedia, Mumbai. “We of course have parents. The Web will be a very important delivery to educate them; moreover, all vendors are offering model,” says Mahabala of Value Point. special prices on software licenses for educational Adds Subbu Jois, CEO of the Bengaluru-based institutions.” Salwan subscribes to the theory that this Compusol Software, “We are building a social BTS season could see sales soar. networking application for a leading school chain so Vendors are also trying to create low-entry that the students can create a community of not just barriers for educational institutions to adapt to their the present students and parents, but also the alumni technologies and software. For example, IBM and and community thought-leaders. Since the modernMicrosoft are working with universities by offering day student spends more time on Facebook, the school them free software and hardware for courses in the management wants to ensure that they catch up with curriculum that promote their technologies. the students’ aspirations.” Opportunities in such cases come in deployment and training, for which partners are often roped Business Applications in. “We were involved in training staff and This BTS buying season, schools conceptualizing courseware at nearly 30 and colleges are also shopping for “We are building a colleges of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological business software. While launching social networking University as part of a Cisco Network iON, TCS’ IT-as-a-Service offering, V application for a Academy program implementation,” says Ramaswamy, Director & Global Head, iON, school chain to Srinath of Shell. TCS India, said that education was one create a community of the key verticals which the company of present students, was targeting. “With schools and colleges Thin Clients & Virtualization parents, alumni and increasingly creating digital assets, and Many educational institutions community thoughtrelying more on technology, they need to are considering investments in leaders” be looked upon as small enterprises.” thin clients primarily for security Tally is another vendor which has been reasons, but also to reduce energy costs. Subbu Jois, CEO, Compusol Software focused on the education market. Almost “We see thin clients being deployed a dozen Tally Integrators have written especially in cases where schools have

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cover story pricing of software for academia.

“We see thin clients being deployed especially in cases where schools have challenges in terms of power, and especially in B and C class cities and rural India” Manish Sharma, VP, Asia Pacific, NComputing

challenges in terms of power, and especially in B and C class cities and rural India,” says Manish Sharma, VP, Ncomputing. “Ncomputing has been a worldwide leader in this space, and in India we have more than 300,000 node installations.” HP is another vendor which has been betting on end-to-end virtualization for the education market. “We have the most comprehensive suite of solutions— from HP MultiSeat platforms which offer the lowest TCO for a classroom to thin clients powering desktop virtualization solutions,” says Grover of HP. Grover feels that desktop virtualization will find customers in the education market too. “Security, ease of deployment, zero management and the need for the same terminal to be used by different students are important factors.” A major obstacle for desktop virtualization is the higher licensing cost, but this gets reduced with the

Biometrics

Increasingly, there’s demand for biometric solutions from the education segment. “The spate of kidnappings in north India has forced several schools to take physical security seriously. We are presently consulting for a top school in Delhi which is looking at options to track students on the campus since many of them belong to families from business and political circles,” says Satheesh Nair, Director of Unified Stickman, a Bengaluru-based consultancy. “Similar enquiries have come from schools in Ooty and Mumbai.” Last year, Pune-based Ace Brain Systems was commissioned by the Government of Maharashtra for a smartcard-based biometric system to monitor the midday meall scheme and monitor attendance in schools. “We are half-way through the Rs 102 crore project. More than 33,000 schools have opted for smartcards. This has resulted in savings of nearly 30 percent of the government outlay for the scheme,” says Yogesh Godbole, Director, Ace Brain Systems. Another solution is a vehicle tracking system based on telematics which is increasingly being used to track school buses. “We have created a SaaS platform which schools can use to track buses and inform parents about the movement of school buses,” says S Raghu, Director, Telematics4u, Bengaluru. n

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market focus Led Set To Overtake Lcd Some even doubt whether LCD monitors will be available in the market by next Diwali n abhijeet mukherjee

ED technology could take the dominant position in the PC display market quicker than anticipated. In the last three months, channel sales of LED monitors have risen from 10 percent to 40 percent of the total flat-panel display shipments. Agrees Cindy Lin, spokesperson for Viewsonic in India, “According to IDC, LED’s share was around 15 percent in Q42010, but had increased to over 40 percent in Q12011. We are seeing this trend not only in large cities but even in smaller cities.” Opines Sandeep Samaiya, Partner, Info Solutions, a Jabalpur-based sub-distributor for LG monitors, “Earlier, of the 150 units of flat panels we sold monthly, 10 units were LEDs while the rest were LCDs. Today, nearly 50 units are LEDs, and this ratio is increasing by the day.” K Narayan Rao, CEO, Matrix Technologies, a Bengaluru-based regional distributor of LG monitors, says that LEDs are equally popular in the SMB, corporate and government segments. “Six months back there were availability issues with LED monitors, and not all companies had SKUs, but now, since more SKUs are available, out of the 1,000 units that we sell the majority are LED monitors.” Agrees Manish Goyal, Director, Byte Peripherals, the Indore-based authorized sub-distributor of AOC monitors that has sold more LED monitors than LCD in the

Earlier, the difference between an LED and LCD monitor was around `1,500. This has shrunk to `200-500 in the last four months 26

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last four months. “The demand for LEDs is tremendous. For example, of every 300 monitors that we sell, 275 are LEDs because end-consumers are aware that technology-wise LED is superior to LCD. The falling prices of LED monitors is one of the most important reasons for its popularity. The price difference between an LED and LCD has also narrowed down to less than 5-8 percent.” The price of LED monitors has fallen 10-12 percent in the last six months. While earlier there was a 20-25 percent difference between an LCD and LED monitor, this has now reduced to less than 8 percent. “Earlier, the difference between an LED and LCD monitor was around `1,500, which has shrunk to `200-500 in the last four months,” says Sanjay Agarwal, CEO of the Kolkatabased Berlia Compusystem, authorized subdistributor of AOC monitors. Apart from price, another benefit that has led to increased demand for LEDs is the 40 percent power savings they offer. The increased dynamic contrast ratio provides better image quality—another reason why consumers are attracted to LED. Slimmer design and reduced weight have also added to the increased demand for LED monitors. Manufacturers are gearing up for the hike in the demand for LED monitors. “We decided to switch all traditional LCDs to LEDs in Q32010, and very shortly we will implement this strategy. Currently, our LED sales have crossed LCD sales,” reveals Viewsonic’s Lin. According to resellers, LCD monitors are here only for a few more months. “Going by the popularity of LED monitors, I doubt if LCD monitors would be available in the market by Diwali as most vendors will stop manufacturing them,” says Samaiya. n

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role model

TAKING ON GIANTS Having ventured into IT by accident, Ajay Maitin, CEO of the Patna-based Graphic Trades, has today emerged as a leading government VAR in the region n abhijeet mukherjee

n MBA by qualification, 47-year-old Ajay Maitin, CEO, Graphic Trades, ventured into the IT industry almost by accident. Son of a mechanical engineer who spent his life as a production and printing professional with a large publication house in Bihar, Maitin’s first job interview was with a publication house. “At the interview the manager told me that I would do well in my own business rather than in a job with his company. I was taken aback for a while, but then he explained how there were many resellers supplying printing paper and supplies but lacked good postsales support. He said if I could ensure good post-sales support I would do very well in business. In the short meeting he not only convinced me to start my own business but also gave me the contact details of vendors with whom I could partner,” recalls Maitin. That manager was YC Agarwal, whom Maitin regards as his mentor; he still seeks Agarwal’s advice on any important personal and professional decision. That’s also how Graphic Trades was born in 1992 as a supplier of professional printing equipment and consumables. His first contract came from Agarwal who also referred him to other publishing houses in the city and around. “I started with an investment of `2 lakh and in the first year itself made `8 lakh which to me was a big amount. As Agarwal had advised, we focused on providing the best post-sales experience to customers, and that became our differentiating factor,” says Maitin. Then came his next big milestone—the entry into IT. “At that time most publishing houses used Apple desktops and procuring an engineer on

“We were a `40 lakh company bidding for a `5 crore project against established brands like CMC, HCL and Wipro—and we won” 28

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time was difficult as he had to be fetched from Delhi which not only delayed the service by a week but was also a huge overhead cost to the company. Customers therefore recommended that I start selling and servicing Apple products,” recalls Maitin. This opened the gates to IT for Graphic Trades, and in 1994 he began selling all types of IT products. Because the consumer market was negligible then, Maitin decided to focus on the corporate and government segment. The company’s focus on postsales support made him a preferred partner for many IT vendors who needed to support their government installations in Bihar. Maitin reckons that his big turning point was the large project to computerize the state electoral offices in 1999. “We had bid for a state electoral office tender to computerize its offices in 55 districts in Bihar. We were then only a `40 lakh company bidding for a `5 crore project against established brands such as CMC, HCL and Wipro. This not only gave us a big confidence boost but also earned us the respect of the big SIs and IT vendors,” says Maitin. The successful execution of the project made Graphic Trades a brand to contend with. Over the years, Graphic Trades has executed many government projects in Bihar and Jharkhand which required designing and implementing solutions for the digitization of government records, computerization of the examination process of the Bihar High Secondary Education Board, and many more. “We have consciously focused on building skills to offer solutions to the government that no other VAR can offer and thus created our own brand equity. Today, in the government and PSU segments, everyone knows that if it’s an emerging technology project Graphic Trades is the company that will do everything to execute it,” Maitin says proudly.

Current business In FY2009-2010 Graphic Trades had an annual turnover of `20 crore with nearly 90 percent of its revenue from the government and PSU sector. Despite the slowdown, over

Role model

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Outlook the past two years the company MILESTONES has grown by 20 percent CAGR. With interesting projects on In the fiscal that just ended the hand, Maitin expects to cross `50 company is looking at another 20 crore revenue over the next three Started Graphic Trades to percent growth to take its turnover years. Graphic Trades sees huge sell printing equipments to to `24 crore. “In FY2010-11 we opportunities in education, health publication houses have seen several large projects and the security surveillance come our way. We have built new business. It recently completed Ventured into selling PCs to skill sets in visual collaboration, a smartclass solution worth `98 SMBs, and started bidding for unified communications and IP lakh for the Sainik School under government projects surveillance,” says Maitin. the Ministry of Defence in Bihar. Graphic Trades won a large IP-based surveillance is another Won a `5 crore government project totaling `5 crore from the area where Graphic Trades sees project against competitors National Institute of Technology, good opportunity. It completed Patna, to deploy six virtual lab a project for providing 24/7 IP like CMC, HCL and Wipro solutions. It bagged a project for surveillance with video analytics Won `5 crore project from NIT to the Government Museum in linking 50 jails in Bihar with courts through video conferencing. The Patna. “This is an area where future to deploy six virtual labs project will enable courts to try business would be. We also see Bagged project for linking 50 convicts without their physical future business opportunities in presence in the court premises; voice integration as well as video jails in Bihar with courts via this will cut costs and reduce legal and data,” Maitin says. He sees video conferencing hassles and security threats. strong growth in storage and cloud Another interesting project computing. “We are also looking that the company is handling is at the power solutions segment in to provide pre-examination and post-examination a big way. Digitization of paper records is another big solutions worth `2.5 crore to various government opportunity in states like Bihar and Jharkhand.” boards. The project involves providing custom software development to manage pre-exam processes (like setting On a personal note papers) and post-exam processes (like managing the While being a workaholic, Maitin is a fitness freak and large number of teachers who correct the papers). no matter what he daily sweats it out in the gym built Graphic Trades also equipped and connected within his home. 45 Superintendent of Police offices through audioA self-proclaimed gadget freak, Maitin loves visual communications last year. “These are not only collecting watches and fountain pens. “I love using prestigious projects that are pushing Graphic Trades’ fountain pens, and have a fascination to collect them. growth upward but also sending a signal that we have I have collected at least 17 of them, some even costing drawn ourselves out of the box-pushing structure which `50,000. I have pens right from Mont Blanc to Covey. most other competing brands still follow,” adds Maitin. I love to spend on gadgets such as iPods and iPads, Graphic Trades has also completed a 60-seater audio and have almost all the gadgets available in the conference room at the CM’s Secretariat. “This is a market,” he says. high-end audio conference room with state-of-the-art Maitin is an ardent music lover, and spends time audio systems where senior bureaucrats will interact listening to music at his leisure. His favorite singer is with their peers across the state,” Maitin explains. Lata Mangeshkar. Maitin says he has created a sound The digitization of government records and supply of room at home where he himself has put together the document management solutions are also becoming big sound systems and acoustics by putting together the revenue generators for Graphic Trades. Informs Maitin, best equipment from different companies. “We have close to 100 contract employees working Maitin has won accolades for his work. These on the digitization of the paper records of various include the Special Recognition National Award for government departments. Bihar in the past five years Outstanding Efforts in Entrepreneurship from the has seen impressive growth, and the government is also Ministry of Small & Medium Enterprises, Government investing heavily in IT as it believes that it can make the of India, in 2009. governance delivery process transparent and honest.” His next goal is to undertake social responsibility projects. “I would like to support a school and orphanage in some remote location of Bihar and provide them the best of IT-enabled education. The “In the government and PSU sectors, power of IT needs to be harnessed to bridge the digital divide, and this will everyone knows that if it’s an emerging also help to bridge the socio-economic divide,” he technology project Graphic Trades will do concludes. n

everything to execute it”

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tech focus mobile malware A list of recent threats that have knocked on the doors of smartphone users around the world, as well as what businesses should consider when crafting policies to protect their employees and their data n crn NETWORK

rom Google Android devices to the Apple iPhone, there is no shortage of mobile devices making their way into the enterprise. So far, mobile malware has remained a nascent threat. But that doesn’t mean the iPhone in your pocket isn’t being targeted, or that enterprises don’t need to factor mobile threats into their security assessments. On the contrary, the growing consumerization of IT means that businesses are under increasing pressure to meet the demands of managing and securing mobile devices. We have gathered some examples to paint an image of recent threats that have knocked on the digital doors of smartphone users around the world, as well as what businesses should consider when crafting policies to protect their employees and their data.

Show me the money Cyber criminals have a number of techniques for turning your infected money into their personal ATM. For example, by calling or sending an SMS message to a premium rate number, scammers can jack up a person’s phone bill. The attacker gets their payday by first setting and registering the premium number, then when the infected phone calls or sends an SMS message to the number the device owner is billed at a higher than normal rate–and the attacker pockets the difference. There is no shortage of spyware in the cyberunderground. On mobile devices, these malicious applications can allow someone to track and monitor the usage and location of the phone, giving attackers the power to record and export SMS messages, e-mails, call logs and GPS locations. These apps aren’t cheap. According to Symantec, some of these applications have been advertised for up to $400 on the black market.

Mobile malware market share By August 2009, Kaspersky Lab had noted 106 mobile

In 2010, nearly 65 percent more malicious programs were detected targeting mobile devices as compared to 2009, and the threats nearly doubled in number during this period 30

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malware families and 514 variants of malicious programs targeting mobile devices. By the end of 2010, those numbers had grown to 153 families and more than 1,000 variants. To put it another way—in 2010, the company detected 65.12 percent more new malicious programs targeting mobile devices than in 2009, and the threats nearly doubled in number during a 17-month period.

Stealing your data Just like on your PC, there are pieces of malware that are aimed at stealing user data. One better known example of this is Geinimi, which targets Android devices. Geinimi emerged in China in December 2010. The Trojan, which Lookout Mobile Security called the most sophisticated Android malware the company has seen to date, sends the data it steals to remote servers, and is the first Android malware to display botnet-like capabilities such as receiving commands from a remote server.

Banking Trojans gone mobile In September, security researchers noted the appearance of Zitmo, a mobile version of the Zeus Trojan targeting Symbian and BlackBerry devices. The malware is designed to steal mobile transaction authentication numbers sent to banking customers’ phones in order to verify someone’s identity. In February, the malware was seen targeting customers of a bank in Poland.

Jail-broken Apple iPhones targeted A worm aimed at Apple iPhone users with jail-broken (hacked) devices known to Kaspersky Lab as Net-Worm. IphoneOS.Ike.b was used by cybercriminals in 2010 to launch a targeted phishing attack against customers of a Dutch bank. When users attempted to visit the bank’s Web site from an infected iPhone, they were redirected to a phishing site.

Video game Trojan In 2010, a malware author created a Trojanized version of the Windows Mobile video game 3D Anti-Terrorist Action. The attacker then uploaded the malicious program to sites distributing free versions of the game. Once on a device, the malware makes phone calls to several premium numbers at expensive rates.

tech focus Mobile device security tips For businesses, deciding what devices to support and having clear, enforceable policies for those devices is key. That means understanding what your company’s goal is from a security management perspective. Best practices include having the ability to wipe a device remotely, as well as policies around encryption

and passwords. Education for end users is also important. For example, security experts advise mobile users to pay attention to the privacy permissions asked for on their Android phones; they have noted that jail-breaking iPhones can increase the potential threat level because it circumvents Apple’s security approach. n

SmartDraw VP is best in breed It’s hard to think of any enterprise that couldn’t benefit from deploying this productivity software n Edward F Moltzen

he first hint you may get when you install SmartDraw VP—the visual aid, graphic and chart-creation software—is that it is not your typical office application. Not unless your office includes crime scenes and military battlefields. SmartDraw VP, which is created by the San Diego, California-based company SmartDraw, is billed as a ‘visual processor’—and that may be actually selling it short. Not only does this application surpass Microsoft’s Visio in ease of use and functionality, it could also be billed as a ‘decision processor’ or a ‘get organized’ processor because of the granular level of detail—in graphic form—it supports. A reason for using diagramming or graphic software like this is to present as much information as possible in an easy, intuitive presentation. It lets someone view and process an entire field of information at once. Whether an organizational chart, a geographic map, a mind map, a calendar or even a crime-scene rendering, diagrams and charts can make it a lot more efficient to digest a lot of information at once. SmartDraw VP provides literally scores of different templates to provide a nice head start in developing diagrams, graphics and charts. Its reach extends from flow charts and organizational charts to auto accident re-creations and military battlefield operations. It provides a diagram template for retail stores to allow for charting out which products fit in which shelves, and in which order. And, in the crime scene template noted earlier, it allows for the positioning of chalk outlines of bodies, weapons, bullet casings and even cigarette butts in a fixed area. The application saves files natively in its SDR

format, but will also export files as JPG, GIF, PNG, HTML, DOC, PCX, TIFF, DXF, SDT, EMF, WMF, BMP, PPT, XLS and PDF formats. Using SmartDraw VP, it’s possible to import data from an Excel spreadsheet for conversion into pie charts, bar charts and more. This was particularly easy. For navigation, clicking the Smart Button at the top left of the application will open a drop-down menu. And the application provides breathtaking integration with Microsoft Office by placing one-click ‘hot buttons’ above the Smart Button that export SmartDraw diagrams to PowerPoint, Excel, Word or PDF. It’s outstanding. With list prices of $297 for a single license, $1,485 for five licenses and $1,695 for 10 licenses, SmartDraw sells this software directly and through VARs. The software runs on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP or even Windows 2000, but does not support Mac OS X. (SmartDraw support says there are no current plans to offer a Mac version.) SmartDraw VP requires a half-GB of RAM and 3 GB of free hard disk space. It can be installed over a network or on individual PCs. In the CRN Test Center lab, we installed it quickly on a PC running Windows 7 Ultimate with an Intel Core 2 Quad processor and 4 GB of RAM. With this PC, SmartDraw VP was quick and snappy. Including free, Web-based offerings, productivity software applications can literally be a dime a dozen. But once someone starts using SmartDraw VP to bolster documents, communications and data organization, it’s hard to stop. This is productivity software that clearly will boost productivity. It’s hard to think of any enterprise that couldn’t benefit from deploying it. n

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channel buzz Intex acquires new brand identity Intex unveiled its new corporate logo in Delhi recently. At the launch, Narendra Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director, Intex Technologies said, “I am delighted to present the new brand identity. It carries forward the traits of the brand persona— dynamism, creativity, flexibility and strength—and at the same time aims for infinity and a boundless world, a reminder of our quest to enhance our growth rate and n The new Intex logo move ahead to become a company with a strong global footprint.” According to Intex, the new logo is a result of an extensive research conducted among the company’s employees, customers and associates, and was finally given the new avatar by a creative agency, Grey Worldwide. The new identity will start appearing on all new packaging, promotional and information collaterals, Web sites, and advertising and publicity material. n

n Tom Kilroy, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Sales and Marketing Group, Intel, with the new Xeon E7

Intel launches new family of Xeon Intel has launched its new family of Xeon processors, namely the E7 800, E7 4800 and E7 2800. The highlight of the new Xeon family is that the Intel India team based in Bengaluru jointly led the design of the E7 family in collaboration with other teams around the globe. The India team planned and executed activities including the designing, and pre- and post-silicon logic validation to get the Xeon processor E7 family productized. Said Tom Kilroy, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Sales and Marketing Group, Intel, “The industry momentum we are seeing for this new server processor architecture is unparalleled in Intel’s history. The days of IT organizations being forced to deploy expensive, closed RISC architectures for mission-critical applications are rapidly nearing an end.” n

n An arch gate in Hyderabad for Acer’s Ugadi Display Contest n Jay Prakash, Chairman, IIBS, and Sukumar Venkatachalam, Head, Education Services, Siemens IT Solutions & Services, announcing the collaboration

IIBS collaborates with SAP and Siemens The International Institute of Business Studies (IIBS) has announced a collaboration with SAP and its delivery partner, Siemens IT Solutions & Services, to offer SAP education services at its Bengaluru, Noida and Kolkata campuses. The SAP University Alliances program, U-Academy, will be made available to all MBA students from the September 2010 batch onwards. IIBS has also collaborated with Siemens IT Solutions & Services to deliver SAP and project management courses as part of its MBA curriculum. Students will be able to pursue modules including Financial Accounting, Management Accounting and Supply Chain Management, as well as SAP NetWeaver Application Development. n

Acer rolls out Ugadi Display Contest Acer launched the Ugadi Display Contest in Andhra Pradesh to help partners increase sales during the festive season. It is a campaign aimed at encouraging partners to create attractive displays and draw increased customer attention during Ugadi. The contest is being organized across the six regions of Andhra Pradesh which include Hyderabad, Warangal, Kurnool, Chittoor, Vizag and Krishna. During this campaign, Acer will provide 250 Acer Gallery partners with the Ugadi arch gate and other display merchandise including leaflets, banners, streamers and posters based on the Ugadi theme. Partners who participate in the Ugadi display contest and score 20 or more points based on sales achieved will not only receive an assured gift but also be eligible to participate in a lucky draw. Two lucky-draw winners from each region will win attractive prizes. n

To feature your company’s events in CRN, send write-ups with photographs to editor@ubmindia.com 32

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new products Buffalo Drive Station Duo

uffalo Technology has launched its Drive Station Duo targeted at homes and SMBs that require large data storage. The product range comes in two variants— the HD-WLU3/R1 series with USB 3.0 interface and the HD-WLSU2/R1 series with USB 2.0 and eSATA interface. Compatible with Windows Server 2003 and 2008, the Drive Station Duo range comes with backup software for the entire server system and database. The range features a power saving tool called the Eco Manager that reduces the power consumption by up to 80 percent. Backed by a 3-year replacement warranty, the USB 3.0 variants are available in three models—2TB HD-WL2TU3R1 priced at `12,500; 4TB HD-WL4TU3R1 priced at `21,000; and 6TB HD-WL6TU3R1 priced at `37,000. The series with USB 2.0 and eSATA interface consists of two models—2TB HD-WL2TSU2R1 for `11,000 and 4TB HD-WL4TSU2R1for `20,500.

Techcom LED monitor

echcom has entered the LED technology space with the SSD LED 1506 monitor. The new flat-panel display comes with a glossy piano finish and a 15.6-inchwide screen. It has a 12mm high-quality slim design and a response time of 5ms which ensures smooth transition of images and superb video quality. The monitor comes with a true resolution of 1366x68. The SSD LED 1506 is available in the market at a price of `3,900. It comes with a 3-year warranty on the monitor and the power adaptor.

Logitech Z506 surround-sound speakers

ogitech has launched its next-generation surroundsound speakers, Z506. The new speakers are compatible with PCs, Playstation, Xbox 360, Wii, iPod and most DVD players. The Z506 supports two devices connected simultaneously—for example, a game console and a digital music player. Featuring 3D stereo surroundsound, the Z506 speakers can convert two-channel stereo into an immersive surround sound experience with 75W power. Priced at `7,145, the Z506 comes with 2-year warranty and is distributed by Neoteric Infomatec and Savex Computers.

Corsair HS1A headset

orsair has launched its HS1A headset for gamers. The new headset comes with 20Hz-20kHz frequency response, 32 Ohms impedance at 1kHz, and custom-engineered 50 mm drivers with 24 mm copper-wound voice coils. In addition, it features extra-large circumaural earcups with a closed-back, noise-isolating design, and comes with two sets of replaceable memory foam earpads— one covered in microfiber and the other in synthetic leather. It also has an attached three meter cable with inline volume and microphone controller and dual 3.5 mm connectors. The microphone has a unidirectional, noise-canceling condenser with adjustable, rotating boom, 2.2k Ohms impedance, 200Hz-10kHz frequency response, and -45dB sensitivity. Available exclusively through distributor Aditya Infotech, the Corsair HS1A headset comes with a 2-year warranty and is priced at `4,200.

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

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Mathur to replace Sunil Dutt?

oon after the news broke about Sunil Dutt quitting the HP Personal Systems Group, the market has been abuzz with speculation about who will succeed him. HP partners suggest a strong possibility that Sameer Mathur, who has been on a sabbatical to pursue an advanced business management course at MIT, could be taking over. Mathur headed the Solution Providers Organization at HP before he went on his sabbatical. Coincidentally, his business management course ends in June, and if partners are to be believed he is most likely to take over the reins of HP PSG by August. Dutt’s last day at HP is May 31. In the interim, the company’s COO Rajiv Srivastava is likely to oversee the PSG operations. n

eSys sues Intel and WPG

ources in the components channel allege that eSys has filed a legal case against Intel and Intel’s new distributor WPG. eSys has alleged that Intel has violated a clause in the distribution agreement which specifies that both companies need to act in a manner that the other’s business is not affected in case one of the parties decides to pull out of the agreement. Six months back eSys was discontinued as a distributor of Intel along with SES Technologies. Intel later went on to appoint WPG as its distributor. eSys has also alleged that WPG hired a number of its senior employees to run its Intel business which is against the contractual obligations which state that Intel will not poach any employee from eSys. eSys has claimed that its business in India has been affected as a result of the poaching of its senior team members by WPG. A reliable source in the know of the latest developments says, “It is true that a number of key eSys executives have been roped in by WPG. However, it has more to do with the fact that these professionals chose to move to WPG and were not poached by WPG. There’s a possibility that some of Intel’s team members might have recommended these executives to WPG, but it is impossible to prove that Intel played an active role.” Our repeated attempts to get Intel’s view on the development failed. n

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Personal

“I want to become a politician”

Abhay Bhargav

Abhay Bhargav is the founder and CTO of the we45 Group, a Bengalurubased information security solutions company. Previously, he was a security assessor for the payment card industry, and has led several security assessments for payment card industry compliance. He is also the co-author of Secure Java for Web Application Development, to be published by CRC Press, New York.

If not in the IT industry: I would have been a writer. In fact, I regularly write short stories and essays. I have also written and directed an English comedy play, RangaShankara, which has been staged and well received. Biggest passion: Information security is my greatest passion. Our country is moving toward the cyber age and I would like to help secure it. Gadgets I can’t live without: My Macbook Pro and my BlackBerry Bold 9700. Role model: Mahatma Gandhi, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Jobs. Weekends are for: A little bit of relaxation and a lot of skill building. Information security is a research-intensive industry and I need all the time I get to do quality research. Favorite holiday destination: San Francisco. It has the perfect combination of urban life and nice tourist destinations. Hate the most: Unethical business practices. They just show that an organization is not serious about staying in business. Ultimate ambition: To become a politician and contribute meaningfully to the country by being in the system. Wildest thing I have ever done: Pretended to be from China to confuse my schoolmates when I moved from Chennai to Bengaluru. The prank lasted almost a year. Thing I most want to do in life: Become a politician and help with the country’s governance. Favorite sport and sportsperson: My favorite sport is table tennis, and my favorite sportsperson is Sachin Tendulkar. If I became the PM: I will provide greater impetus to agriculture and focus on equality in the distribution of wealth. Celebrity I would like to spend a day with: Amartya Sen. Deepest and darkest fear: That I cannot meet the high expectations I set for myself. n

— CRN Network

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RNI NO. MAH ENG/1999/635 Postal Reg. No. MH/MR/NORTH EAST/193/2010-2012 License to post without prepayment MR/TECH/WPP-23/NE/2010-12 Posted at Patrika Channel Sorting Office, Mumbai Due Date 2nd, 3rd & 16th, 17th Of Every Fortnight