CRN 15 November 2012 by UBM India

contents

November 15, 2012 l Volume 2 Issue 02

Cover Story Featuring the plans and strategies of 8 leading partners who are betting big on cloud computing, and have launched their own white-label services

20 Cover Design : Deepjyoti Bhowmik

NEWS Analyses

Channel Chief

Veeam plans to triple customer base

Attachmate has big plans for India

NEC pens aggressive strategy for display biz

AMI to focus on mobility, healthcare 8 Fortinet charts SMB GTM

Kailash Katkar Founder & CEO, Quick Heal Technologies, counters the allegations of tax evasion leveled against his company

16 Special Focus BI gaining ground As the amount of data in enterprises continues to increase so is the need for tools to make sense of that data. This explains the growing market for business intelligence solutions

Dell focuses on awareness program 10 Festive O ff

Market Focus

Editorial 12 Opinion

Feedback

Channel Buzz

New Products

Shadow Ram

Get Personal

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18 increasing retail footfalls Getting customers to enter stores is half the battle won, but how do you get them to enter? Retailers are trying everything from freebies to festive offers. But is it working?

Role Model Changing with the times Years of playing competitive table tennis and badminton have made him very nimble. DP Sinha, MD, Graphline Computers, displays the same agility when it comes to running his business

starting line MUST

Veeam plans to triple customer base

Attachmate has big plans for India

n DHAVAL VALIA

Read

The Attachmate Group, which acquired Novell last year, has regrouped its operations in India and is all set to woo the channels again. The enterprise software vendor says that over the next one year it will grow its channel base by 300 percent. In December 2011 Attachmate had acquired Novell, and over the past few quarters has been restructuring the business. The company has four business divisions operational in the country— Novell, Suse, NetIQ and Attachmate. While Suse addresses enterprise Linux suites, Novell product lines consist of enterprise groupware and collaboration suites. NetIQ primarily addresses the access, identity and security space, while the Attachmate business unit focuses on solutions for fraud monitoring, managed file transfer and terminal emulation software. “We have been keeping a low profile because the internal restructuring took us some time. Now we are ready with an aggressive GTM strategy,” said Venkatesh Swaminathan, Country Manager, Attachmate. He said that the V Swaminathan company has beefed up its sales force to around 30 professionals and is investing in more manpower for channels. “We presently have 100 registered partners, of which around 25 are doing consistent business. Our idea is to grow the registered partners to well over 300, and develop around 100 channel partners who would be serious about our product line.” He said that 55-60 percent of the business is expected to be from the Suse and Novell business units. “Banks have started implementing ERP, many are choosing SAP, and Suse is the platform of choice for SAP; we have signed several partners [for this].” Swaminathan also said that the fraud monitoring and management solutions have evoked a lot of interest. Novell has signed on 2-3 partners per region for developing business for each product line. “We are looking for more partners who want to get certified and then build solutions on their own,” Swaminathan said. n — Ramdas S 6

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eeam, provider of management software for virtualized environments, is confident of tripling its customers in India from 100 to 300 in the next 12 months. The company, which launched its operations in India last year, has planned aggressive channel-led strategies. Said Don Williams, Regional Sales Director, Veeam, “The penetration of server virtualization in India is presently 27 percent, and growing rapidly. The potential of the market can be gauged from the fact that in less than 12 months we signed 100 customers.” Some of its customers include Mazda, L’Oreal, ABN Amro, CtrlS, Eicher, ING Life, NSL and HCL. Earlier this year, Veeam appointed Sanjeev Sharma as India Country Head and signed up Ingram Micro as distributor. In the past six months the company has appointed Gold and Silver partners to drive its India strategy. Veeam’s Gold partners include Veeras Infotek, Sunfire Technologies, Progression Infonet, Wysetek, Pentagon Systems, Orbit Solutions, Frontier Business Systems and Taashee Linux Services; its Silver partners include SK International, GT Enterprises, Uniware, Indus Systems, Quadsel, Esconet, Softcell and Digicom. The company also has an active base of 70 registered partners who are managed by Ingram. “We are a 100 percent channel company. For the present we have signed up a few partners in each region because we want to give them an opportunity to do profitable business. We will expand our partner base six months later,” said Williams. Under Veeam’s ProPartner program, Gold partnership requires partners to have two presales and two technical resources,

“We plan to increase our customers from 100 to 300, and aim to achieve $4 million in India revenue by end-2013” Don Williams

Regional Sales Director Veeam

and to do quarterly business of $50,000. Silver partners require one certification each in sales and technical, with a quarterly target of $15,000. The company provides partner certification for free. To support its growth strategy Veeam is expanding its India team. “We have added 10 professionals in pre-sales, technical support and inside sales,” said Williams. Globally, Veeam has 50,000 customers. Informed Williams, “Nearly 95 percent of these customers are on the VMware platform. Our solutions cost around 10 percent of VMware’s licensing cost. This means that all VMware customers are potential Veeam customers. Partners thus have huge opportunity to upsell our solutions. We have set a target of $4 million India revenue in the next 12 months.” The company’s portfolio consists of Veeam Backup & Replication, Reporter, Monitor and Business View. It recently announced the Veeam One version 6 which combines three separate products—Reporter, Monitor and Business View—into a single SKU. “With Veeam One v6 we have expanded our support for Hyper V. Customers can now have a single management pane for VMware and Microsoft infrastructure,” Williams explained. n

starting line MUST

NEC pens aggressive strategy for display biz

AMI to focus on mobility, healthcare

n AMIT SINGH

Read

Storage specialist American Megatrends is working with its two other business units—the OEM/ ODMs and enterprise products & solutions—to launch integrated products and solutions for specific technology and vertical segments. On the cards are solutions for the healthcare segment, GPS-based tracking solutions, and solutions for mobility and cloud computing. Said Sridharan Mani, CEO & Director, American Megatrends India (AMI), “In mobility, BYOD is setting new trends and determining how people use technology. Our OEM and ODM partners are releasing new tablet, iPad and smartphone upgrades frequently, and we have to keep pace with these new demands.” He said the company’s leadership in the BIOS and intelligent platform managers for remote server diagnostics will enable it to adapt to the new technological changes. “We will release our new set of solutions around mobility and the cloud by Q12013.” The company is already running pilots with hospitals in India to bring tele-medicine Sridharan Mani to mobile phones. Explained Mani, “We are integrating diagnostic tools with the mobile and mounting it on the healthcare cloud which will be hosted by our partners. Futurenet Technologies, a Chennai-based company, has already launched a cloud service on our platform.” AMI is working with partners such as Intel, VMware and Eucalyptus for virtualization and the cloud. “In India, more inquiries are for SaaS and IaaS, and since healthcare is a volume-heavy industry, there is a lot of demand for SaaS. We need to ensure that the cloud can handle it. This is where we are banking on Intel’s Atom for power. In future we will see 500-600 servers coming on one chassis, and have it as a redundant system. That is, bringing the whole cloud in a single box. We are working with Intel and ARM for the same, and you will see releases in the next 2-3 months,” Mani added. n — Sonal Desai

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EC is counting on its display solutions business for growth in FY2012-13. The company is charting strategies for its display solutions which include projectors, digital signage, monitors and software applications. “We are working on a strategy to offer customized solutions for education, and leverage opportunities in largevenue spaces and SMB-centric solutions,” said Abhilesh Guleria, Country Head, Multimedia Product Group & IT Platforms Group, NEC India. According to him, the growth in NEC’s display solutions business will be led by digital signage and projectors. “Digital signage will see triple-digit growth due to the expanding retail industry and its display requirements. In projectors, we expect double-digit growth with the highest contribution from the education segment. We have a presence in more than 8,000 smart classes in institutions such as IITs and IIMs, as well as K12 and higher education institutes.” Further, the company is expecting increased uptake in corporate boardrooms and sectors like hospitality, retail, government and PSU. NEC is also targeting double-digit growth in the monitors business. It recently launched its touchintegrated V Series, 46 inch V462TM and 65 inch V651-TM digital signage. “These solutions are targeted at education, corporate, retail, healthcare and hospitality, and include 4-camera opticalimaging technology supporting up to six simultaneous touches,” informed Guleria. The company also introduced the L51W LED portable projector with wireless presentation capability for mobile and

“We have a presence in more than 8,000 smart classes in IITs and IIMs, as well as K12 and higher education institutes” Abhilesh Guleria, Country Head, Multimedia Product Group & IT Platforms Group, NEC India corporate applications. L51W offers features such as fast startup, shut-down with direct power off, and 20,000 hours of LED light source life. “In line with our Green Vision campaign, we also offer power-saving features and LED technology for education. Education is the largest contributor to our projector business with about 46 percent share,” Guleria disclosed. Besides, NEC will introduce competitively-priced short-throw projectors for price-conscious customers. “We also have competitive options for SMBs in our V-series projectors,” he added. NEC recently concluded its 20-city road-shows in tier-2 and -3 cities such as Guwahati, Raipur, Bhubaneshwar, Coimbatore, Ludhiana, Dehradun and Surat. It also held technology seminars and showcase events in Bengaluru and Mumbai for its display solutions. The road-shows conform to the company’s breadth strategy, whereby NEC wants to increase its reseller base to 150 by 2012-end. The technology showcase events correspond to its depth strategy, under which it aims to increase its VAR partners to about 30 and SI partners to 25 by 2012-end. NEC will begin the next series of road-shows from January 2013. n

starting line MUST

Read

Dell focuses on awareness program Dell is gearing up to increase awareness of its offerings both in the consumer and enterprise segments. For the consumer the focus is more on youth. It has a series of events lined up to cover 5,000 schools and colleges till January 2013. “The school contact program was started in July and is focused on informing youth about the features of Dell products and how they can enhance the experience,” said P Krishnakumar, Executive Director, Marketing, Dell India. The company has completed such programs in 3,000 schools and colleges in the country. In addition, Dell is targeting malls for weekend activities. “We are conducting road-shows and mall activities every weekend to grab the youth’s mindshare. We demonstrate all our consumer products and provide a touch-and-feel experience to these consumers,” added Krishnakumar. Further, the company is focusing on SMBs with association cluster programs to inform them about Dell’s latest technology and how it can help them in their growth. “We see low technology adoption in SMBs P Krishnakumar due to lack of human resources or lack of awareness. Through these programs we are targeting 40 SMBs per quarter,” says Krishnakumar. The company recently launched its series of new products based on the Windows 8 platform targeted at both the consumer and enterprise segments. The products include the XPS 12 convertible, Latitude tablet 10, Latitude 6430u ultrabook and OptiPlex 9010 AIO. While the XPS 12 convertible is priced at `90,490 excluding taxes, the OptiPlex 9010 will be available for `49,990. The Latitude 6430u ultrabook will come for `69,990 and Latitude 10 tablet for `42,490 excluding taxes. The company currently has close to 60 exclusive stores, and a presence in LFRs such as Croma and Staples. Dell also has a presence through its 10,000 reseller and retailer partners. n — Abhijeet Mukherjee

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Fortinet charts SMB GTM n AMIT SINGH

ortinet is increasing its focus on SMBs which now contribute about 30 percent of the company’s revenue. “We want to increase the SMB contribution to 40 percent by 2013 and have a 2-pronged strategy for the same,” informed Vishak Raman, Senior Regional Director, India & Saarc, Fortinet. The company is banking on its recently-launched FortiAnalyzer 200D, FortiManager 200D and FortiMail 200D for SMB and enterprise branch office customers. The vendor also announced a bundled offer for existing partners to promote the SMB series. “Partners will get one FortiAnalyzer along with every four FortiGate units they sell. This will help partners to reach the market faster and set up remote managed security services for the smaller customers in a better manner,” explained Raman. Fortinet will concentrate more on tier-2 and -3 cities; it aims to increase its partner base from 300+ to 500 by 2013. Added Raman, “While the top 25 cities now contribute about 85 percent of our business, the next level of growth will come from tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The recent appointment of Redington augurs well for our next phase of growth by driving penetration into smaller cities.” The company will organize customer events targeting the top 15 cities from NovemberDecember 2012. “We are looking for SMB customer engagements through customized events both in tier-1 as well as upcountry locations. The idea is to engage with both customers and partners from adjoining upcountry locations,” explained Raman. Overall, the company is expecting 32 percent growth and targets revenue of `100 crore in CY2012. Of this, 80 percent will be from UTM and about 6-7 percent from wireless security

“While the top 25 cities now contribute about 85 percent of our business, the next level of growth will come from tier-2 and tier-3 cities” Vishak Raman

Senior Regional Director India & Saarc, Fortinet

appliances. As per IDC India, Fortinet had 10 percent share in the security appliance market that is estimated at $180 million. The company is the leading player in the UTM space with 23 percent share of the total India market of $80 million in 2011. Fortinet has built two vertical practices, telecom and government, following the adoption of a vertical sales strategy approach which includes the hiring of two senior industry specialists. “In the government and PSU segments we have bagged some deals including e-governance projects, treasury projects and a project in a large PSU telecom provider,” Raman said. In addition, the company is increasing its focus on wireless security appliances and is targeting $8 million-10 million from these solutions by 2015. “While broadband and wireless technologies bring the welcome benefits of increased productivity and reduced costs, not as welcome is the escalating amount of security threats originating from trusted devices within the network. We integrate all wired and wireless traffic into a single FortiGate security platform giving visibility and control of all network threats,” Raman stated. n

edit opinion Work in progress

Volume 2, Issue 02

dhaval valia

loud computing is a natural progression for a channel partner with an established base of customers and strong influence in the mid-market and SMB space. The question is whether to offer vendor-branded services or invest in building white-label services. In the current scenario, I believe it’s wise to combine both to build a cloud business. Ideally, the best strategy for a partner would be to offer the generic cloud services from vendors and build on them to offer value-adds, and create a white-label service that is unique to the partner’s existing customer set. For instance, it would be futile to provide cloud mailing services because Microsoft and Google provide more costeffective offerings with their volume and scale. However, providing white-label back-up services for Exchange may make perfect sense. Selling vendor services also provides the muchneeded exposure to the various opportunities and challenges in selling cloud services. AllTimeIT, a consortium of leading partners, plans to bank on its partners’ existing customer base, which runs into thousands. None of these customers is going to move all its infrastructure to the AllTimeIT cloud. However, even if 10 percent of these customers move 20 percent of their IT infrastructure, that would give AllTimeIT enough business for the next 2-3 years. In this edition we feature eight partners who have floated their own cloud ventures. Each of these partners has identified core offerings that don’t compete with the generic services offered by vendors and large data center service providers. Instead, they are offering services which act as a valueadd to the generic vendor services, and have created offerings which are in keeping with customer needs. Back-up services for the SMB and mid-market segment, followed by vertical-specific applications, are the most popular among white-label cloud providers. Also, while many have invested in or plan to invest in creating their own data centers for service provisioning, others have hosted their cloud services on third-party data centers. For most partners who aren’t pure-play services providers, and where cloud services complement their on-premise solutions business, availing third-party data center services is the best option compared to investing significant amounts to set up their own DCs. Their investments should rather be focused on designing the best-fit customer services, and training and equipping their sales and technical teams. The bottomline is that it will be futile to compete with largescale players like Microsoft to offer generic services. Instead, the focus should be on mapping the components of the IT infra of existing customers that can move to the cloud—and then creating a cloud portfolio which meets this requirement. n E-mail CRN Executive Editor Dhaval Valia at dhaval.valia@ubm.com 12

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

: : : : : : : :

Sanjeev Khaira Kailash Pandurang Shirodkar Dhaval Valia Salil Warior Ramdas S Sonal Desai Abhijeet Mukherjee (Mumbai) Amit Singh (Delhi)

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edit opinion Proving the industry wrong KELLEY DAMORE

t channel conferences, we all espouse the characteristics of a good channel program— consistency, predictability, transparency and support from the very top. A lot of vendors talk the talk, but few walk the talk. The one exception is Cisco. Cisco has been selling predominantly through the channel for close to three decades. 80 percent of its business goes through channel, and it has always been a leader when it comes to forward-thinking and innovative programs. And while channel conflict is common for other vendors that must manage an aggressive direct sales force while growing a channel, Cisco has little conflict in the field. The biggest complaint about Cisco is the pressure it exerts on VARs to sell its complete offering and be a Cisco-only VAR. Yet Cisco and its CEO, John Chambers, have been second-guessed time and again. Cisco’s future and hefty margins were questioned as competitors attempted to make inroads into its leadership position in the networking and infrastructure space. The industry wasn’t convinced it could be successful in the server market. And while it has made mistakes, when the chips are down, Cisco has proved that it knows how to regroup, refocus and get the company back on track. In fact, in the past year, Cisco has regained significant marketshare in switching/routing, wireless and security. As a reflection of channel confidence, Cisco had a particularly strong showing in our Annual Report Card awards this year. It proved the naysayers wrong and took the midrange servers win away from the traditional hardware manufacturers as its UCS offering swept the category. In all, Cisco earned 14 awards with sweeps in other categories such as enterprise networking infrastructure. So it comes as no surprise that when we met Chambers for an hour recently he was more confident and aggressive than in previous interviews. He touched on the competition, which he said is remarkably weaker now than it was two years ago. He mentioned Juniper’s recent layoff announcement, and seemed less concerned about Huawei as a threat in the switching and routing market. Instead, he was almost chastising those critics and priding himself on Cisco’s transparency and accuracy in predicting broader IT trends. Instead of looking back he seems to be preparing for the future, trying to make for a seamless transition for the next CEO—a tall order considering he has been the personification of Cisco for 17 years. But as Chambers says, Cisco knows market transitions and has proved the industry wrong more than once. If Chambers continues to execute like he is today, he may ride off into the sunset as one of the greatest high-tech executives of our time. n E-mail Kelley Damore at kelley.damore@ec.ubm.com 14

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Rules of engagement CRN cover story on Rules of Engagement was an excellent article. A well-framed article, it has factual representation of concerns of the channel. The article highlights the challenges of vendors going direct, poaching of accounts, vendor involvement in partner accounts, issues in deal registration, and undue favor to a few partners. I believe that vendors are taking advantage of the lack of unity between partners, so now it’s time for us to unite. In an environment where margins are shrinking, I do not see any other way to sustain our businesses. G Das via email

The outlook for Windows 8 The feature on Windows 8 was a balanced article and

highlighted the pros and cons of the new OS. With already a few slip-ups with its previous OS launches, Microsoft must have taken the utmost care with the ease of user interface and features. Still, the company must be sweating because commercial users are not in the mood to switch to the new OS. Consumers are the only hope for Microsoft right now. Moreover, the company may be at risk by targeting the tablet and smartphone markets through the same OS. On the other side, looking at the slow IT retail market which has not picked up even during the festive season, we are skeptical about any large uptake of the new SKUs with Windows 8. Although consumers keep inquiring about the new products and doing windowshopping, actual sales are not happening. Jitendra Singh Tomar Agra

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

Emerson

2 emersonnetworkpower.com

marketing.india@emerson.com

Ncomputing

3 www.ncomputing.com

channel-india@ncomputing.com

Compuage-Odyssey

5 www.compuageindia.com

odyssey@compuageindia.com

Schneider

7 www.SEreply.com

in-care@schneider-electric.com

Rashi

9 www.rptechindia.com

feedback@rptechindia.com

Symantec

11 www.nortonredemption.com

in.norton.com/support

Wipro

13 www.wipro.com

scale.erp@wipro.com

NEC

15 www.nec.com/expresscluster

enquiries@necindia.in

IBM Gatefold

21 to 24 www.ibm.com

VCS

29 www.interop.in

salil.warior@ubm.com

Asus

38 www.asus.in

www.asusservice.com

Asus

39 www.asus.in

www.asusservice.com

Quick Heal

www.quickheal.com

info@quickheal.co.in

HCL

www.hclpos.co.in / www.hcl.in

wecare4u@hcl.in

Biz

42 www.indiaantivirus.com

sales@indiaantivirus.com

IBM

43 www.ibm.com

ibm.com/ipuresystems/in

EMC

44 www.emc.com

ritesh.d@cdwindia.com.com

channel chief “Quick Heal always respects the law” Kailash Katkar, Founder & CEO, Quick Heal Technologies, spoke to Dhaval Valia, Executive Editor, CRN, about the allegations of tax evasion leveled against his company. Katkar said that some people with ulterior motives are making these allegations to malign the company’s reputation Recently, the offices of Quick Heal were raided by tax authorities on suspicion of Excise duty and VAT evasion. Would you like to comment on this matter and also the outcome of the raids? There was an inspection by the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) on September 14, 2012 at the Pune and Parwanoo offices of Quick Heal. But please note that this was not a raid but just an inspection. We have explained our legal position to the DGCEI. Also, there was an inspection by a VAT officer, under the Himachal Pradesh VAT Act, on August 27, 2012 at Quick Heal’s Parwanoo branch. However, this was not related to the inspection on September 14 by the Central Excise department.

The allegations are that Quick Heal has evaded Excise, Service Tax and VAT to the tune of `100 crore ever since it moved its CD replication to Himachal Pradesh. There was no evasion of Excise duty by Quick Heal. With reference to the inspections by the VAT department and the DGCEI, we are in the process of responding to the queries and clarifications sought by the officers with respect to our operations at Parwanoo; the queries and clarifications are industry-specific and pertinent to the working of the antivirus (AV) industry. Rumors remain rumors. As on date we have not received any demand or notice from the departments for depositing taxes. We have not paid a single penny against this investigation.

terminated your contract with the company on grounds of quality and deadline issues.

The market speculation is that STL has complained about you to tax authorities as you

We moved our CD replication, packaging and kitting to Himachal in March 2011 because it is a designated Excise-free zone. We signed up Softalk for the same. Yes, we did face quality issues with STL. We received complaints from partners and customers about scratches on CDs, software loading problems, and wrong packaging—for example, a 1-user license going into a 3-user license pack. We informed Softalk about the same; they assured us that such complaints wouldn’t arise in the future. In November 2011 we took on board more CD manufacturers including Jupiter and IPsoft which also have units in Himachal Pradesh. I would like to state that Quick Heal didn’t terminate the contract with STL. It automatically became null and

“Rumors remain rumors. As on date we have not received any notice from authorities for depositing taxes. We have not paid a single paisa against this investigation”

“Quick Heal didn’t terminate the contract with STL. It became null and void because between March 2012 and April 2012, STL abruptly stopped manufacturing our CDs”

Your CD replication partner, Softalk Technologies Ltd (STL), has filed a complaint of fraud, cheating and tax evasion against Quick Heal with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police. A copy of the complaint is with CRN. We are aware of these complaints. Some people with vested interests or ulterior motives are making baseless and reckless but intentional allegations to malign the reputation of Quick Heal.

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channel chief “If the extent of malpractice by Quick Heal is so blatant don’t you think the DGCEI would have suspended the operations of Quick Heal with immediate effect? ”

“We follow strict principles of corporate governance in our day-to-day operations. We have two of the Big 4 audit firms as our statutory and internal auditor”

void because between March 2012 and April 2012 STL abruptly stopped manufacturing our CDs. I would not like to presume the motives behind STL’s complaint because the matter is sub-judice.

of dedicated service to our customers and the immense support of our loyal dealers and distributors. Our endeavor has been and will be to keep all our operations transparent and in compliance with all the laws.

STL’s complaint with the EOW of the Delhi Police alleges that Quick Heal purchased thousands of CDs unpacked, and packaged them at your Baddi office and Pune office after generating license keys at the Pune software development center, and that by falsely claiming that they were manufactured and packed by STL Quick Heal evaded excise of 12.5 percent on all those transactions. As alleged proof, STL in its complaint has attached an invoice dated April 16, 2011 which shows that 33,756 unpacked CDs were bought by you from them. Along with this, it has also attached the different software which these CDs carried on them and listed their MRPs. The total MRP value of this consignment was `125 crore. As I mentioned earlier, I wouldn’t like to get into the details of the matter because it’s under investigation. However, if the extent of malpractice by Quick Heal is so blatant don’t you think the DGCEI would have suspended the operations of Quick Heal with immediate effect? It’s been over 40 days since the DGCEI surveyed our offices. We are cooperating with them and providing all the documents required by them for a fair investigation.

Do you plan to sue STL for defamation for falsely accusing your company of malpractice? At present our focus is on cooperating with the government authorities in their investigations. Our legal advisors are already working on actions to be taken against persons trying to defame Quick Heal.

Some in the industry believe that while the Quick Heal promoters are clean they have been compelled to follow malpractices due to pressure from their equity partners who want the company to post higher profits. We as well as our equity partner Sequoia have principles and values of the highest integrity for corporate governance; we firmly believe in correctly paying all legitimate taxes and duties. We follow strict principles of corporate governance in our day-to-day operations, and to support this we have two of the Big 4 audit firms as our statutory and internal auditors. As a company we have toiled for over 15 years in R&D and have built a reputation that comes with years

STL has alleged that while your competitor Kaspersky paid `145 crore in taxes in the last fiscal, Quick Heal paid a paltry amount. Will you share with us the turnover of Quick Heal and the direct and indirect taxes paid by the company in the last fiscal? I will not be in a position to comment on what the competitor has paid by way of taxes. I don’t know the basis on which STL has made these assumptions. For tax of that amount, an AV company would need to have a turnover in excess of `700 crore. Quick Heal is one of the largest AV vendors in India having major market share of consumer AV but our revenue was only `187 crore in FY2011-12. Taxation matters are internal to the company and we wouldn’t like to put them in the public domain. However, we will share these figures with the enforcement agencies to assist them in their investigations.

Has all this impacted your supplies? We have tie-ups with enough CD manufacturing partners at Baddi. They continue with the manufacturing schedule of Quick Heal products in the routine manner. Also, our office in Baddi is fully functional, and the supply of Quick Heal products is going on in an uninterrupted manner.

You are one of the largest AV companies in India and have a very large and loyal channel base. They are all worried about what will happen to Quick Heal. What’s your message to them? We would like to tell our partners and customers that some people are deliberately trying to malign the reputation of Quick Heal by taking undue advantage of the recent investigations. Please don’t believe in rumors. Quick Heal is always ready to cooperate with any tax authority for any concern they may have regarding the tax liability of the company. Quick Heal believes in clean business and pays all the legitimate taxes, on time and correctly. Quick Heal always respects the law. The allegations made by the tax officers are pitiful and saddening. Of course, we shall never blame them because it is part of their job to investigate all the complaints received by them. n

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special focus

BI gaining ground As the amount of data in organizations continues to increase so does the need for tools to make sense of all that data. This explains the growing market for business intelligence solutions n SONAL DESAI

s technologies such as big data, analytics, corporate performance management and business process management become mainstream, Indian enterprises are looking at business intelligence (BI) to meet their complex needs. According to Gartner, the Indian BI software market is forecast to reach $101.5 million in 2012, a 17.5 percent increase from the 2011 revenue of $86.4 million.

Drivers Over the last five years, data intensive environments such as BFSI, telecom and manufacturing are driving BI. Maneesh Sharma, Head, Database & Technology, SAP India, says that over the last couple of years, as organizations increased their focus on process automation projects, analytics has evolved to be more proactive and connective. Somenath Nag, Director, Marketing & Business Development, Alten Calsoft Labs, believes that, looking ahead, cloud computing, mobility and open source BI tools will be the major drivers, especially among SMBs. Mobility, especially the usage of tablets in the enterprise, will improve the effectiveness of BI as users can get actionable insights in real-time and take immediate action. “You have social interactions, location data and sensor data that is now coming within the grasp of enterprises,” points out Vikash Mehrotra, Divisional Lead, BI & EPM, Oracle India.

Vendors adding buzz Vendors are banking on the shift in technology and the importance of tools that predict customer behavior to promote their BI offerings. QlikTech, one of the pure-play vendors, feels that data discovery has grown at a CAGR of 50-60 percent, and this is driving BI. “We have introduced tools which separate hardware and software for warehousing,” informs Ramendra Mandal, Country Manager, QlikTech India. “We provide plug-and-play tools that reduce implementation and maintenance costs. We provide customers with specific solutions and not templates.” For a major automotive manufacturer, QlikTech has installed BI tools in the dealer management system which is being used by more than 600 dealers. Following this, the instances of warranty leakage have reduced by almost 80 percent, Mandal states. QlikTech has more than 2,000 users across 600 customers in India. Another vendor, SAP, has developed analytical applications for the utilities. For a utility company

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it has created smart meter analytics to check power consumption and predict usage. Similarly, it has developed strategic workforce management solutions for services industries. “The analytical solutions are sold through our channel partners. Whenever an enterprise wants to implement BI, our partners provide them with a template which is essentially a blueprint which has a dashboard, KPIs and other tools available on the go,” informs Sharma. Alten Calsoft is targeting 2-3 percent market share in the next 18-24 months by focusing on high-value BI solutions in customer and market analytics, business process improvements, and social media analytics for customers in the automotive, education, healthcare and telecom verticals. Similarly, Nucleus Software is banking on customer loyalty and know-your-customer trends in the BFSI segment for growth. According to Ravi Pratap Singh, President & Head, Product Management, Nucleus, “Financial institutions develop profiles of defaulters and create policies to ensure that potential defaulters are identified and denied loans. BI is critical for this profiling. What starts off as data related to loans culminates in information on the individual’s relationship with the bank, transactions across multiple products, e- and m-interactions, and social media, and this results in big data.” Wipro has created numerous industry-specific solutions such as marketing mix modeling, a know-yourstore solution for retail, claims analytics for insurance, and a B2B MDM solution for hi-tech.

special focus “FIs develop profiles of defaulters and create policies to ensure that potential defaulters are identified and denied loans. BI is critical for this profiling”

“BI is a process to adopt. It is not a technology that you adopt and start using. It is a brain working within a company”

Ravi Pratap Singh, President & Head,

Maneesh Sharma

Product Management, Nucleus Software

Head, Database & Technology, SAP India

Cloud and BI Cloud and third-party Web services allow organizations to rapidly deliver a rich user experience, but they can also degrade the performance of Web and mobile sites. Research shows that the typical Website has more than 10 separate hosts contributing to a single transaction, many of which come from third-party cloud services such as social media, e-commerce platforms, Web analytics, ad servers and content delivery networks. The cloud helps to reduce the upfront infrastructure cost of implementing a BI system, and BI tools ensure that the total cost of ownership of a BI system stays within the reach for SMBs. Mehrotra feels that, in an uncertain economy, when enterprises are looking for conserving cash, a cloud-based open source BI solution can drive BI adoption in the Indian market. Meanwhile, Compuware has announced a newgeneration performance analytics solution which raises the intelligence of software-as-a-service and application performance management. The solution, Outage Analyzer, provides real-time visualizations and alerts of outages in third-party Web services, mobile and cloud applications. Available for free, the company is using big data technologies and a proprietary anomaly detection engine which correlates more than eight billion data points per day.

Partners in full swing Looking at the opportunity, channel partners have carved out separate business units for BI. Delhi-based SI Team Computers is banking big on BI. Team, which dived into BI six years ago, today has 125 consultants and more than 200 implementations across India. For the insurance segment Team has developed a template on QlikTech’s QSInsure application which analyzes policy management. It has been deployed at 100 customer sites. For one of its first large customers, Canon, the company deployed QlikTech solutions to consolidate data sources. Ranjan Chopra, CMD, Team Computers, says that BI has drastically reduced the time taken for preparing reports, thereby saving the time of the executives. “In India we have customers who have implemented SAP, Oracle and MS, and are still struggling to discover their data. That is where we entered and developed dashboards to make analytics easy for the CXOs.” Chopra is targeting `40 crore from BI this fiscal, and has deployed solutions for large customers such as Indian Oil and Reliance ADAG, and smaller retailers like Ritu

Wears for an average deal size of `15 lakh. The company is building solutions around Facebook. It is also building dashboards around cloud-CRM on the Associated Query Language platform of QlikTech. Sunny Sharma, Head, Foetron Cloud Business, the cloud and BI business division of the Delhi-based Mm9 Information Technologies, informs that BI contributes 5 percent of the company’s overall revenue, and that the division is banking on BI on the cloud for growth in the next five years. For a very large logistics company which was using inhouse BI tools to analyze data, Foetron deployed multiple BI solutions for 300 users. It set up a dedicated team of 10 persons to migrate the BI software and train internal stakeholders. Sharma says that the logistics company will break even on the staff in the first year, and that Foetron would earn 30 percent of the project totally valued at `50 lakh.

Challenges Experts say that in future organizations will look for larger customers of BI and thus bring pervasive BI to the forefront. Quicker ROI from the business perspective will mean a larger segment of BI will need to be delivered as an application, just like it is delivered with the ERP wave. Because of the ‘Do more with less’ mantra, appliances with in-memory technology which are capable of handling large data sets will gain significant market share. From a partner perspective, Sharma feels that the biggest problem with customers is that they do not have their data sources right, they do not have the right processes and strategies in place. “We help them set the right process and right data sources, and then BI comes in. BI is a process to adopt, it is not a technology that you adopt and start using; it is a brain working within a company.” Nag of Alten Calsoft points out that the scarcity of experts who can do justice to the analytics is the biggest challenge. “The analytics is heavily statistical modelbased, and we all know that the same data can be sliced differently to conclude two different things.”

Outlook “During the next 10 years, the explosion of information will be the biggest opportunity for BI, also its biggest challenge,” feels Bhavish Sood, Research Director, Gartner. He predicts that the addition of mobile, social and collaborative technologies to advanced analytics tools will give a broader set of users the insights for decisionmaking when and where they need it. n

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cover story

Featuring the plans and strategies of 8 leading partners who are betting big on cloud computing, and have launched their own white-label services n crn network

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cover story Ace Data Services

Albion Infotel

One of the pioneers

Fully seasoned player

elhi-based Ace Data Services has been one of the pioneers in offering a cloud-based storage-as-aservice platform—BackupVault—in March 2011. The storage specialist jumped on to the cloud bandwagon primarily because it saw customers who were increasingly looking at an opex model for data archival and protection. Ace has set up a co-location facility at a third-party tier-3 data center. “Also, it’s no more just desktops and laptops which are creating data. BackupVault provides a single interface and single technology to back up all kinds of devices from smartphones to servers,” says Neeraj Mediratta, CEO, Ace Data. One of the highlights of the platform is that it is agentless, which reduces the need to install, manage and upgrade software in various client devices. To differentiate the services from other back-up services, Ace is offering continuous data protection that can be managed by an administrator without disturbing the users. For larger enterprise customers Ace is providing on-premise Neeraj Mediratta de-duplication and compression equipment to reduce WAN bandwidth usage. Informs Mediratta, “Security is a key element of our back-up service. Apart from FIPS-certified on-premise encryption to ensure secure data transmission on WAN bandwidth, we are offering a wide range of protection. The complete life cycle is configured as a single automated policy.” Ace Data has partnered with Asigra for cloud-based solutions, while for de-duplication and storage hardware almost all hardware vendors including IBM, Quantum, EMC, NetApp and HP have been roped in. “We are seeing increasing demand among IT/ITeS companies, especially in the wake of the demand from their customers regarding different compliance requirements such as Sarbanes Oxley Act, HIPPA and Basel-IT,” Mediratta added. Other verticals being explored include manufacturing and healthcare. The GTM strategies so far have been though multiple POCs and pilots. Reveals Mediratta, “Conversion rates have been very healthy, and we have signed on customers such as NDTV, Apollo Hospitals and Luminous. We have at any point of time around 30-40 pilots running.” n

snapshot

elhi-based Albion Infotel is a seasoned cloud provider with about 15,000 individual customers and 200 enterprise and SMB customers for its SaaS and IaaS portfolio. “Applications developed on our own platform give us the flexibility to adapt to the needs of customers. This gives us an edge over other cloud players who offer little scope for adaptation,” explains Sanjeev Gupta, Managing Director, Albion Infotel. With its expansion to the US, UK and Australian markets, the company has doubled its cloud revenue from `2.5 crore in FY2009-10 to `5.2 crore in FY2010-11 and `10 crore in FY2011-12. The company, which started by offering an Albionbranded CRM and email collaboration suite, now offers computer management (Albion Procare), child protection (Kidsguard4U), cloud back-up and DR (Albion DataSafe), antivirus (Albion Secure), efax and HRMS under its SaaS portfolio. It also offers a hosted contact center, application hosting, co-location and virtual Sanjeev Gupta private server under IaaS. Albion recently entered the consumer business with Albion Secure, and is scouting for partners to set up a distribution network for its range of cloud services. The company is in an advanced stage of finalizing RDs for the north and west, and scouting for RDs for the south, central and east regions. Albion is looking at 240 partners in this fiscal. For its commercial portfolio it has recently appointed SwiftMail Communications as distributor. Remaining focused on its core strengths, Albion is leveraging the tier-4 data center of Ctrl S in Hyderabad to host its servers and applications. “In FY2011-12 we spent $2 million to upgrade the capacity of our hosted data center at Ctrl S and to set up another hosted data center in the US,” Gupta informs. Albion is targeting `35 crore from its cloud and managed services in FY2012-13. To strengthen its cloud portfolio, the company intends to soon introduce Albion Remote View and an Albion Apps store. The company has a marketing budget of `6 crore in the current fiscal. n

snapshot

Has a cloud-based storage-as-a-service platform, BackupVault, which provides a single interface and technology to back up devices from smartphones to servers. Has a co-location facility at a third-party tier-3 data center. Partnered with Asigra for cloud-based solutions, while for de-duplication and storage hardware almost all hardware vendors have been roped in. Signed on customers such as NDTV, Apollo Hospitals, Luminous, etc.

Has 15,000 individual customers and 200 enterprise and SMB customers for its SaaS and IaaS portfolio. Doubled its cloud revenue from `5.2 crore in FY2010-11 to `10 crore in FY2011-12. Spent $2 million to upgrade the capacity of its hosted data center at Ctrl S and set up another hosted data center in the US. Has a marketing budget of `6 crore in the current fiscal.

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cover story AllTimeIT Solutions

GoIP Services

15-partner conglomerate

The pay-per-use model

conglomeration of 15 HP partners, AllTime, in July 2012, announced the launch of Efficloud, a payper-use cloud model to meet the needs of SMBs. The idea of launching the company originated two years back at an HP meet, with a dozen enterprise partners showing interest. Finally, 15 partners— Ashtech Infotech, CI Infotech, Dixit Infotech, Dotcad, Future Biz, Orbit, Orient Technologies, PC Solutions, Precision, Progression, SK International, Sara Infoway, Shro Systems, Valuepoint Systems and Vintech—joined hands to create an independent cloud service provider. HP has provided mentoring, technical, marketing and financial support to the new venture. AllTime is a certified HP CloudAgile partner. The EffiCloud is built on the HP CloudSystem Matrix and delivers infrastructure-as-a-service branded as EffiCompute, platform-as-a-service branded as EffiBase, and software-asa-service (SaaS) branded as EffiApp. AllTimeIT has set up data center in Mumbai; it also uses the HP Server Automation and HP Operations Ajay Sawant Orchestrator software suites for automating tasks and improving cloud efficiency. Informs Ajay Sawant, MD, AllTimeIT, “With EffiCloud, we aim to be a leader in the space. Our management team has a combined experience of over 300 years, and the total revenue of the companies in business would be over $300 million. Between the partner companies and associates, we have a presence in 72 cities; this allows us to provide a local touch and support.” AllTimeIT is offering enterprises services such as virtual private server, backup-as-a-service, virtual desktop infrastructure, portal-as-a-service and SaaS in areas such as ERP, hospitality, retail and education. “Our platform is specifically targeted at Indian SMBs,” says Sawant. He says the company is banking on the existing sales and technical support of the partner companies, and has over trained 200 sales and 300 technical personnel. Apart from HP, the company has signed for partnerships with Microsoft and Citrix. It is aiming for a marketshare of 15-20 percent in the next two years. The company already has six customer sign-ups, and nearly 100 pilots are on. n

snapshot

Has services such as virtual private server, backup-as-aservice, VDI, portal-as-a-service and SaaS in areas such as ERP, hospitality, retail and education. HP has provided it with mentoring, technical, marketing and financial support. Set up its data center infrastructure in Mumbai; also uses the HP Server Automation and HP Operations Orchestrator software suites. Partnered with Microsoft and Citrix.

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elhi-based GoIP services launched its cloud services, named GoCloud, an end-to-end TCObased offering, in March 2012. It offers services such as virtual private servers, back-up, and applications for demand and infrastructure management on a pay-per-use model. GoIP started by providing cloud services on a hybrid model, but later included the private cloud in its portfolio. Remarks Anshul Gupta, COO, GoIP, “Not many enterprises have embraced the cloud, but we are addressing the challenge by offering customized services to both large enterprises and SMBs which form a major chunk or our portfolio, from our data center.” The company, has launched its cloud services on the Dell platform, and is working with ISVs, application developers and resellers for services around IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. Gupta informs that GoIP has launched solutions for the pharma, telecom value-added services (VAS) provider and education verticals on PaaS and IaaS. “We provide the Anshul Gupta platform on which VAS providers can develop applications and offer them over the cloud. A very large telecom operator is using our cloud to offer VAS to its customers. Similarly, a local partner of a very large social networking site has provided our platform to his VAS provider to release customized services.” In SaaS, GoIP enables software players and application developers to launch their applications. “Since March, under our Cloud Ubiquitous Service Provider partner program, we have signed up 300 partners who are developing and reselling applications and services on a revenue-sharing model to 20-odd domestic customers. Currently all our customers are external. By the end of the fiscal we expect 30 percent to transition to GoCloud.” Gupta voices concern over the popular perception regarding the white-label services launched by partners and branded services from vendors. He feels that partners should form their own USP, develop vertical-specific solutions, and remain focused to differentiate themselves. Going forward, GoIP has plans to invest in a hosted/ rented model as part of its capacity expansion and server redundancy. n

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Has launched its cloud services, named GoCloud, an end-toend TCO-based offering, in March 2012. Offers services such as virtual private servers, back-up, and applications for demand and infrastructure management on a pay-per-use model. Has signed up 300 partners who are developing and reselling applications and services on a revenue-sharing model to 20-odd domestic customers. Plans to invest in a hosted/rented model for expansion.

cover story Hostoncloud

Nxtgen Data Center & Services

For DR and back-up

Private, Public & Hybrid

lectro Sales Corporation, now Esconet Technologies, is providing basic, tape-driven, disk-driven and cloud-based services for DR services and back-up from its data center in Delhi. The company started the cloud practice with an initial investment of `40 lakh, and launched its first white-label service named HostOnCloud in April 2010. Esconet has been leveraging its partnerships with VMware for hypervisors, Intel, and EMC for storage solutions. Santosh Agrawal, Partner, Esconet, who heads its cloud division, says that the company is currently not offering the services at fixed rates. “Our smallest customer pays us `4,000 per month, and our biggest customer pays us `1.5 lakh per month.” According to Agrawal, the biggest challenge was to convince customers to take the cloud route. “Customers with large IT infrastructure refused to outsource. Customers who we thought were mature for the cloud refused. Although we launched HostOnCloud in 2010, the business Santosh Agrawal actually took off only mid-2011. Today we have 20 customers from the SMB segment.” The company clocked revenue of `8 lakh in the first year and `24 lakh so far this year. “We will close this fiscal at `35 lakh, which will contribute 1.75 percent of our overall revenue of `20 crore. But by 2013 the percentage of cloud services revenue will increase significantly,” Agrawal says. On the cards are vertical-specific solutions on HostOnCloud. Besides, the company will include more technologies such as security and de-duplication to its cloud portfolio. “We believe that the time is ripe to introduce packaged services and rate cards for various verticals. We will start with manufacturing, IT/ITeS and hospitality. We will continue to invest in certifications, and another data center for capacity expansion. Plans are afoot to increase the number of customers on HostOnCloud from the current 20 to 50 by FY2012-13, and to 150 by 2015.” The company will invest another `2 crore in the next three years on infrastructure, bandwidth and power solutions. n

snapshot

xtgen Data Center & Services, headquartered in Bengaluru, is a start-up focused on providing private, public and hybrid cloud services. The company has been started by seven former employees of Tulip Telecom, and has already raised a pipeline of `90 crore for investment to set up a tier-3 data center in Bengaluru. “We are offering a combination of on-premise data centers in-a-box for setting up private clouds, public clouds at our data center, and multiple services for managing infrastructure from our NOC,” explains AS Rajgopal, CEO, Nxtgen. Nxtgen has already signed for partnerships with RedHat and Microsoft, and has built relations with a number of server and storage vendors. Nxtgen’s on-premise data center is available to customers through a payas-you-go model, where scalability is offered through a private cloud set-up at the Nxtgen facility. Nxtgen is setting up a data center with 1,25,000 sq ft space at Bidadi AS Rajgopal in Bengaluru which is likely to be operational by August 2013. “We have hired some of the best professionals. Germany-based Schnabel is our DC consultant while Grant Thornton is helping with the business plan,” says Rajgopal. The company is raising around `90 crore through financial institutions and personal resources of the promoters. The idea is to maintain a 1:2 equity:debt ratio. Rajgopal says that going forward the real differential would be platform performance and the valueadded services cloud service providers offer. “Today, customers understand that some of the large MNC cloud providers are on shared platforms. Our USP would be the best and most reliable hardware coupled with a number of value-added services. For example, all the storage we offer is on enterprise fiber channel SAN.” Nxtgen hopes to garner revenue of `18 crore by FY2012-13. Other services offered include DR and application hosting over the cloud. The present GTM strategy is direct, but Nxtgen intends to roll out a channel plan by next fiscal. n

snapshot

Partnered with VMware for hypervisors, and Intel and EMC for storage solutions. Offers disaster recovery and back-up solutions from its data center in Delhi. Plans investments of `2 crore over the next three years in infrastructure, bandwidth and power solutions. Targets to sign up 150 customers by 2015; plans to include more technologies such as security and de-duplication to its cloud portfolio.

Raised `90 crore to set up a 1,25,000 sq ft tier-3 data center at Bidadi in Bengaluru. Is offering on-premise data centers in-a-box for setting up private clouds, public clouds at its data center, and multiple services for managing infrastructure from its NOC. Partnered with RedHat and Microsoft. Has a direct GTM strategy, but intends to roll out a channel plan by next fiscal.

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cover story TechOnCloud

Trimax IT Infrastructure & Services

Creating a difference

Scalability of services

hennai-based 247 Computing Services, a subsidiary of Futurenet Technologies, recently launched TechOnCloud, a branded integrated cloud platform that offers managed cloud services. Explains L Ashok, MD, 247, “We had two choices— take the path of being an SI or a reseller of the market leaders, or create a difference, offer value to our customers, and compete with the leaders in the industry. We chose the second option.” The company has invested in its own infrastructure which includes a mini-data center. Ashok pegs the investment so far at around `50 lakh. “We had the option of setting up the hosting in a data center which may have worked out cheaper. But our customers want to come and see the infrastructure for themselves, and we can’t ply them to a third-party data center every time.” Currently, 247 has launched four services around managed email, back-up, remote monitoring and DR. For managed email services the SI has signed up with VMware Zimbra. L Ashok “We are offering both the network edition of Zimbra as well as the open source edition. We are presently around 45 percent cheaper than Google (Google Apps).” The company has signed with American Megatrends for storage technology, and Ashok sees storage-as-a-service taking off. “Presently our rates are on par with those of Amazon, but we do more since we offer onsite support to customers.” Remote monitoring and the management of infrastructure has been a business 247 has focused on since inception; however, moving the service on to the cloud has helped 247 to leverage cost advantages. “All our services are on a pay-as-you-go basis, and customers need not worry about making upfront investments,” says Ashok. 247 is also in talks with IBM and Amazon for extending the cloud services. Says Ashok, “We are looking at offering an established vendor’s platform whenever customers want to scale up.” Other plans include starting hosted ERP and business applications as-a-service, for which the company is in talks with two vendors. n

snapshot

Has set up a mini DC to offer managed cloud services for email, back-up, monitoring and disaster recovery. Partnered with American Megatrends and VMware; in discussions with Amazon and IBM for extending the cloud services. Plans to expand services to hosted ERP and business applications. Expects TechOnCloud to account for 50 percent of the company’s services revenue in a couple of years.

Computer Reseller News

or Trimax IT Infrastructure & Services, getting into cloud computing was a logical extension of its data center business. The company, which has presence in the managed services business for the last eight years, established a tier-3 data center in Bengaluru in 2008 and then in Mumbai in 2012. It entered cloud computing in 2009 by offering a mail and messaging service on Microsoft Exchange. “However, we formally introduced our cloud services in 2011 with NEC. We jointly developed ClApp, an on-demand cloud aggregation platform for integrated business applications,” informs Jyotish Kumar Ghosh, EVP & Head Business Development & Channels (DC, Network and Cloud) . The applications in its SaaS portfolio include CRM, e-Leave, e-Claims, accounting, HRMS, inventory, PoS, video conferencing, etc. Under its IaaS portfolio it offers computing on demand, VC and virtual desktop services. The company also offers hosted mobility, SharePoint, online communication, DRaaS and co-location services. Jyotish Kumar Ghosh With a customer base for its FMS, network management services and RIMS, Trimax has been able to rope in many of them for its cloud services. “With 40-45 percent EBITDA margins, cloud services are excellent to boost bottom-lines. Out of our cloud revenue, 35 percent is contributed by Exchange services and the SaaS portfolio brings in 10 percent. Our IaaS adds 30 percent to the cloud revenue,” reveals Ghosh. He says that because businesses are going through challenging times and resource allocation and utilization have become unpredictable, many are opting for an opex model which gives them the desired IT resources with scalability. According to Ghosh, scalability of services is the forte of Trimax because the data centers are owned by the company; this gives it the freedom for immediate scalability and control of applications. The company plans to double its data center infrastructure by April 2013 to support the growing demand from customers. “We are also planning to offer cloud services to overseas customers in territories like US, UK and Australia in the next quarter,” Ghosh adds. n

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Has been in the managed services business for the last eight years. Established a tier-3 data center at Bengaluru in 2008 and at Mumbai in 2012. Entered cloud computing in 2009 by offering a mail and messaging service on Microsoft Exchange; formally introduced its cloud services in 2011 with NEC. Plans to offer cloud services to customers in territories like US, UK and Australia.

Connect and interact with more than 1,000 resellers at half the cost of a 50-delegate F2F event

November 29-30, 2012

After the success of CRN Virtual Expo held on May 30-31, 2012, CRN brings to you yet another one. Slated on November 29-30, 2012, the CRN Virtual Expo will bring together more than 1,000 channel partners from across 150+ cities, thus making it the largest such virtual initiative in the IT channels in the country. A combination of web- and video-based live conference program and an interactive online exhibition, the CRN Virtual Expo promises to be the most cost-effective channel marketing tool for IT vendors.

Platinum Partners

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market focus increasing retail footfalls Getting customers to enter stores is half the battle won, but how do you get them to enter? Retailers are trying everything from freebies to festive offers with a reasonable amount of success n ABHIJEET MUKHERJEE

ndian retail is undergoing a slowdown due to several external factors impacting the market. These include volatility in the value of the domestic currency, a rise in the prices of commodities, and an unstable political scenario which have made the Indian consumer skeptical about spending. The value of the rupee, for example, has risen by 24 percent in the last couple of months while the prices of commodities have increased. Remarks S Rajendran, CMO, Acer India, “Though the entire retail sector has been impacted by the slowdown, what has directly hit the IT industry is the rise in the value of the rupee which has increased our input cost because most components are imported.” The second challenge is that despite this being the festive season the focus of consumers is not much on typical IT products but rather on TV sets, smartphones and tablets. “Though Diwali is approaching we have not seen increased sales compared to normal months. As far as I can understand, this Diwali will be less exciting than the previous one as consumers are more keen on buying consumer electronics,” says Sukesh Madaan, CEO, Envent. However, vendors and retailers are not depressed, and have both long-term as well as short-term strategies to attract customers to their retail stores.

is to provide not only a great buying experience but also proper post-sales support. “Customers will definitely come back if the retailer gets an under-warranty device serviced on the customer’s behalf at no extra cost. We have been doing this for the last couple of years and have got a good response,” says Yatheesh Govind, Director, SAC Infosystem. Getting customer referrals also works well in terms of a long-term strategy. Adds Govind, “We do a lot of customer referral programs, and the result is encouraging. For example, we offer `500 vouchers to customers who refer us to other customers. Every month at least 7 percent of our customers are referral customers.”

Festive O Bundled schemes ff e

Almost all retailers want to keep a long-term relationship with their customers, and therefore subscribe to certain strategies which include easy EMI schemes, cash-back offers and proper post-sales support. Says Ketan Patel, CEO, Creative Peripherals, “Our retailers have initiated cash-back offers on credit cards for their customers; these are beneficial for both customers and retailers. While customers get cash-back of a particular denomination on the purchase of articles, for retailers it draws customers; the cost is shared by the credit card companies. Such offers have shown a 17 percent increase in sales; in terms of customer retention, they are able to retain around 50 percent of customers.” Another strategy to attract customers and retain them

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Various strategies

This is one of the most regular methods practised by retailers especially during the festive season. According to Patel, “Bundling helps in a lot of ways. It helps to beat the competition in terms of pricing. For example, when a customer walks in and does a price comparison the retailer throws in this trump card saying he cannot reduce his price but can provide another product or accessory at a nominal cost.” Though some of the vendors provide bundled software, including antivirus, bundling is more frequently adopted by retailers who want to grab customer attention; they offer products such as USB drives, cameras and headphones.

Festive offers The festive season is a big period for consumer buying; the need is to offer a proposition to attract customers to IT stores and tempt them to buy. Vendors are offering interesting schemes to reap the most out of the festive period. Lenovo is offering a wireless multimedia headset on the purchase of its A and B series of AIOs. It is also offering a choice of free accessories—a wireless mouse, a sleek headset or multimedia speakers worth `2,500—or an extended 2-year warranty worth `5,000 on the purchase of the Lenovo IdeaPad Z580, Z500, Y500, U310, U410 and U510 premium notebooks.

market focus “Cash-back offers have shown a 17 percent increase in sales; in terms of customer retention, they are able to retain around 50 percent of customers”

“We offer `500 vouchers to customers who refer us to other customers. Every month at least 7 percent of our customers are referral customers”

Ketan Patel

Yatheesh Govind

CEO, Creative Peripherals

Director, SAC Infosystem

Sony has launched a lucky-draw scheme with prizes including Bravia TVs, personal 3D viewers, Xperia tablets and smartphones. “This festive season, with our extended product portfolio and compelling offers, we will achieve sales of `2,850 crore during SeptemberNovember which is a 50 percent increase over last year’s festive season,” forecasts Kenichiro Hibi, Managing Director, Sony India. Other brands such as Dell, HP, Acer and SanDisk are also offering festive schemes. Moreover, IT associations are helping retailers to increase footfalls. This festive season the Delhi-based All Delhi Computer Traders Association (ADCTA) has launched an initiative, the Nehru Place Diwali Carnival, to increase footfalls in the area. The scheme offers lucky-draw coupons for around 500 gifts worth `20 lakh, with a Toyota car as the bumper prize. Says Swarn Singh, Joint Secretary, ADCTA, “It is our first initiative on this scale to promote footfalls in Nehru Place. The objective is to promote the sales of all IT brands and products.” Rajendran is positive that freebies and contests during the festive season pay off. “We have realized that such activities during the festive season, in addition to regular activities, helped Acer grow 30-35 percent.”

Freebies While bundled schemes involve IT products to attract consumers, freebies which might not necessarily include IT accessories or products do the magic. Madaan of Envent agrees. “We have seen that freebies attract customers. For example, Reebok T-shirts on the purchase of `5,000 worth of products or a deodorant on the purchase of `2,000 worth of products works really well because it is not always necessary that the customer may be looking for a USB drive or earphone set. Understanding the consumer mindset is very important while deciding on such schemes.” Schemes offering gifts such as pens, mice and cameras for online registration also work well. Informs Patel, “We have tried this and found that overall freebies have increased sales by around 20 percent.”

In-store branding According to vendors, an improved buying ambience can increase footfalls. Most of the retailers have proper instore branding with assistance from vendors. All IT brands are investing heavily in in-store branding. For example, Sony India recently announced a marketing budget of `90 crore for 2012 out of which

30 percent is being utilized for in-store branding and shop-fronts. Sony has increased its marketing budget for ATL and BTL activities by 80 percent compared to 2011. The reason for the huge investments in in-store branding is the ambience it creates to enable more walk-ins. “We have noticed that compared to a non-branded store, one that has proper branding attracts four times more footfalls,” explains Rajendran. Vendors are also helping with in-store demos. Many vendors have in-store demonstrators to explain the features of notebooks to customers. “These people are well trained and have the ability to convert walk-ins to customers,” observes Patel.

Online platforms Buying behavior in India is fast changing, and a growing number of youth find it comfortable to buy products online from the comfort of their homes or offices. Comments Rajendran, “These are a different set of new consumers who are well-versed with the product, have seen or experienced the product previously, and do not need any kind of product counseling.” For instance, Envent recently witnessed increased sales online. “We sold close to 2,000 Bluetooth devices online in two weeks, which is amazing in a country which was believed to shy away from online purchases. The reason for this is increased awareness and publicity; besides, new portals are providing a good buying experience which has developed trust in online purchases,” says Madaan.

Effective communication Organizing events and roadshows, or providing bundled gifts, will not draw customers to the stores or online platforms unless the information is effectively communicated to the target audience. Both vendors and partners therefore need to emphasize on spreading the news though print ads, pamphlets or mass mailers. “What is effective depends on the kind of consumer you are targeting. Some can be reached online, and a viral or EDM would do the job, while for others a conventional medium like newspaper ads would get their attention. It also depends on the kind of budget the vendor or the partner plans to spend,” says Sanjay Ramakrishnan, GM, India, Vizury Interactive, a company which helps online companies to increase traffic. He said that word-of-mouth has far more weightage than print ads; while the conversion rate from print ads would be less than a percent, word-of-mouth enables 10 times more conversions. n

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role model Changing with the times

Years of playing competitive table tennis and badminton have made him very nimble. DP Sinha, MD, Graphline Computers, displays the same agility when it comes to running his business n Amit Singh

P Sinha, MD, Graphline Computers, started IT reselling after a discussion with a friend. Belonging to a service-class family, starting a business was a tough decision for Sinha. However, he heeded the advice of his friend (who had a PC assembling business in Delhi) to start reselling in Patna, his home town. Despite several ups and downs, and subsequently shifting base to Delhi, Graphline is today counted among the top HP commercial partners in India. The company’s clientele includes Apollo Tyres, IMT Manesar, DPS Society, Interglobe, Dalmia Cements and Vestergaard Frandsen.

The beginning Sinha, an MBA, started Graphline Computers from a place owned by his friend, Ashish Bhushan, in December 1989. Set up with a sum of `3 lakh, the company started reselling PCs from Digital, and in 1991 became an authorized service provider for the company. While Bhushan handled the implementation and services, Sinha took care of business development and sales. Recalls Sinha, “Selling PCs at that time was a difficult task because very few people were then aware about IT in a place like Patna.” The company focused on publishing houses and government departments. In 1993 it also partnered with Sonata Information Technology for L&T dot-matrix printers. In 1999, Graphline became a Compaq partner after the Digital acquisition and got into the retail business. “We saw retail as an obvious extension of our commercial reselling business. We had a big office at a prominent location, and converted the front portion

“I was kidnapped and held for ransom for 15 days. The issue was highlighted in the media and raised in the Bihar Assembly. I was eventually released without paying” 32

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into a 2,000 sq ft showroom,” says Sinha. On the commercial front, the company acquired competencies in servers and networking, and increased its focus on governments and PSUs. It bagged three big orders worth `50 lakh-60 lakh each to supply Compaq desktops and servers to the Barauni refinery of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in 1993. Informs Sinha, “IOC was a big customer for us. The Barauni refinery alone gave us business of `5 crore-6 crore till 1997 for supplying about 3,000 PCs and 40-50 servers.” Graphline earned revenue of `3.5 crore in FY1993-94; this rose to `14 crore in FY1998-99 thanks to deals from several clients including IOC, NTPC, the Bihar Assembly and the Bihar Secretariat. The company suffered a major setback when Sinha was kidnapped from Patna in 1999. Recalls Sinha, “I was kidnapped and held for ransom for 15 days. The issue was highlighted in the media, and was raised in the Bihar Assembly; as a result, I was eventually released under political pressure without paying any ransom.” Sinha says that his flourishing career graph led to his kidnapping. “My achievements during my tenure as General Secretary of the Bihar IT Association from 1994-99 caught the eye of the kidnappers.” The matter didn’t end there. After his release, the threats and extortion calls started. Sinha therefore shifted base to Delhi in December 1999. He stopped his retail business in Patna in 2000 because it was difficult for a single person to manage both businesses. Bhushan then started managing the commercial business in Patna and Sinha started a 350 sq ft retail showroom at Karol Bagh in Delhi on an investment of `5 lakh. “Because I had studied in Delhi it was my obvious choice and also an opportunity to expand outside Bihar,” Sinha explains. The effect of the move was visible on the business; revenue declined to `13 crore in FY2000-01 with the Patna office contributing just `5 crore. Informs Sinha, “To add to the trouble, Bhushan quit the business due

Role model

2012

2005

2004

1998

1993

1991

1989

notebooks and desktops, and from to personal reasons in 2001 so I MILESTONES the Pearson Group to supply 300 roped in my brother, RP Sinha, to notebooks. handle the Patna office.” The retail business in Delhi Started Graphline Computers was doing well, and Graphline was Best practices with a sum of `3 lakh judged best HP notebook partner Sinha is a firm believer in the for 2002 and 2003. “However, single vendor policy and has stayed Became an authorized service we deliberately stopped our with HP since the beginning. “The provider for Digital retail business in 2004 due to single vendor focus enables us to decreasing margins and increasing get better pricing support as well Bagged three orders worth `50 competition,” explains Sinha. as maximum back-end incentives lakh-60 lakh each from IOC’s Leveraging on his experience in through tactical programs. We also Barauni refinery Bihar, Sinha shifted to corporate get incentives as a loyalty bonus.” reselling. “We leveraged the Riding on this policy the Won deals from the Bihar customers we had in Bihar and company has bagged numerous Assembly and State their referrals, and the story went awards. on.” Graphline bagged a deal Future growth Secretariat worth `3 crore for installing 200 Although the company finds the PCs, two servers and storage for JP current scenario gloomy due to Exited the retail business due Industries in 2005. Soon after, the payment delays and reduced to decreasing margins and company executed a project worth buying by corporates, it is targeting increasing competition `2.5 crore including servers, PCs revenue of `55 crore this fiscal and and networking for the JP Institute over `100 crore in the next 3-4 Bagged multi-crore deals from of Technology in Delhi and Shimla. years. JP Industries “JP was one of our biggest clients “For our reselling business and gave us business of more than we have increased our focus on Attained revenue of `51.28 `5 crore till 2008,” says Sinha. SMB customers. This fiscal we crore; acquired many SMB and The company got into subhave received just one big order large customers distribution in 2010. “We leveraged worth `95 lakh from British School our relations with HP and the fact but we have compensated with that we were already keeping stocks of HP notebooks numerous deals of `10 lakh-30 lakh from SMBs,” and desktops for quick deliveries. Due to our reputation reveals Sinha. in the market, the sub-distribution business added 10 The company grossed revenue of `25 crore till percent to our revenue in the first year of operations. September and expects major business toward the end It also helped us to achieve targets and added to our of the fiscal. Informs Sinha, “We are appointing four overall profitability,” says Sinha. new sales executives for SMBs in addition to the seven existing ones.” On the sub-distribution front, Graphline is expecting Current business its contribution to rise to about 50 percent and is Graphline’s revenue rose from `37 crore in FY2009-10 looking to graduate to the tier-1 status with HP. “We are to `42.78 crore in FY2010-11 to `51.28 crore in FY2011seeking exclusivity for HP Probook and tablets in Delhi 12. Corporate reselling, being the mainstay, contributed NCR. We are also in talks with another PC vendor for 63 percent in the last fiscal and sub-distribution added exclusivity for AIO desktops and high-end notebooks 21 percent. not conflicting with HP,” Sinha discloses. About the growth in the last two fiscals Sinha says, The company has acquired skills in virtualization “The education, hospitality, government and PSU and appointed a senior resource. It will also focus sectors drove our growth. Sub-distribution doubled in on cloud computing in the next fiscal and seek the last fiscal.” partnerships with HP and TCS. The company acquired many SMB and large customers, most of them from the competition. “Product availability is our forte, and this motivated On a personal note customers to move to us. We executed several deals Beyond work, Sinha likes to play table tennis and where we supplied products the next day,” says Sinha. badminton. He was a state-level badminton player The company bagged deals from Yatra.com for 140 till the tenth standard, and college champion in table tennis. He has also been a runner-up in the All-India Management Table Tennis Competition. “We leveraged our relations with HP. Due His sporty attitude is reflected in his choice on the road, Mahindra Scorpio. “I have got two Scorpios in the to our reputation in the market, the sublast eight years.” distribution business added 10 percent to Sinha considers his recent 15-day cruise vacation with his family in Alaska as his most memorable excursion. n our revenue in the first year of operations”

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tech focus Apple iPad vs Nexus 10

Google is taking direct aim at Apple’s latest, fourth generation iPad with the launch of its new Nexus 10. As the two new launches vie for attention, the Nexus may just prove to be the strongest contender to Apple n Kristin Bent

oon after Apple unveiled its new, fourth-generation iPad , Google has come to market with a 10-inch tablet of its own. The new Nexus 10, which is Google’s first full-sized tablet offering, represents the latest of several 10-inch tablets that have gone up to bat against the iPad—and, judging by its impressive feature set, it may be one the strongest contenders yet. Here’s how the two compare.

Form factor Apple’s iPad rose to fame as one of the thinnest and lightest devices on the market. But, Google’s Nexus 10 has it beat. At 1.33 pounds, Google’s tablet, which was actually manufactured by Samsung, is one of the lightest 10-inch tablets available today. It weighs less than both Apple’s VS Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi Plus Cellular iPads, which weigh in at 1.44 pounds and 1.46 pounds, respectively. The Nexus 10 is also about 0.02 inches thinner than both new iPad models.

Display Apple’s iPad supports the same, industry-leading Retina display that debuted with its third-generation iPad in March. Equipped with an impressive 2,048-by1,536 pixel count, the Retina display instantly became one of the best displays consumers could get their hands on. But all that has changed with the arrival of the Nexus 10. With a 2,560-by-1,600 resolution, Google’s new tablet out-shines the latest iPad when it comes to the quality of its display. According to the spec sheets, it has about 36 more pixels per inch than the new iPad. Google’s Nexus 10 also has a slightly larger display; it measures 10 inches versus the iPad’s 9.7 inches.

Processor Inside the Nexus 10 you’ll find an ARM-based Samsung Exynos 5 processor, which runs at speeds up to 1.7 GHz. Apple’s iPad is equipped with the company’s own A6X processor, which it claims has twice the CPU and graphics performance of its prior-generation A5X chip. Exact speeds for the new chip haven’t been released by

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Apple, but Engadget pegged the figure to be somewhere around 1.3 GHz, which means the Nexus 10 would surpass the iPad in this category, as well.

Camera The Nexus 10 again seems to out-do Apple’s latest iPad when it comes to cameras; both sport a 5 MP rear-facing camera, but the Nexus 10’s 1.9 MP front-facing camera has a slight edge, in terms of pixel count, over Apple’s 1.2 MP camera for FaceTime.

Battery life According to Apple, its fourth-generation tablet gets up to 10 hours of video playback or Web-surfing, while Google’s Nexus 10 gets a slightly less impressive 9 hours. Technically speaking, the new iPad hosts a 42.5-watthour lithium-polymer battery, while the Nexus 10 has a 9000 mAh lithium polymer.

Operating system The new iPad runs Apple’s latest iOS 6 software, while the Nexus 10 is equipped with the latest Android release, version Jelly Bean 4.2. Both OSes are close to equal when comes to app counts, with CNET reporting the number to be around 700,000. That said, some consumers could be weary of the quality of Android apps available for Nexus 10. Google, through a note on its website, recently urged its developers to check the quality of their tablet apps before submitting them to Google Play, to ensure they don’t look like stretched-out smartphone apps that have been forced to fit on tablet.

Ports Users who need more robust I/O functionality should probably go with the Nexus 10. Google’s tablet has both a micro USB and micro HDMI port, while the latest iPad comes with neither, offering instead the new Lightning port Apple debuted with the iPhone 5.

Price The new iPad is expected to retail at `45,500 for 16 GB, `52,500 for 32 GB and `59,500 for 64 GB; Google Nexus 10, is expected to retail at `25,000 for 16 GB and `32,000-`35,000 for 32 GB n

tech focus Low cost high capacity

Ready for mass storage, ReadDATA RD5200—Netgear’s latest rack storage array delivers solid performance plus an increase of five times the capacity from the prior model n Edward J Correia

ustomers looking for expandable, low-cost storage that’s fast, flexible and easy to configure should consider Netgear’s ReadyDATA RD5200. The company gave the CRN Test Center an exclusive look at its new high-capacity storage gear, and now we give it to you. Netgear’s latest 2U storage array offers 12 hotswappable, 3.5-inch drive bays for 3 TB of SSD, SAS or SATA drives in any combination, and it can attach to 80 drives via expansion chassis to a total of 180 TB, multiplying Netgear’s previous model by a factor of five. On the whole, we were impressed with the Netgear system, finding mostly pluses and just a few minor minuses. For testing, Netgear sent the CRN Test Center an RD5200 review unit populated with nine spinning 1 GB Hitachi SATA II (3 GB/s) drives configured as three, three-drive RAID 5 arrays. Those three RAID 5 arrays were then configured as a single RAID 5 array. We’re told that this type of nested RAID configuration is intended to deliver maximum drive performance. In addition, the RD5200 contained two SSDs configured for caching. The RD5200 can be configured as iSCSI, NAS or both. Configuration was simpler thanks to its browserbased software and beginner-proof, tab-driven interface. For testing, we created a NAS and mapped a drive from a dual-core Intel Core i7-based laptop running 64-bit Windows 7 Professional with 4 GB of memory. IOmeter was configured with a variety of access specifications for testing throughput and data transfer rate to determine the system’s maximum performance. We got briefly stuck when trying to attach to the new NAS until we realized that for new users, all file privileges are disabled. Secure, yes. Intuitive, no. Most systems we have tested exhibit faster throughput with the larger test-block size of 32 KB and

ReadyDATA 5200 with 12 TB comes for `6 lakh and it can scale upto 180 TB . It is capable of using SATA, SAS and SSD drives with de-duplication, thin provisioning, replication and unlimited snapshots

faster transaction processing with small 512 B blocks. However, the RD5200 exhibited the best transfer rate with 4 KB blocks. It delivered a maximum sustained transfer rate of about 106 MB/s while processing transaction at around 23K IOps. According to Josh Jones, Quality Engineer, Netgear, the transaction rate was approximately on par with expectations, but the transfer rate was less even than wire speed. “Gigabit Ethernet tops out at 125 MB/s,” he said, adding that under testing with 10 GB Ethernet, rates should be approaching 300 MB/s. Still, the RD5200 delivers adequate performance for its price point, and it includes software capabilities for which other storage vendors charge extra. It features native file- and block-level de-duplication for NAS and SAN configurations. It also supports thin provisioning and unlimited snapshots. Links for file and block replication are protected with 128 B encryption and support backup software from Acronis, CommVault, Quest, StorageCraft, Symantec, Veeam and other vendors. The base system is built around an Intel Xeon quad-core 2.66 GHz processor with 16 GB of ECC memory, dual redundant power supplies with failure alarm two 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports and two 10 GB ports; all ports feature load balancing and failover protection. NICs also support virtual network interfacing, all of which is configured dynamically and visually through the browser. Out of the box, the RD5200 is certified for Citrix, Microsoft and VMware. The software embedded within the RD5200 is ReadyDATA OS 1.0, a Solaris offshoot with the ZFS file system that natively understands file caching from memory; there’s no need for data tiering and migration. It’s automatically fast with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10, instant provisioning and expansion with support for hot spare. RD5200 specs also include support for CIFS/SMB, AFP 3.3, NFS, FTP and iSCSI target support for Linux/UNIX, Mac OS X and Windows. Netgear ReadyDATA 5200 is available now and is already shipping to India customers. The 2U storage array with 12 TB comes for `6 lakh plus taxes and it can scale upto 180 TB . It is capable of using SATA, SAS and SSD drives with deduplication, thin provisioning, replication and unlimited snapshots.n

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channel buzz Defenx concludes roadshows

ntivirus vendor Defenx recently concluded a series of roadshows in the metros. This was the first initiative taken by Defenx to build its brand after it partnered with Iris Computers as the national distributor for India. The roadshows focused on introducing Defenx products to more than 500 potential partners. The events turned out to be a good platform for Defenx to directly get in touch with the channel partners and pave the way for new partnerships. Maurizio Grassi, CEO, Defenx, spoke about the company’s antivirus, Internet security and smartphone anti-theft solutions, and demonstrated the effectiveness and USP of the products. He also shared the channel roadmap.

n Maurizio Grassi, CEO, Defenx, providing the product roadmap

Said Grassi, “This was a fruitful activity for us. The partners attending the roadshows were enthusiastic, and showed interest in our product line. We got a positive response and have also started receiving orders from many partners. We thank Iris Computers for helping us to conduct these roadshows and paving the way

n Partners listening to the channel strategies

for the initial brand building. We intend to conduct more such campaigns in tier-2 and tier-3 cities in future.” Sanjiv Krishen, Chairman, Iris Computers, addressed the attendees in New Delhi. Vishal Srivastava, VP, Iris Computers, was present in all the cities. n

K7 takes partners to Bangkok, Pattaya

7 Computing recently concluded its 3-night channel meet to Bangkok and Pattaya for the winners of its Chalo Bangkok scheme which was rolled out in the JAS quarter of 2012. The meet organized from October 11-14, 2012, was attended by 200 partners. During the meet the company discussed the evolution of K7 and its 20-year journey. K7 also detailed the direction of the company for the future and the role of channel partners in accelerating its growth. The company also rolled out a new rewards program for its partners for the OND quarter—the prizes include a BMW X1; a 6-night all-paid trip to Switzerland-VeniceParis; trips to Dubai, Turkey, Egypt and Mauritius; and `15 lakh worth of diamond jewelry for partners achieving specific targets. “We always ensure that doing business with K7 is rewarding for our partners. After the overwhelming response to our

n Partners attending the awards night in Bangkok

previous scheme, we are happy to announce the new OND scheme. We feel happy to see the huge acceptance in the channel—both of our products as well as our quarterly schemes that aim to

increase their profits. The success of our schemes further consolidate our position as a major player in the security space,” said Bepin Roy, VP, K7 Computing. n

To feature your company’s events in CRN, send write-ups with photographs to editor@ubmindia.com 36

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new products ViewSonic optical touch display

iewSonic has launched its touch-enabled LED display, the TD2220. The 22 inch display is equipped with dual-point optical touch technology featuring a hardened 8H level scratch-resistant surface. It comes with full HD 1080p resolution, and is dustproof. With a USB HIDcompliant design, the monitor provides automatic touch functionality via a USB connection under Windows operating systems. It has multiple video sources (DVI with HDCP and VGA inputs), and a 20,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. The monitor features integrated speakers with SRS Premium Sound as well as dual USB ports. This Energy Star- and EPEAT Silver-certified display also supports different eco modes for energy savings of up to 40 percent over same-sized monitors. The product is priced at `16,999, comes with a standard 3-year limited warranty, and is available with ViewSonic authorized distributors. n

Lenovo smartphones

enovo recently launched its series of smartphones— K860, S880, S560, P700i and A60+ in India. The K860 comes with a 1.4 GHz quad-core processor featuring a 720x1280 pixel, 5 inch IPS display and wide 178 degree viewing angle. This ergonomically-designed product comes with an 8 mp camera, built-in special effects, editing options and 8 GB on-board memory. The S880 comes with a 5 inch display, 9.9 mm thickness, long battery life and dual SIM capability. The S560 features Dolby Digital Plus technology and packs a dual-core processor, 4 inch IPS screen and 5 mp camera. The P700i is a dual SIM, 4 inch business phone featuring Lenovo Smart Energy technology that enhances battery life. The P700i delivers talk-time of up to 28 hours and up to 13 days on standby. It has a 1 GHz dual-core processor and 4 inch IPS display. The K860, S880, S560 and P700i are priced at `28,499, 18,999, 14,499 and 12,499 respectively, come with a 2-year warranty, and are available with Lenovo authorized distributors. n

Portronics projector

ortronics has launched its iLume projector, one of the smallest and brightest multimedia pocket projectors. It comes with built-in speakers and requires no additional sound amplification devices for home entertainment use. It is based on DLP technology by Texas Instruments. The iLume weighs around 650 gm and can be accommodated in the blazer pocket or notebook bag. It provides a brightness of 400 lumens, can project an image of more than 120 inches on the wall with a projection distance ranging from 0.5m to 5m. It has a resolution of 1280x800 and can support the 1080p and 720p formats. The life of the iLume LED engine is more than 20,000 hours. iLume provides a connectivity port to connect to most devices such as VGA/HDMI ports, AV ports, HDMI connectors and USBs. It also gives the option of a Micro SD card slot that can help you view pictures directly from your SD card or directly connect it to camcorders and cameras through the AV cable. The product is priced at `39,900, comes with a 2-year warranty, and is available with Portronics authorized distributors. n

Sony home theater projector

ony has launched its VPL-BW120S home theater projector which is useful for consumers with small living spaces since it can be placed close to a wall or screen without the need to mount the projector. From as little as 1.34 m away, it is capable of projecting a large viewing area equivalent to a 100 ft screen while maintaining image fidelity and brightness. Using 3 LCD display technology, the projector provides an output of 2600 lumens at WXGA (1280x800) resolution. It has a contrast ratio of 4,000:1 and 12-bit 3D gamma correction. The projectors are simple to use, lightweight and portable. They offer energy-efficient features such as a power-saving mode, standby mode and synchronized lamp and filter replacement cycle of 6,000 hours. The projector is priced at `88,000, comes with a 2–year warranty, and is available with Sony authorized distributors. n

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

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shadow ram GET

Windows 8 can wait

Personal

s predicted by many analysts, Windows 8 has got a lukewarm response from users. While the general impression is that Microsoft’s new operating system does not have enough to tempt consumers to upgrade, system builders point out that the prices are high. Microsoft has priced the Windows 8 Home edition at around `900 more than its predecessor, while the Pro editions are almost `2,000 more. Said a retailer in Bengaluru, “Perhaps Microsoft is not expecting a very big ramp-up, and is therefore pricing it higher. At this scale, we don’t see much demand for Windows 8.” Channels are concerned that Microsoft will resort to aggressive tactics to pile inventory on distributors, retailers and assemblers, if sales don’t pick up. “If the business remains stagnant, that could be a tactic,” feels one partner. The enterprise sales head of a leading PC company said that he does not expect Windows 8 to take off at least for the next six months, at least. n

“I will make corruption difficult” Milind Tasgaonkar, Head, Alliances, NetApp has 20 years experience. He has also worked with Cisco, Tata Infotech and Compaq. If not in the IT industry: I would have been in the education sector. Biggest passion: Reading.

Milind Tasgaonkar

Behind the wheels: I drive a Honda City but would love to

upgrade to a BMW soon. Gadgets I can’t live without: My BlackBerry 9300 and iPad . Weekends are for: Family, food and films. Favorite holiday destination: The sea beaches in the Konkan. Hate the most: Intolerance, insensitivity and the lack of a collaborative approach. Favorite movie: 3 Idiots.

Total PC Protection 2013

Favorite stars: Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan—both of them are perfectionists and have mastered their skills. Role models: Mahatma Gandhi and Abdul Kalam. They are simple people with a determined approach and a strong will. Ultimate ambition: To work toward making a difference to the lives of orphans and the less privileged. Wildest thing I have ever done: None

Call :

098 22 88 25 66 092 72 70 70 50

Thing I most want to do in life: Make an impactful difference to at least 100 people around me. If I became the PM: I would introduce laws that will make corruption difficult and almost next to impossible. Celebrity I would like to spend a day with: Narayana Murthy— to learn from his principles of integrity, values and courage. One person I would like to meet and why: Amitabh Bachchan—I have idolized him since my childhood and I see his popularity always on the rise. Deepest and darkest fear: Scarcity of water leading to rationing. n

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— CRN Network

Registered with Registrar of Newspapers under RNI No. MAHENG/2011/39915 Postal Registration. No. MH/MR/NORTH EAST/193/2010-2012 Posted at Patrika Channel Sorting Office, Mumbai-400001. Posting date 2nd, 3rd & 16th, 17th Of Every Fortnight.

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