CRN - October 15, 2011 by UBM India

contents

October 15, 2011 l Volume 5 Issue 12

Cover Story

eye spy

With governments using it to fight terrorism, enterprises deploying it as a productivity tool, and parents using it to monitor kids, IP surveillance is expected to be a `20,000 crore opportunity over the next five years

NEWS Analyses

Channel Chief

AGC’s channel agenda

Canon targets `300 crore from the government

Lenovo to have 1,000 exclusive stores

Cisco renews consumer focus

DataWind looking for distributors for tablet

ViewSonic aims to quadruple topline

Editorial 14 Opinion

Feedback

Shadow Ram

Get Personal

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18 Market Focus Down with the Rupee A depreciating rupee on the back of rising inflation has meant a double whammy for channels

22 Special Focus The life and legacy of an innovator Steve Jobs’ passing away has rocked the industry. Here we take a look at his personal and professional life, along with his legacy of must-have products

Michael Dell Chairman and CEO, Dell, speaks about his company’s channel progress and rival HP’s decision to explore strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group business

Role Model Pranav Pandya Director Founder, Dev Information Technology, talks about his journey from a small IT services firm to a leading provider of enterprise solutions

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Agra - 6453125, 4041027, Ahmedabad - 64508450, 26851663, Amritsar - 6450186, Aurangabad - 645 7141, Bangalore - 65687567, Baroda - 6595588, Bhopal - 6464925,Bhubneshwar - 6510444, Calicut - 6515152, Chandigarh - 6512547, 2694932, Chennai - 64501273/28412414, Cochin - 6452299, 2310381, Coimbatore - 6572160, Dehradun - 6546333, Delhi - 64734905, 26387897, Ghaziabad - 6517809, Goa - 6514657, Gurgaon - 64514614, Guwahati - 273101, Hubli - 6453123, Hyderabad - 66901598, Indore - 6510124, Jabalpur - 6457306, Jaipur - 6577844, 2280421, Jammu - 2437478, Jodhpur - 6450387, Karnala - 6450508, Kolkatta - 64517248, 22315174, Kottayam - 6452013, Lucknow - 6546333, 2286134, Ludhiana - 6512545, 6450125, Madurai - 6463839, Mangalore - 6451030, 2494355, Mumbai - 65261670/65990329, Nagpur - 6502571, 2420009, Nasik - 6450103, Parwanoo - 645108, Patna - 6453850, 273137, Pondicherry - 6530470, Pune - 65205706, 24497489, Raipur - 6538333, 4221307, Rajkot - 6593588, Ranchi - 6455499, Siliguri - 6450108, Surat - 6596267, Trivendrum - 6535433, Varanasi - 6454820, Vijaywada - 6622872, Vizag - 6590992.

starting line MUST

Read

Canon targets `300 crore from the government Canon is aiming to garner `300 crore from government projects in 2011 from across its printing, surveillance, projector and digital camera portfolio. “We have already garnered `200 crore from government projects and expect to clock `100 crore more till December 2011. We are seeing a lot of traction for document workflow management in both G2G and G2C projects,” informed Alok Bharadwaj, Senior VP, Canon India. Canon expects `150 crore to come from state government projects, and as a result created a team especially to focus on state-driven projects. It recently executed its largest government project of `20 crore for the Maharashtra government to provide 28,000 MFDs for e-centers in as many villages. It also executed the land record digitization project in Maharashtra worth `3 crore. The company recently won a tender alok bharadwaj in the defense sector for the supply of MFDs worth `3 crore. Bharadwaj expects UID to be a huge opportunity. “So far we have supplied 16,000 laser printers worth `10 crore to 20 UID enrolment agencies. We anticipate a total UID printer demand of 600,000 units worth nearly `300 crore. We expect to get 33 percent share of this.” Bharadwaj, who is on the CII National Committee on IT, is also lobbying with the government to reform the technology procurement process to enable increased participation of the IT industry in projects. “There are lots of terms and conditions for empanelment, which restricts participation. Payments get delayed due to cumbersome processes. The government must provide a green channel to reputed suppliers. The condition to reveal the purchase price and books of accounts along with the quoted price is unacceptable, and subdues the growth of the industry,” he stated. n — Amit Singh

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AGC’s channel agenda n Sonal Desai

GC Networks is empaneling tier-2 IT and telecom partners in tier-2 cities to resell OEM products, to provide solution integration services for large multi-location projects, and to act as authorized service providers. In addition, the company plans to tap the $1.2 billion SMB opportunity through these partners. “We have evolved a strategy to tap the opportunity in data and voice solutions in large enterprises and SMBs through a partner network. Beginning this year we have floated a Channel Connection program and have aligned with 45 partners in the past six months; we intend to raise this count to 120,” said Sayed Naved Shafi, VP, Sales, SME & Channel Business, AGC Networks. To find suitable partners the company has already conducted roadshows in Kolkata and Pune, and is planning to do the same in Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and the NCR over the next quarter. According to Shafi, since the start of the Channel Connection program the number of leads and orders have increased. “The SMB channel and the sales team have tripled the funnel of orders that stood at `27 crore in the last quarter. Of these, 60-70 percent leads came from partners.” “For a data networking project at Delhi International Airport we worked with a partner, IT Soft, which provided solution integration services,” said Shafi. “From the `40 lakh project they earned 8 percent for their services. In another large multi-location project we worked with multiple partners to set up AV solutions across 24 different sites in Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune. What’s more, once they enrol, partners can sell products from our OEMs.” For the SMB opportunity the

“We have floated a Channel Connection program and have aligned with 45 partners in the past six months” Sayed Naved Shafi

VP, Sales, SME & Channel Business, AGC Networks

company is largely focusing on working with data networking partners who have voice networking opportunities within their existing customer set. “Our advice to our partners is ‘Never Say No,’” Shafi remarked. “If they are selling EPBX boxes, and have the opportunity to up-sell/crosssell video and data networks, we will handhold them through the project; it is the same with IT VARs. Our regional managers work jointly with partners and close leads.” The company recently introduced a partner incentive program. “We have started a program from this month whereby we will pay partners a certain percentage of the revenue they earn till March 2012. Partners who generate business worth `50 lakh in a quarter automatically qualify to be our support and services partners. In addition, we have a training program whereby we train partners in new solution areas. We will also set up a 24x7 partner helpline which should be functional next quarter,” said Shafi. AGC Networks clocked `1,000 crore revenue in FY2010-11, and is aiming to close FY2011-12 at `1,400 crore. “Of this, the SMB segment would contribute `100 crore, and nearly 30-40 percent would be partner-led or referred business,” Shafi forecast. n

starting line MUST

Lenovo to have 1,000 exclusive stores

Cisco renews consumer focus

n RAMDAS S

Read

In a bid to regain lost glory, Cisco Consumer Products (CCP)—the division which sells its products under the Linksys brand—is in the process of making an aggressive push. Cisco has been in the crosshairs of analysts and investors who have been demanding the closure of the division due to its poor performance. “We are extremely focused on the consumer category and have no plans of selling it or shutting it down as has been speculated. Our new go-tomarket strategy is an indication of this. India is a very important market for consumer products with its 280 million households, increasing Internet penetration, and the entry of new 3G service providers and more 3G-enabled devices,” said Ulrike Tegtmeier, VP, International Sales, CCP. Cisco has put in place a large team to focus on market penetration and channel enablement. “We have appointed 12 area sales managers to train partners, besides ULRIKE tegtmeier investing time and resources in pre-sales, sales and post-sales support. We have initiated a program called ‘Train the Trainer’ whereby our trained representatives further train channel partners and equip them to handle consumer queries, understand their needs and sell the right products. They were earlier focused only on box selling, but from now they will sell experiences,” said Amanulla Khan, Regional Manager, MEA, Consumer Business Group, Cisco. Cisco is also looking at increasing its retail presence. “We will launch our international partner program for IT retailers next quarter. The program involves training sub-distributors and retailers, and providing marketing collateral to reach out to consumers,” informed Khan. Plans are afoot to launch more products to cover all price-points. Cisco recently launched the X-series of AIO Wi-Fi routers in India. The routers help consumers to connect and create a network of all the devices in their homes. n — Abhijeet Mukherjee

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enovo India has already set up 650 exclusive stores and is on its way to crossing the figure of 1,000 exclusive retail outlets by the end of Q12012. The company has also unveiled a series of initiatives to ensure that these retail stores achieve profitability. “Our retail story, consisting of Lenovo Exclusive Stores (LES) and LESlites, has been successful. We have managed to roll out 650 stores across the country and will launch at least another 350 by the end of this financial year,” informed Rajesh Thadani, Director, Consumer Business Unit, HSB Lenovo India. While other PC vendors have been less focused on exclusive retail stores and are more keen to expand their base around non-exclusive stores and LFRs, Thadani said that the Lenovo strategy is working because of careful retail planning. “Like other retail-focused companies, we’re also using reports from GFK Mode. But we go beyond as our regional teams are very careful before assigning an outlet and setting targets for an outlet. Our goal is to see that every retail outlet makes enough money to sustain itself.” According to Thadani, the profitability of partners has been the key focus across the distribution chain, and the Chinese PC maker has consolidated the number of regional distributors (RDs) from over 60 last year to 42 now. “From a general national policy on regional distribution, we now have a more direct agenda with individual RDs, providing either territorial or product or channel exclusivity depending on the state and territory.” He said that Lenovo’s schemes have been revamped to ensure profitability. “I would say that 70-80 percent of our stores can

“We have managed to roll out 650 stores across the country and will launch at least another 350 by the end of this financial year” Rajesh Thadani

Director, Consumer Business Unit, HSB Lenovo India

break even if they sell 75 units a quarter. The feedback is that most stores are breaking even within six months.” The contribution from exclusive stores has also gone up. “A year or two ago exclusive retail stores accounted for less than 20 percent of our consumer business revenue. Today, that’s close to 50 percent, the rest being accounted for by non-exclusive stores, resellers and LFRs. By March 2012 we expect a much higher contribution from exclusive stores.” Thadani’s biggest bet remains on regular product roll-outs. “We were absent from several product categories such as lowend notebooks and desktops, high-end notebooks and some very specific SKUs. In fact for long we have been offering ThinkPads to make up for the gaps in our product line. We are now beefing up the IdeaPad U series to offer notebooks in the `50,000+ price range.” On the desktop front, Lenovo is expecting the AIO category to do well. “We are the largest AIO vendor in the world,” stated Thadani. “In India too home PC consumers are buying AIOs, and we expect this trend to continue.” Meanwhile, the company has launched new tablets under the IdeaPad and ThinkPad brands. n

starting line DataWind looking for distributors for tablet n Amit Singh

ataWind, the company that launched the lowest-cost tablet, Aakash, in collaboration with the Union HRD Ministry for the National Mission on Education, also has plans to commercially launch these tablets at the starting price of `3,000. The company is scouting for a distributor for the same. To be sold under the brand name UbiSlate, it would have five variants that would be launched in November 2011, and would be initially sold through the telecom channel. The IT channel would be involved later. “While Aakash is a tablet that will be sold exclusively under the government project, we will also commercially launch these tablets under our own brand UbiSlate. We are presently negotiating with a national distributor who works with both the telecom and IT channel. We will sign a formal contract in the next 2-3 weeks. At such price-points we

“While Aakash will be sold exclusively under the government project, we will commercially launch these tablets under the UbiSlate brand for $60” Suneet Singh Tuli CEO DataWind

are confident of selling around 3 lakh tablets in FY2012-13,” said Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO, DataWind. According to Tuli, the government will source the tablets at $45 a unit from Datawind and subsidize it to $35 for students and teachers. “We could have offered the tablet at roughly around `1,700; however the government wanted us to provide

a complete replacement warranty, factoring which we quoted $45. If the government gives us a million unit order we can bring down the price to $35.” DataWind believes that with mass adoption of the product the company can further bring down the price of its tablet to $10 a unit. Tuli emphasized that DataWind tablets will meet market quality standards and will have all the requisite features without compromising on user experience. “The tablet is available in a 7” size with Android 2.2 and HD touch-screen. It comes with a video co-processor for a good multimedia experience and core graphics accelerator for faster application support. It comes with 3G and Wi-Fi options.” Since Aakash is targeted at students, it comes with an e-book reader for access to online streaming course material and Web-based research. n

ViewSonic aims to quadruple topline n ABHIJEET MUKHERJEE

iewSonic has restructured its internal organization and revamped its market strategy in order to quadruple its business from India. “We are eying 4x growth in our topline over the next 12 months. We are confident of achieving `400 crore in the next fiscal compared to the current topline of `100 crore,” said Ajay Sharma, Country Manager, ViewSonic India. The company has globally restructured its business into two strategic business units (SBUs)— Core and Mobility. The Core SBU comprises ViewSonic’s core portfolio of displays and projectors, while Mobility encompasses smartphones and tablets where the company has ventured into in the near past. “These two businesses have very different dynamics and require different GTMs,” explained Sharma.

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“We are eying 4x growth in our topline over the next 12 months. We are confident of achieving `400 crore compared to the current topline of `100 crore” Ajay Sharma

Country Manager ViewSonic India

“We also have a different set of distributors for the two. For the Mobility SBU we have signed up Iris Computers as the exclusive national distributor, while the Core products will continue to be billed by existing distributors—Rashi Peripherals, Roop Technology, Inspan Infotech and

Priya Limited.” The company has already set up two separate teams to drive the two SBUs. As a result, in the past six months, the company’s Core business has been rising. Noted Sharma: “From a low single-digit market share in monitors we today have 13 percent. We are clocking 45,000 units per month. In projectors our sales have been increasing, and today we are doing an average 1,000 units per month and have garnered 7 percent market share.” On the Mobility front too, following its pact with Iris, the volumes are growing, and ViewSonic says it’s now selling an average of 3,500 units per month. The company is also planning exclusive stores. “In the first phase we shall launch our stores in the top eight cities, and by the end of the fiscal we plan to have at least one exclusive store across 40 cities,” Sharma revealed. n

edit opinion Volume 5, Issue 12

The big opportunity dhaval valia

urveillance is the biggest opportunity awaiting IT solution providers today. While no solution provider disagrees with this, and some have been looking to make inroads into the market, only a few have been able to actually seize it. One reason for this is that pure-play surveillance vendors are largely aligned with the providers of

surveillance solutions. However, with surveillance now going IP, more IT vendors are moving into this space. The digitization of surveillance solutions has also meant that the physical security and surveillance infrastructure is getting integrated with core IT functions, and that the decision-making is moving into the realm of the CIO or CISO. The opportunities are mind-boggling, to say the least. Over the next five years an estimated `20,000 crore opportunity exists in and around surveillance—this includes surveillance products and services, and related IT products and services. The biggest demand driver for surveillance will be the government. The National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) under the Home Ministry has come out with an elaborate policy to create physical surveillance capabilities at all locations that could potentially be targets for terrorist groups. The locations include airports and large railway stations in all major cities, plus 40 temple towns and riot-prone areas across 100 cities. There have also been directives to civic bodies to form policies to secure public areas such as malls, parks, tourism spots, cinema theaters, schools and colleges. A considerable part of the demand for surveillance in the private sector will emerge from these government policies. For instance, trusts that manage temples, mosques, churches and other religious places have been given a directive by the government to set up surveillance systems in and around the places of worship. State home ministries have been directed to set up surveillance units on all roads leading to popular places of worship. Civic bodies in cities like Delhi and Mumbai are planning to make it statutory for just about any business entity to set up surveillance cameras in its premises. Meanwhile, enterprises have started using surveillance technology for purposes beyond security—for energy management, building automation, asset management, productivity improvement and more. Finally, home owners are increasingly worried about their own security, and are using IP-based cameras to secure their homes and monitor them remotely. On the service front, new concepts such as surveillanceas-a- service and video analytics are emerging. The surveillance market is laden with opportunity, clear or discreet, and this is a good time to venture into it. n E-mail CRN Executive Editor Dhaval Valia at dhaval.valia@ubm.com 14

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edit opinion The Michael Dell difference steven Burke

Licenses purchased on manpower requirements and time-based manpower requirements will save costs. Sometimes, leasing is also an option for costly software. If projects need licenses for only a phase of a project, monthly lease also helps.

o CEO has been more engaged and fired up recently about making gains with the channel than Dell Founder, Chairman & CEO, Michael Dell. Dell, who pioneered the direct sales model for the PC business, has remade himself and his company over the last four years into a charged-up, channelcentric vendor. In the process, Dell himself has become his company’s No. 1 channel advocate. Fueled by rival HP’s plan to spin off its $40 billion PSG business, Dell is on an all-out channel tear. He has been tirelessly phoning one solution provider after another as part of a Dell channel recruitment blitz, seeking feedback on how he and his channel team can work with partners to win more business. If that isn’t enough, Dell is on a world tour of sorts, meeting personally with partners to win their business. The net impact has yet to be felt. But it is coming, and, make no mistake, it will be felt. Dell himself is leading the channel parade. One CEO of a large national solution provider, who recently spent 30 minutes on the phone with Michael Dell, says he believes Dell’s firsthand efforts will result in bigger channel share for the company. “He is getting more engaged with partners and is open to suggestions on how to capture more business,” says the solution provider CEO. “You’ve got to respect that. He grew up in this business selling PCs like us. He relates to us more than other CEOs.” Dell’s channel conversion didn’t happen overnight. Michael Dell and Greg Davis, the company’s global channel chief, have been building the channel effort one partner at a time, and Dell himself has played an active role in that channel sales effort, reaching out to partners directly and helping them close deals. The Dell channel business now amounts to about 33 percent of the company’s $62 billion in annual sales, and Dell sees it growing to 50 percent. The fact is that Dell has grown its channel business by being a consistent and predictable partner with a channelneutral sales compensation model aimed at incentivizing its direct sales force to work hand-in-hand with partners. This is not to say that there are no issues with the channel. Many partners want to see more joint sales engagement between Dell direct and partners. And if Dell starts opening enterprise customer doors with data center solutions partners it could prove to be a huge windfall for the company. Michael Dell gets the channel. And he gets IT. That’s a lot more than can be said of many CEOs in this business. n E-mail Steven Burke at steven.burke@ec.ubm.com 16

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Kalpesh J Suthar Larsen & Toubro, Vadodara

Saving costs for customers I read the cover story on Best Financial Practices in the October 1 edition of CRN. My assessment is that while partners can implement these best practices they should also consider saving money for their customers. For instance, for any CIO, the software licensing cost is a major cost-head in his IT budget. Partners should use the various variablelicensing options available with several vendors to turn to an opex model that provides customers relief from large capital investments.

Datawind to commercially launch tablets for `3,000 It will be revolutionary for tab business growth in India. Quality will definitely be a concern at the offered price-point, but it looks realistic as the volumes are very high. If Datawind can make it a success then it will be historic and will write a new chapter on the Indian IT hardware manufacturing sector. Manoj Lalani Lalani Computech, Bhubaneswar

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

Advertiser Index Company name

Page No Web site

Smartlink 1 www.digilite.co.in Smartlink 2 www.digilite.co.in Dlink 4 www.dlink.co.in Cisco 5 www.levelnxt.in/redington Compuage 7 www.compuageindia.com Rashi 9 www.rptechindia.com Dell 1 ViewSonic 11 www.in.viewsonic.com Compuage 15 www.compuageindia.com Epson 17 www.epson.co.in Hipstreet 23 www.hipstreetonline.com Kingston 27 sales_india@kingston.com Boston 29 www.bostonindia.in Dell 2-31 www.dell.co.in/vostro HID 33 www.hidglobal.com CDRS 35 Interop 38-39 eScan 43 www.escanav.com Meganet 44 www.meganet1.com Netgear 45 www.netgear.com Kaspersky 47 www.kaspersky.co.in Iomega 48 www.iomega.com/nas

Sales Contact

helpdesk@digilite.co.in helpdesk@digilite.co.in helpdesk@dlink.co.in odyssey@compuageindia.com response@rptechindia.com service@in.viewsonic.com think@eid.epson.co.in

hidindia@hidglobal.com marketing@escanav.com info@meganet1.com indiasales@iomega.com

channel chief “HP exiting PCs will create more opportunities” Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell spoke with CRN News Editor Steven Burke about his company’s channel progress and rival HP’s decision to explore strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group business What kind of reaction have you seen from partners in the wake of the HP PC news? We have had great response from partners and tremendous interest from existing partners and potential new ones around the world since the news broke. We are here to stay. We are committed. If you look at the x86 space, we are the x86 partner of choice. There is no other company that has a complete x86 portfolio.

Talk about Dell’s channel progress. We have been growing very steadily with strong doubledigit growth. It’s a very significant business heading rapidly toward a third or more of our revenue. I think the reason it has been growing steadily is that we have been very consistent in our approach. It’s a straightforward program. Partners love it. We haven’t back-tracked. We haven’t changed the rules. We have neutralized the competition so that our own teams readily partner with our channel all the time; it’s business as usual. We have acquired companies that are channel-driven. We have large numbers of channel-savvy people in the company now. We did what we said we were going to do. Our portfolio continues to grow. We just announced the acquisition (to be completed soon) of Force10 Networks. We have Compellent, EqualLogic, KACE (systems management appliance) and SecureWorks. In services we have Perot Systems. Obviously we have all the servers and all the client products, so we have a full spectrum of products. When you think about cloud and client virtualization and all the things that are going on, having an integrated product line from the desktop to the data center to the cloud will be important.

What is the response you see from customers when you position Dell as a desktop18

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to-data center provider? We have a very large server and data center business now. We have an enterprise business that is almost $20 billion. But let’s not forget that our enterprise business was built on a foundation of the origins of the company in the client business. The client business, which we are still committed to, has allowed us to build a huge server business. We have sold 15 million servers over the last decade. That has allowed us to build what is becoming a tremendous storage business. Now we are growing services and networking.

How big an opportunity is it for Dell if HP gets out of the PC business? It’s a great opportunity for our channel partners and us. But the opportunity doesn’t just lie in a bigger client business. There are other aspects to it. The last time a large PC company was spun off or sold there was a lot of share loss in servers for IBM. Its x86 server share has gone down and down since they spun off the PC business. There are very important reasons for that: one is the integrated nature of client and server sales in many accounts. There are also important economic reasons for it. If you open up a server and look at what’s inside there are its processor, disk drives and memory. Those are the three primary cost ingredients that go into a server. But where are most of the processors, disk drives and memory in terms of industry volume today? They are still in the client. Actually, about 95 percent of them are in the client, so if you are not in the client business you have a far smaller volume so your cost for those materials just went up. Who is successful in volume x86 servers today? Dell and HP. Both these companies have had their client business volume to go with it. When that goes away for HP, it will create opportunities for us even in the server space.

Talk about your feelings about the PC business at this point in time. I recently heard IBM use the term ‘post-PC era.’ I went and

“Who is successful in volume x86 servers today? Dell and HP. We both have had our client business volume to go with it. When that goes away for HP, it will create opportunities for us even in the server space”

channel chief did a little searching. Actually you can find a press release from IBM where they are talking about the post-PC era way back in 1999. Around that time, the industry sold about 100 million personal computers a year, so that was the beginning of the post-PC era. Now it is 2011 and there are about 440 million PCs sold per year. I have been around long enough to remember stuff like this. It means that the post-PC era has been better for the PC than whatever came before the post-PC era. If you ask Gartner how many PCs there are, [they’ll say] there’s a 1.5 billion PC installed base. How many PCs are there going to be in 2014? Gartner will tell you 2 billion PCs in 2014. How many tablets will be sold this year? You hear 40 million, 50 million—pick a number. But it’s nowhere near the 440 million PCs that will be sold this year. There’s no question that people are buying tablets. There’s no question that people are buying smartphones. But they are also buying 440 million PCs this year. By the way, does the channel make any money selling tablets? Tablets are improving. That is true. I think you’re going to see the line between a tablet and a PC get real blurry, and there should be a real continuum of products. You already see some things today that are

“You can find a press release from IBM where they talked about the post-PC era way back in 1999, when the industry sold 100 million PCs. Now it’s 2011 and there are about 440 million PCs sold per year” first attempts at that. I don’t think that the PC is going away anywhere in the future.

What’s your message to Dell partners and HP PSG partners? The message is we love our channel partners. We are committed to our channel partners. We are committed to the PC business and the data center and beyond. We have onboarded large numbers of partners globally over the last few years. We are certainly ready to do more with those partners and sign up new ones. If you are an HP partner who has not joined us already it’s never been an easier decision, and there’s never been a better time to sign up with Dell. Let’s get you signed up, trained and certified. Our consistent approach has proven itself. Let’s get going. Call our channel head or call me. We are ready. n

channel chief “We expect $250 million from the cloud” Prateek Pashine, President, SME, Tata Communications, talks to Sonal Desai about the SME opportunities in cloud computing, the needs of this segment and the company’s partnership model How does Tata Communications define SME? What is the company’s addressable opportunity in India? Indian SMEs are companies with less than 500 employees. We define all companies with more than 500 employees as large enterprises. According to our estimates, in India there are 5,000 to 7,000 large enterprises and 1.6 million SMEs with at least one PC in their organization. Of these, there are 1.4 million organizations with less than 100 employees across the country. About 80-85 percent of our target audience is in the top 30-35 cities. According to analyst reports, the ICT spend of the Indian SMEs stands at `80,000 crore and has grown at 15-18 percent CAGR over the last two years. Major contributors toward this spend are PC and voice. Again, organizations with less than 100 employees spend onetenth the amount on ICT vis-à-vis those with 100-500 employees.

What are the other trends that you observe in SME spends? Organizations with up to 100 employees are more linear and depend on a (local) channel partner who influences their buying decisions. These organizations want to control their data, are concerned about the physical security of their networks, and depend on a one-stopshop for most of their IT needs. They also rely on their peers to make IT-related decisions. Of late we have been seeing a slight shift in this attitude. The Generation Y which is taking over the business is more tech-savvy and aware of the developments in IT. In addition, they have access to social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter that influence their decisions.

Tata Communications launched InstaOffice and InstaCompute in September 2010. What has been the progress so far? We are targeting $250 million in revenue from cloud services globally over the next three years. India, Singapore and South Africa would be significant contributors. Over the last one year we have been testing our offerings, talking to customers and listening to their

“We have signed on thousands of customers over the last one year for InstaOffice. We have also migrated many Microsoft customers on to this platform” 20

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pain-points. Now we are market-ready. We will leverage on our cloud offerings, InstaCompute and InstaOffice, both of which are on the pay-as-you-use model. InstaOffice, powered by Google Apps, offers email and instant messaging. For customers who want to boost productivity output, it offers document and Website creation as well. InstaCompute is a pay-peruse IaaS solution deployed across our data centers and integrated into our tier-1 IP network. When customers need greater computing, we offer them the latest processors based on this elastic computing infrastructure. We have signed on thousands of customers over the last one year for InstaOffice alone. We have also migrated many Microsoft customers to the InstaOffice platform. Similarly, we are running betas of InstaCompute with customers. Our pricing is very economical: `250 per user per annum for business mail (without additional features), and $50 per user per annum for additional features such as collaboration, IM and chat. In addition we have other offerings such as Zoho CRM (online CRM), Zoho IVR (offerings for contact centers), Sugar CRM, and SaaS and IaaS applications for horizontal and vertical expansion.

With companies such as Amazon and Rackspace offering cloud services at competitive costs,

channel chief why should a partner associate with Tata Communications? These are early days for Amazon, Rackspace and others. People recognize the Tata brand, and that is our big advantage. Plus we have a direct presence in the country with a suite of products, relationships with customers, and the experience of managing lakhs of customers, including post-paid and pre-paid—these are pre-requisites to succeed in the cloud business. With us, partners can expect deal size as low as `600 to as high as `1 crore and above. It is up to them how they want to leverage the opportunities. We have offerings for the real estate, stock broking, health care and BPO segments. However, we have released only the BPO offering so far, and are developing solutions around many more verticals. Plans are on to release solutions for at least 5-6 verticals by 2012-end.

What would be your service delivery model? We are working with close to 400 telecom and IT channel partners. Some of these include MN World and Cadence in Bengaluru, and Nexus Communications and Aastha in Mumbai. We also have tier-1 partners such as TCS which sells white-label services. Currently we are streamlining the partner process. We established the Business Partner Advisory

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“We are streamlining the partner process. We set up the Business Partner Advisory Council in July 2011; it has 12 partners, five of whom are from the IT channel” Council in July 2011. Besides executives of Tata Communications, the council has 12 partners, five of whom are from IT. It is a part of the extended sales team that studies processes, market dynamics and strategies for a successful business model. Besides, we have tiered our partners into three categories—Premium, Business and Registered. Registered partners will only generate leads. Business partners will have dedicated channel managers. Each channel manager will work with three Business partners, discuss business plans, and set targets for them. The Premium partners would be by invitation only.

Are there any synergies between Tata Communications and iON? We explore opportunities where we can collaborate. But first we want to develop a story of our own, build referrals, and only then think about synergies with iON. n

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market focus

Down with the Rupee A depreciating rupee on the back of rising inflation has meant a double whammy for channels n Abhijeet Mukherjee

ver the past six months the rupee has depreciated by nearly 12 percent from `44 per dollar to `49.75 per dollar. This has led to price increases of 5-10 percent by many IT vendors and more such hikes are expected. Many in the channels believe that the price hikes are a cause of big worry as they will dampen consumer buying further. Among the vendors that have already increased the prices of their products are LG, Samsung, ViewSonic, Lenovo, HP, Dell and Emerson. “While we manufacture the display products in India, the panels are imported. Also, the ODDs and notebooks are imported from Korea and China,” says

the price increase may affect sales significantly,” says Rajesh Tayal, Director, Computer Touch. Tayal had set the target of selling 200 notebooks during the festive season, but looking at the initial response and the price hikes he is not so confident of achieving that now. “Customers have already been impacted due to high interest rates, food inflation, fuel hikes, etc, and this has resulted in lower disposable incomes. Now there is a direct increase in the prices of IT products,” he laments. Some retailers and distributors have decided to absorb an element of the price hike in order to sustain festiveseason buying. “Although most vendors have increased the prices of their products by 5-10 percent, we have only increased prices by 3-4 percent. We are absorbing the remaining cost at our end to ensure consumer confidence is not impacted and sales targets are met,” says Vinod Verma, CEO, Key Computer, a Nagpur-based subdistributor. “It will impact our profits but we have to do it.”

Commercial impact Sanjoy Bhattacharya, Product Group Head, IT, LGEIL. “Due to the continuous rupee depreciation it has become imperative for us to consider a price hike of 6 percent across all IT products.” ViewSonic, Lenovo and Emerson have increased product prices from 5-8 percent. Besides rupee depreciation, inflationary pressure has also impacted costs. “Inflation and other input costs have been rising for the past many months. So far we have absorbed these costs; however, the unexpected and steep rupee devaluation has left us no alternative but to increase prices though we have tried to minimize the impact on consumers as much we could,” says Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India. Partners are worried that the price hikes will impact festive sales. “Usually during festive seasons consumers expect attractive price-points and promotions. This time

“Due to continuous rupee depreciation, it has become imperative for us to consider a price hike of 6 percent across all LG IT products” Sanjoy Bhattacharya

Product Group Head, IT, LGEIL

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On the commercial side, many enterprise VARs have been impacted by the price hike in a different way. “Many partners bid for large tenders at old prices. With the sudden increase in prices to the tune of 8-10 percent they are in a fix on how to fulfill orders at the earlier rates,” says Sriram S, CEO, iValue InfoSolutions. Seconding this view Verma says, “We work with the government and PSUs where it takes months to finalize a tender. Now with the price rise, we can neither withdraw from the tender nor provide the products at the quoted price.” Many in the industry believe that the rupee will stay at around `50 for at least the next six months. “It is difficult to predict forex rates at a time when the entire global economy is looking a bit shaky. Nobody expected the rupee to be at `50 to the dollar. In fact many had expected the dollar to weaken, but instead it has appreciated unexpectedly. From forex analysts we hear that the rupee will remain under pressure for at least six months,” says Ankesh Kumar, Senior Manager, Micro & Small UPS Business, Emerson. Ajay Sharma, Country Manager, ViewSonic India, feels that unless the economic scenario improves any prediction about currency fluctuations is futile. “The global scenario is hazy and will remain so for some time. This could lead to forex volatility. The rupee may depreciate or even appreciate. However, having seen the extremes, most importers will now be hedging their forex more smartly.” n

cover story

he entire country is in a voyeuristic mood. Following the sporadic terrorist attacks, the government has drawn up blue-prints to implement large surveillance projects across the length and breadth of the country to strengthen internal security. Various civic bodies are chalking plans to make it statutory for just about any business entity to set up surveillance cameras in their premises. Enterprises are thinking beyond security and are using surveillance technology for energy management, building automation, asset management, productivity improvement and much more. Home owners too are worried about their security, and are using IP-based cameras to secure their homes and monitor their assets remotely. It’s estimated that over the next five years around `20,000 crore worth of business opportunity exists in and around surveillance, including services and IT deployment. While earlier surveillance was largely the domain of non-IT resellers and physical security companies, with the rapid changes in technology the market is opening up for IT systems integrators (SIs). According to a recent Frost & Sullivan report on the video surveillance market in the Asia Pacific, the market

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has evolved beyond analog systems and is emerging as a hotbed for IP solutions. This shift in focus is mainly due to the rising preference of governments for IP; the research firm estimates a CAGR growth of over 18.2 percent from 2010 to 2017 for the video surveillance market. “A need for high security and better quality recording has prompted many countries to seek IP solutions,” notes Parul Oswal, Senior Research Analyst, Industrial Technology Practice, Frost & Sullivan, APAC. “Moreover, there’s a desire among companies to install surveillance infrastructure on their IP network.” The report sees huge opportunity for IT SIs across Asia. “IP is evolving because many IT professionals are available to help set up the required infrastructure. This availability of skills is likely to encourage numerous verticals to take up IP, thus leading to exponential market growth. In the long term, a complete shift from analog to IP video surveillance will happen,” forecasts Oswal. As per the IMS Research report (2010 edition), the total market for video surveillance in Asia was estimated to have been worth over $3.3 billion in 2009 and forecast to grow at a CAGR of 15.2 percent to be worth over $6.7 billion in 2014. The network video surveillance

cover story equipment market was estimated to have been worth $511.4 million in 2009 and forecast to grow at a CAGR of 32.8 percent to be worth over $2.1 billion in 2014. Sudhir Puthran, CEO, Field Services, Intarvo Technologies, agrees. “In terms of business opportunity we have seen just the tip of the iceberg. This is the best time to enter the domain for an IT SI who understands the concept of IP technology. We have been focused on the surveillance-related business, and hope to net 12-15 percent of our revenue from this market.” IT resellers too are eying the opportunity with a lot of seriousness. “Surveillance is a big opportunity, and we are seeing a number of projects being floated especially in the north-east where counter-insurgency actions are on. There’s also security awareness among private business owners,” says Ajay Maitin, CEO, Graphic Trades, Patna.

Major drivers Apart from the shift in technology—which requires SIs with skill-sets ranging from core networking to software systems—one factor driving growth is the change in mindsets among large enterprises and governments. “From implementing piecemeal projects on security, the enterprise approach has become more holistic. We are seeing customers employing a unified approach on all matters of security, whether physical or IT. Since they are prepared to bet more on technology, it’s easier for an IT SI rather than a traditional security vendor,” says Vishak Raman, Regional Director, Saarc & Middle East, Fortinet. The biggest chunk of investment is expected from governments, largely as part of their counter-terrorism initiatives. While surveillance cameras have already been installed at likely targets such as airports, stock exchanges and places of worship, new tenders are being floated to revamp other infrastructure. “If you look at some of the implementations that have happened, they were almost as a knee-jerk reaction to the 9/11 attack or some other terrorist attack. But I think that with the changes in policy our internal security think-tank is moving from a reactive mode to a proactive mode, hence fresh investments in the latest IP-based technologies can be expected,” says Rivi Varghese, CEO, CustomerXPS, Bengaluru. Several tenders are being floated individually by temple trusts and by the entities that run major tourist spots. Since these organizations are traditionally cashrich, they are able to invest in the latest technologies. “Indian temples are now looking at highly advanced security systems. We have integrated solutions comprising surveillance systems, smart cameras and CCTVs for such high-traffic zones,” informs Hemendu Sinha, Business

“IP is evolving because IT professionals are available to set up the infrastructure. In the long term, a shift from analog to IP video surveillance will happen”

Government driving adoption Following the terrorist attack in Mumbai in November 2008, the Indian Home Ministry decided to set up the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC). The idea of setting up the center was to create a single body which would form policies, create directives, monitor activities and provide the intelligence needed by different intelligence and law & order wings of the central and state governments. The Home Ministry’s policy committee essentially has two broad surveillance thrusts. The first is the physical surveillance of all spots in the country that could potentially be on the radar of terrorist groups. The second is the creation of a National Intelligence Grid, a database that would monitor every citizen in the country who has a passport, PAN card, driving license, bank account or property. The Grid would monitor activities (such as transactions at stock exchanges) of citizens under the suspect list. The idea is to create a large database that can be easily accessed by organizations such as CBI, RAW, NIA, DRI and the state police intelligence wings. While sensitive spots such as airports and railway stations are already under surveillance, the idea now is to also include sensitive towns and cities. Directives have been provided to state home departments in this regard. The NCTC and the parliamentary committee on counter-terrorism have come up with a long list of potential targets that need to be monitored 24x7 by using a multitude of surveillance techniques. These include complete monitoring of close to 40 temple towns, and sensitive spots where communal tension is possible in 100 cities. There have also been directives to civic bodies to form policies to secure malls, parks, tourism spots, cinema theaters, schools, colleges and public recreation areas. Trusts that run and manage temples, mosques, churches and other religious places have been given a separate directive to set up physical surveillance systems in and around the places of worship. The state home ministries have been directed to set up surveillance units on all roads leading to popular places of worship. Live monitoring during sensitive periods (such as the Ganesh festival) and transmission of live images to the office of the police commissioner (or superintendent of police) have also been fresh initiatives across all major cities. While it’s difficult to estimate the exact amount that the central and state governments are likely to spend on physical surveillance-related projects, independent reports estimate budgets of between `10,000 crore and `15,000 crore over the next five years. n

Trusts that run temples, mosques, churches and other religious places have been given a directive to set up surveillance systems

Parul Oswal, Senior Research Analyst,

Industrial Technology Practice, Frost & Sullivan

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15/10/2011

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cover story Head, B2B, LG Electronics. LG has also signed on partners across the country to implement onsite projects. The company has already signed up with the Devasthan Vibhag of Rajasthan to provide integrated solutions (with products like CCTVs and cameras) for its 22 temples. According to Sinha, LG sees an opportunity of at least `800 crore from the surveillance systems business. One major tender floating is for wiring and installing IP cameras across the entire Tirupati town where approximately 20,000 IP cameras are likely to be deployed for tracking people and vehicles. Similar projects have been announced for Shirdi, Sabarimala and Guruvayoor. A key driver for the adoption of IP-based cameras has been the drop in their prices. “The prices of IP-based cameras have dropped to a point of comparison with analog cameras,” notes Vikas Chadha, Director, Honeywell Security, South Asia. City-based surveillance projects are also in full swing. “Apart from civic bodies we have large private citizen groups participating in such projects. For example, in Mumbai, one of our leading partners is working on a project for a private citizen forum in a posh locality which wants to set up an IP camera network over wireless to monitor the surroundings,” says Sudarshan Boosupalli, GM, India operations, Ruckus Wireless. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike, which governs the affairs of Bengaluru city, recently issued a diktat to all shop owners and shopping complex owners to install CCTV cameras in their premises. The administrative body is contemplating a fine for defaulters

“Surveillance systems based on video or alternate technologies are being deployed innovatively as part of energy management solutions” SUDHIR PUTHran

CEO, Field Services, Intarvo Technologies

unwilling to deploy surveillance systems. “Like firefighting equipment, surveillance systems are going to be statutory everywhere,” opines Puthran. The home surveillance market is certainly emerging as one of the biggest markets, especially in large metros. “When both the husband and wife are working, and when children and old parents are at home, surveillance cameras at home are becoming a reality. We have camera phones that can be hooked 24 hours to the net, so you can browse and see exactly what is happening at home,” says VR Kirubakaran, Director, Microvillage Communications. Meanwhile, D-Link has already launched IP cameras with a smartphone application that lets consumers keep a watch via the phone and monitor.

Thinking beyond security While security remains the primary reason for setting up surveillance systems, enterprises have also started using IP-based surveillance technologies, not necessarily with video, for a number of productivity-enhancing initiatives.

business opportunities for partners Market

Business opportunity

Technology

Project size

Key vendors

Home surveillance

Typically less than 5 IP-cams. Also potential for surveillance as a service. A million homes are expected to deploy such solutions over the next 12 months

Entry-level IP cameras with motion sensing

`10,000 to `1 lakh

Zicom, Honeywell, Axis, D-Link, Seagate, Digisol

Residential buildings & malls

Scope includes security and energy management with installations ranging from 5 to 100 cams. Opportunity for network storage. Nearly 20,000 buildings to implement such solutions this year

Network video recording, NAS storage, motion sensing, HDTV

`2 lakh to `10 lakh

Honeywell, Axis, Panasonic, LG, Cisco, Avaya

Enterprises

Scope includes security, energy management, productivity enhancement and surveys. Installations typically range between 5 and 500 cameras. Around 1,000 projects expected over the next one year

Network video recording, NAS/SAN storage, HDTV, facial recognition, pattern matching and video analytics

`5 lakh to `50 lakh

Honeywell, Axis, LG, Cisco, Avaya

City surveillance & temple town projects

Scope includes security and storage of video footage

Network video recording, NAS/SAN storage, HDTV, facial recognition, pattern matching and video analytics

`20 lakh to `50 crore

Most projects are being bagged by large consortiums

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cover story Case study: Shell networks IP-based physical surveillance is used for a number of reasons besides security. Building automation management (BAM) is one of the areas where video surveillance systems and building automation systems—if both are hosted on IP networks—can work hand-in-hand. Hyderabad-based Shell Networks has been piloting several projects in this domain along with Cisco’s Real Estate consulting team and Johnson Controls. Last year Shell implemented a video surveillance project for Vodafone India’s business facilities in Pune. Vodafone had earlier implemented a BAM solution that included motion sensors, temperature control, lighting control and facility management. “Despite this implementation, Vodafone was not able to control energy costs and improve operational efficiency because the AC and other equipment were always on, even during the off hours. Vodafone therefore decided to integrate the BAM system with an IP platform to monitor and control energy usage and its wastage,” explains AL Srinath, CEO, Shell. For approximately $200,000, the Cisco design team and the Shell technical team set up eight high-end IP cameras which monitored and sent images to the IP video phones of the service desks, including those of security. “As a result, the security automatically dims the lights and switches off the ACs in vacant areas of the office building,” Srinath explains. He says that Shell bagged the order largely due to Cisco’s efforts. “Cisco has been pushing its Cisco Mediator product line that’s targeted at large corporate buildings as a platform to integrate surveillance, building automation, security and energy costs.” In a similar deployment at AL srinath Jawaharlal Nehru Technology University (JNTU), Shell set up video surveillance cameras for remote monitoring. Explains Srinath: “At JNTU we took remote monitoring to another level. The cameras have been deployed in such a way that the computer labs and server room can remain functional 24x7. We capture videos and email them to the professors who can monitor (the development) of their students using the labs from home (virtual labs).” The total cost was approximately `20 lakh. The university thus saves the cost of extra manpower to monitor things; at the same time, the facilities management saves money by switching off lights and extra air-conditioning when there are no students in the labs. According to Srinath, it’s difficult to calculate the exact cost benefits of solutions such as the ones implemented for Vodafone or JNTU. “Nevertheless, case studies in the US point to returns within two years in terms of savings in operational efficiency.” n

The cameras at JNTU have been deployed in such a way that the computer labs and server room can remain functional 24x7

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“The enterprise approach to security is becoming more holistic. Customers are deploying security solutions that also integrate physical surveillance” VISHAK RAMAN

Regional Director, Saarc & ME, Fortinet

The biggest emerging markets are energy management and building automation systems. “Energy costs have risen, and surveillance systems based on video or alternate technologies are being deployed to lower these costs,” says Puthran. Surveillance systems are also being used for tasks such as double-checking card-based attendance management systems. While smart cards are being used for monitoring the movement of staff, video surveillance systems are being used to check whether any malpractice has occurred. AL Srinath, CEO, Shell Networks, sees potential in the manufacturing segment. “We see manufacturers using surveillance systems to monitor their shop-floor specifically to check errant staff but also to monitor any wastage and even check on machines. Simple surveillance systems can thus be used to increase productivity, enforce discipline and even detect production issues.” Video analytics is a key driver for IP, with customers starting to realize the importance of obtaining detailed information. Although price is still an issue for most endusers, they will be persuaded by technology developments in facial recognition, license plate recognition, and language capability and motion detection. Asset management is another area where surveillance systems are being considered. “Customers have started discussing surveillance-based tagging of assets. However, the technology is still perceived to be very expensive, and is not accurate,” says Satheesh Nair, CEO, Unified Stickman, Bengaluru. In terms of target verticals, the transport segment promises to be the biggest market. Frost & Sullivan estimate that this segment will spend $3.6 billion on security by 2017. The infrastructure sector also looks promising with rising investments in airports, seaports and metros. Surveillance means additional business for the SI. Storage vendors are betting that video surveillance will be one of the main growth drivers in the coming years. Following the recent terrorist attacks, governments have recommended that hotels should store six months of surveillance footage instead of the present one week. “With the new directives, surveillance will create new markets for storage,” points out Atul Jain, Country Manager, Netgear India. “With the prices of network attached storage also dropping, it would be cheaper for users to use direct disk-based storage.” Network infrastructure may also be revamped, creating fresh opportunities. “Currently we have at least five reference cases in the country, and over 20 where wireless networks are being deployed specifically for

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cover story INterview: OH TEE LEE, AXIS COMMUNICATIONS What are the technologies and products in the surveillance market today? The new trend is definitely the intelligent applications such as facial recognition, people counting and vehicle license plate recognition. These technologies allow users across segments such as city surveillance, retail and banking to benefit from the surveillance products by gathering additional details from the cameras. In a retail store, a technology like this will help them understand, for example, which part of the store is attracting more visitors. The security and surveillance market is vast, and we see huge scope for SIs to expand in the core surveillance business. However, the surveillance industry needs expertise as these are critical installations and each deployment signifies the specific needs of the user. Which factors are driving the market? Besides security, the use of surveillance as a tool for increasing business efficiency is also increasing, especially in sectors such as banking and retail. Earlier, surveillance had been used to gather intelligence on criminal and terrorist activities, and to help deter untoward incidents. Surveillance was not considered part of the IT security strategy then. Today the situation is changing, and an interesting aspect is that surveillance is slowly moving out of the realm of pure physical security. With the advent of embedded applications in security products, surveillance is now emerging as a tool for gathering business intelligence. How important are video analytics? With the addition of video analytics software to surveillance solutions, enterprises are enabling these solutions to bring a new perspective to their business. For instance, a mall management company may monitor customer traffic patterns at every entrance to the complex, and use the data for marketing purposes. With the growing number of industry verticals and changing business trends, the adoption of surveillance cameras is increasing. Most of the top manufacturers have launched or are in the process of launching products on HDTV standards. Faster and enhanced computing inside the cameras is helping manufacturers to deliver very high content HDTV video at full-frame rates and resolutions. Also, HDTV cameras enable the user with high visual improvement in storage. The ability of the video management application system to handle highresolution streams is helping to drive this adoption. n

oh tee lee

Surveillance technologies are being used for innovative BI applications such as facial recognition, people counting and vehicle license plate recognition

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“We are seeing a number of projects being rolled out by the government especially in the north-east where counter insurgency actions are on” Ajay Maitin

CEO, Graphic Trades

surveillance projects,” says Boosupalli. However, Srinath is quick to point out that with IP-based video solutions most customers need not invest in separate infrastructure. “Most verticals already have IP-based LANs and WANs. As in the case of IP telephony, IP-based video surveillance can happen over the same infrastructure.”

Surveillance-as-a-service “Surveillance-as-a-service is an idea that’s taking shape fast,” says Chadha. “Working like the SaaS model, someone in the home or office will be able to use surveillance solutions just the way they make use of the telephone, electricity and other utilities.” In 2010 IMS Research predicted that surveillance on the SaaS model would take off by 2012. Such a model offers several advantages over traditional video surveillance. In the traditional way, users view video by connecting directly to onsite recorders; this requires networking changes and additional software on the viewing PC. The SaaS model negates that—there’s very little upfront cost. Since the model works as a service the customer needn’t worry about thefts, damages and breakdowns. Besides, the content is safe because it does not reside locally but in the secure infrastructure of the service provider. Over the past few years a number of vendors have joined the surveillance product marketplace. “There are already specialized security vendors such as Honeywell and Axis. Apart from them, vendors such as Panasonic, Sony and Canon have also stepped in,” says Maitin. Some partners view the market with a lot of enthusiasm, but are reluctant to enter it because of the lack of skill-sets. “We see the opportunities, but are not very sure about the right approach. Skill-sets are also a concern,” admits Subbaram Gowra, Managing Partner, Gowra Bits & Bytes, Secunderabad. Others disagree, and say there’s nothing specific which an SI needs to work on as far as skill-sets are concerned. “We are keen to work with Indian IT SIs,” says Oh Tee Lee, Regional Director, Axis Communications. “We have our technology partner program and engineering program specifically for the SI. It will be easy for an existing IT solutions provider to build solutions on our platform.”

Conclusion Surveillance represents yet another business opportunity for IT SIs to tap. With surveillance being used for a number of areas other than security—such as performance efficiency, building automation and energy management— the size of the market is increasing. n

special focus

The life and legacy of an innovator Steve Jobs’ passing away has rocked the industry. Here we take a look at his personal and professional life, along with his legacy of must-have products n Jennifer Bosavage & Andrew R Hickey

he death of Steve Jobs put a spotlight on a very private man who was a very public CEO. To many, it appeared that Jobs had a crystal ball, as so many of the products he designed answered a need the public didn’t even know it had. His life story is the quintessential American tale of a young man, who, against the odds, through hard work and a little bit of luck, became one of the most well known and respected innovators of our time. Born February 24, 1955 to unwed parents who put him up for adoption, Jobs was raised by Clara, an accountant, and Paul, a machinist, in California. Days with dad taking things apart and then rebuilding them in the family’s garage set the foundation for the boy’s eventual transformation into the founder of Apple Computer.

Jobs and Woz Jobs graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, in 1972, and attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He dropped out after one semester. Jobs bounced around, working briefly for Atari Computer and traveling to India before joining the Homebrew Computer Club led by Steve Wozniak in 1975. The next year, Jobs persuaded Wozniak to start a business and the garage in which he tinkered as a child became the launch pad for Apple.

Apple is born In 1976, after Jobs had worked briefly for Atari Computer and traveled in India, he and Apple co-founders Wozniak and Ronald Wayne created the Apple I, a PC kit that comprised a motherboard with a CPU, RAM and semiconductors for basic text-visual processing and which had a quirky price tag of $666.66. Each Apple I was hand-

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assembled by Wozniak. Wozniak and Jobs incorporated Apple on January 3, 1977, while Wayne, who among other things designed the first Apple logo, sold his 10 percent share of the company to his partners for $800, plus a later payment of $1,500. The value of Wayne’s share today would be roughly $35 billion.

Behold Apple II On April 16, 1977, Jobs and Wozniak launched the Apple II series of computers. Differentiated from competitors such as the Commodore PET and Tandy Corp’s TRS-80 by its color graphics and other advances, the Apple II was a commercial success. While the Apple I earned roughly a quarter of a million dollars, the new model brought in approximately $140 million. The Apple ship had set sail.

A decisive visit In what would prove to be a watershed moment for Apple and the computer industry, Jobs and a number of other Apple engineers visited Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in December 1979 to see the office equipment maker’s PC, the Xerox Alto. Xerox, in return, was given the option to purchase 100,000 Apple stock options at $10 a share. The Alto was the first computer to use a graphical user interface (GUI) and a mouse. The Xerox PARC visit convinced Jobs that the GUI was the key to widespread adoption of personal computers for home and business.

Apple IPO In 1980, Apple went public. In the first day’s trading Apple’s market value skyrocketed to a whopping $1.2 billion, making a then-25-year-old Steve Jobs worth

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$239 million. Jobs would become Apple chairman the following year and in 1983 he wooed Pepsi President John Sculley to take the reins as Apple CEO.

The Lisa The Lisa was born in 1982, with a retail cost of nearly $10,000, and then revised in 1984, with prices ranging from $3,500 to $5,500. The Lisa was supposed to be an upgrade of the Apple II, but the size of both the physical machine and the price tag scared away most buyers. The computer, which featured cooperative multi-tasking and virtual memory, was ahead of its time. It was the second commercially available computer, after the Xerox Star, to have a mouse-driven GUI. The Lisa 2 saw the debut of the 3.5” disk in Apple computers. The Lisa was likely named for Jobs’ daughter, born four years earlier. However, Apple said the name stood for Local Integrated Software Architecture, although the original documentation did not indicate that ‘Lisa’ was an acronym.

The Macintosh Jobs took what he learned from the Lisa and in 1984 released the Macintosh. (Wozniak was away from the company from 1981 to 1983, recovering from a private plane crash.) The Macintosh was an all-in-one desktop computer that featured a graphical interface and a mouse. It sported a Motorola 6800 processor and originally had 128K of RAM, upgraded promptly to 512K. The 9” monochrome screen displayed a resolution of 512x342 pixels. Goodbye text-based computing: no longer did users type words into a command field to get the computer to do something—the Mac had the first successful implementation of a GUI. The Macintosh was announced in a $1.5 million commercial (directed by Ridley Scott) which aired during Super Bowl XVIII in January 1984.

On to the NeXT phase Jobs and then Apple CEO Sculley clashed with their competing visions for the company’s future and that led to a showdown in 1985 before Apple’s board of directors. Jobs lost out in the power struggle and the board stripped him of his management duties. Later that year, Jobs left Apple entirely and started

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NeXT Inc. to design a line of workstations for businesses and the education market. Sculley was at the helm in 1992 when the company released the 1-pound Newton, the first personal digital assistant. Sculley, known for his marketing skill, coined the term PDA.

Primed for Pixar In addition to NeXT, Jobs also pursued the moviemaking business. In 1986 he bought a film studio (that would become Pixar Animation Studios) for $10 million from Lucasfilms owner and Star Wars creator George Lucas. Several years later, in 1995, Pixar released its first movie with Disney, Toy Story. The film’s success and Pixar going public made Jobs a billionaire. Jobs invested $50 million in the company, and he became the largest stockholder of Pixar when Disney bought it in 2006 in a $7.4 billion stock deal. The deal made Jobs Disney’s largest shareholder and he took a spot on its board of directors.

Wedding bells; Back at Apple In 1991 Steve Jobs married Laurene Powell. Jobs and Powell had met two years earlier while she was doing graduate work at Stanford. While Jobs’ personal life and wealth continued their upward trajectory, NeXT did not thrive. Apple bought NeXT in 1996 for $429 million. With Sculley out as Apple’s chief executive and Gil Amelio in, Jobs was brought back as an advisor. A year later, Amelio was fired due to Apple’s poor financial performance. Amelio’s ousting was a boon for Jobs, who was named Apple’s Interim CEO, a title he carried until the ‘interim’ was dropped and Jobs became CEO in 2000.

Burying the hatchet Apple and archrival Microsoft shocked the industry in 1997 when they formed an alliance, including a $150 million investment by Microsoft in the financially struggling Apple. Microsoft also promised to develop versions of Office and Internet Explorer for the Mac. The deal was disclosed during a Jobs keynote at Macworld in Boston in 1997, which included a surprise video appearance by Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. Also in 1997, CRN inducted Jobs into the Industry Hall of Fame.

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iMac In 1998 the computing public learned that computers no longer had to be beige: Jobs introduced the iMac onto the desktop scene in a rainbow of colors. The original iMacs came with a 233 MHz PowerPC 750, 32 MB of RAM, a 4 GB hard drive, a 24x CD-ROM, Ethernet, stereo speakers and a 15” monitor. The only items not encased in the egg-shaped chassis were the keyboard and the mouse. The iMac quickly became the fastest-selling personal computer in history. Two years later, Jobs launched Mac OS X, Apple’s operating system which is based on the NeXT OS.

The iPod changes music In January 2001 Jobs and Apple introduced the iPod portable digital audio player, a wildly successful product that re-shaped how music is consumed (more than 100 million iPods were sold between 2001 and 2007). The iPod launch presaged the company’s success in the consumer electronics market. Apple also launched its first Apple retail store, and, in 2003, Jobs unveiled the online iTunes store for music downloads.

Cancer diagnosis In 2003 Jobs was diagnosed with a rare but operable form of pancreatic cancer. Jobs waited nine months before having the operation, seeking to find an alternative treatment. In 2004 Jobs sent an email to Apple employees that said he had had the surgery, which was deemed ‘successful.’

iPhone In a keynote speech at the Macworld show in January 2007, Jobs debuted the Apple iPhone, a touch-screen smartphone that would alter the course of the mobile device market. By early 2011 total sales of the iPhone— which at that point was in its fourth generation—had surpassed 100 million and quarterly sales had grown to 20 million units. During 2008’s launch of the Apple iPhone 3G, Jobs also unveiled the Apple App Store, a storefront for third-party apps that again changed how data and content was used on a mobile device.

Liver transplant On January 14, 2009, in an internal memo, Jobs

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announced that he was taking a six-month leave of absence from Apple for health reasons, specifically citing a ‘hormone imbalance.’ Rumors were rampant that the pancreatic cancer he’d been treated for in 2004 had returned. However, in June, doctors confirmed he had received a liver transplant at the Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis. Jobs returned to work in June 2009.

iPad Jobs again gazed into his crystal ball and emerged with a touch-screen tablet called the iPad. Announced during a Macworld keynote in January 2010, the Apple iPad tablet was a ‘magical’ device, Jobs said, and captured a market that had previously eluded computer makers. The iPad hit the market that April and sold half a million units in its first week alone. Jobs and Apple followed up the iPad with the iPad 2 in March 2011.

Leave of absence, Resignation Jobs took another medical leave of absence in January 2011, and in an email to Apple employees set no specific length for his time-off. The leave of absence didn’t prevent Jobs from taking the stage two months later to launch the iPad 2. On August 24, 2011, Apple announced that Jobs had resigned as CEO, saying he “could no longer meet [his] duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO.” No other reason was given for Job’s decision. Jobs was replaced by interim CEO Tim Cook but remained chairman of the board.

Steve Jobs (1955-2011) Steve Jobs died from pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011. He leaves behind four children, his wife of 20 years, Laurene Powell Jobs, a sister, and his biological parents. Jobs’ adoptive parents are both deceased. Flags flew at half-staff at the company’s headquarters. Commemorations of the innovator’s life took place nationwide: an iPhone-lit vigil was staged at the San Francisco Apple Store, and remembrances were placed on the sidewalk by the NYC Apple store. The NYC site is renovating its iconic glass cube which was designed by Jobs. On the plywood surrounding the worksite, a fan spray-painted the sentiment: ‘I Love Steve.’ World and business leaders took to Twitter and other mediums to share their thoughts and condolences for one of the world’s true innovators. n

Role model Doing it at the Right Time Taking timely bets, Pranav Pandya has grown his firm, Dev Information Technology, from a small IT services outfit into a sizable provider of multiple enterprise solutions n Amit Singh

fter completing his PG Diploma in Electronics, Pranav Pandya started off as a freelance IT consultant in 1990 catering to IT user training, software development and first-level preventive hardware maintenance in Surat, Gujarat. Later that year, along with a friend, Chetan Desai, Pandya set up his company, Intelligent Knowledge Based Systems. It culminated in the establishment of the flagship company Dev Information Technology in 1997 in Ahmedabad, with his family friend Jaimin Shah as co-Founder Director. Desai still works with Pandya as Resident Director based in Surat. It was in the summer vacations after Class X that Pandya had his first brush with computers at a cousin’s residence in Mumbai. “It was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. I was blown away by the graphic capacity while playing games. The whole experience was very impressive and left such an impact that I decided to enter the world of computers as a profession,” says Pandya.

The beginning Started with a borrowed initial investment of `3 lakh, and offering software solutions and IT services to SMBs, Dev Information Technology today has five branches and 2,200 employees. The company clocked a turnover of `22 crore in FY2010-11 and boasts of a clientele that includes government organizations like the Panchayat Department, PWD, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation, the Irrigation Department and enterprises such as the Adani Group, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Cadila Pharmaceuticals, the Vadilal Group and Digjam. Pandya hails from a renowned family of Saurashtra; his father being (the late) Justice NJ Pandya and mother a lawyer. He inherited his business acumen from his maternal uncle and cousins who have an established business in Saurashtra. “I started my company at the age of 22. My wife, Kruti, also an IT professional, is the secret force behind my overall success,” says Pandya.

“I started my company at the age of 22. My wife, Kruti, also an IT professional, is the secret force behind my overall success”

Initially the company faced challenges due to the prevailing perception among customers that they didn’t need to pay anything for IT services. Banks and financial institutions also shied away from financing IT business projects as there was no physical collateral to be offered except the presence of software personnel. “We aligned ourselves into a close relationship with our customers and made them aware of the benefits of IT services and the requirement of skilled manpower to manage IT resources. At the same time, we got unsecured loans from family and friends to meet our capital requirements,” he recalls. The company forayed into e-governance projects as well as managed services for government and private sector organizations in 1999. “To be at the right place at the right time is the dictum which worked for my company. E-gov started in Gujarat after the government announced its IT policy in 1998 and enabled it in 1999; it coincided with our plan of foraying into e-gov. This catapulted us into the main league of IT players in Gujarat in five years,” informs Pandya. The company got its major breakthrough in 1998 with a project to develop retrieval software for lawsuits along with a database of judgments of the Gujarat High Court dating back to 1960. The project ended in 2000. The same year the company bagged a project worth `38 lakh for automating asset allocation, recovery and house allocation processes for the Gujarat Housing Board. The company’s status was further substantiated by its maturing partner relationship with Microsoft (Gold Partner) along with Verisign (Sub-Certifying Authority – Western India), and e-gov solution partnership with Adobe, Symantec and Oracle. “Sales and technical support for digital signatures and IT infrastructure support for managed services also gained momentum after 2003. These added to the cumulative and value-added growth of our company and made it what it is today,” Pandya says. The company got ISO 9001-2000 certification in 2002 and secured the SE1B credit rating from NSIC-Crisil in 2005. “The Crisil rating and ISO certification helped us locate the gaps in our business model from the point of view of introspection as well as correction in our financial practices and core business activities,” says Pandya. “We realized the importance of delegation and the need to build a sense of business ownership among

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role model and governed by SLAs. By delivering remote infrastructure management services, under guidance from my colleague Director Vishal Vasu, from Current business Started Dev Information our network operation center having Dev IT now offers the entire service Technology 30 skilled professionals monitoring portfolio including enterprise solution development, software Bagged a lawsuit retrieval and more than 1,000 servers in the US, UK and UAE, we have helped many licensing and implementation, judgment database project global companies cut down their managed IT services, remote from the Gujarat High Court cost of infrastructure management. infrastructure management, and We invested in an open source digital signature implementation. Won a Gujarat Housing Board monitoring solution and set up an The company grew its topline by automation project alert and notification mechanism 22.9 percent, with revenue scaling based on the severity [of a problem]. from `17.9 crore in FY2009-10 to Received ISO 9001-2000 We recruited a blend of domain `22 crore in FY2010-11. Managed certification experts and fresh resources to ensure services contributed about 23 percent that the cost of delivery is lowered (`5 crore) to the overall revenue and Secured SE1B credit rating and the benefit is passed on to the grew by 40 percent in FY2010-11 from NSIC-Crisil customers.” compared to `3 crore in the previous For its new hires, the company fiscal. Sub-distribution of software Won recognition as a member has a business finishing and licenses and digital signatures of the Microsoft Dynamics readiness program which ensures contributed 54 percent; software that gaps between the academics and solutions accounted for the rest. President’s Club business knowledge are addressed. The company implemented the CM Fellowship project in 2010 by Best e-gov partner recognition “A 360-degree transparent evaluation process is also carried out to infuse using SharePoint which enabled from Adobe positive and corrective feedback, the CM’s office to invite fellowship thereby enhancing the chances of applications and manage the entire retaining the employee. It subsequently results in work selection process, monitor the fellows’ progress, and satisfaction and growth,” says Pandya. create a knowledge repository of the research and findings which could be used as inputs by various departments during their business process re-engineering activity. The Future journey company also developed the Vibrant Gujarat portal that Dev IT has set a revenue target of `50 crore for FY2011marketed and supported the Vibrant Gujarat 2011 summit. 12. “We are focusing on managed network services and The portal was supported with a back-office management enterprise solution services, and targeting segments engine to carry out the tasks related to the management such as technology, telecommunications, finance, and monitoring of the event. The company also developed pharmaceuticals, health care and media,” Pandya informs. an Online Plot Application System for GIDC which Though its current focus is largely on Gujarat, Dev IT enabled industrialists and entrepreneurs to view the expects to expand its footprint of enterprise solutions to availability of and apply for GIDC plots in Gujarat. other states including Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, “Business enterprises in the western region are Goa and Maharashtra. It is also looking at international showing their readiness to completely outsource all their expansion to Canada, the US, UK and the Middle East. IT needs. They prefer to concentrate more on their core business activities and competencies. This has resulted On a personal note in the holistic growth of Dev from both the topline and With his leadership mantra being inclusive, collaborative bottomline points of view; it also fuels the physical and humane, Pandya considers Ratan Tata as his role growth of the company by way of a large IT skilled model for his humility, clarity of thought and readiness to workforce,” states Pandya. admit mistakes. He adds, “We incorporated security audits in all Music, reading, trekking in the woods and making service offerings; this strengthened our relationships note of the flora and fauna there are some of the activities with existing customers. The process included setting up Pandya indulges in as time permits. He has also planned baseline activities like back-up and standard scheduling to set up a legal reconciliation counseling center in of patches tightly integrated with the monitoring center memory of his late father. Pandya appreciates Indian and western classical music as well as pop and rock. He likes reading biographies as well. Pandya aspires to have a Mercedes-Benz one Dev IT plans to expand its footprint to day and go on a dream holiday through Europe and the Rajasthan, Haryana, Goa and Maharashtra. US by road. He wants to be remembered by his family, It is also looking at international expansion friends and peers as a person they can bank on in any circumstances. n to US, UK and Middle East our core team colleagues, which was lacking before.”

2011

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channel buzz Albion-PHD Chamber conference on Cloud

computing is truly a revolutionary concept for SMBs. It provides ease of adoption, low operational costs and greater workflow efficiency.” Describing cloud computing as an IT revolution, Ravinder Chadha, Joint Secretary, Lok Sabha, said, “Mankind has seen many revolutions but the IT revolution brought about by cloud computing may change the way we live. Since 90 percent of the industries in India are SMBs, the government must increase its focus on meeting their needs.” Technical sessions at the event provided insights to delegates about the benefits of and cost savings from the cloud, business models, the economics of cloud computing, and the storage and security challenges of cloud computing. The panel discussion moderated by Kumardeep, Bureau Chief, Bloomberg UTV, was on the topic, Cloud Computing in India–Hype or Reality? Panel members included Manu Bhatia, Assistant Vice President, Quattro Global Services; Anupam Sharma, Deputy General Manager, IBM India; Kanwal Rai, Practice Manager, Wipro Consulting Practice; and Abhinav Shrotriya, VP, Albion Infotel. The panel opined that the cloud will offer lots of value and a levelplaying field for SMBs against large enterprises. However, cloud services in India are still at the nascent stage even while they offer good opportunities for providers as well as users. n

t a recent conference on cloud computing, Albion Infotel, winner of the CRN Cloud Services Provider Award 2011, addressed the pain-points of the SMB segment and explained that cloud services offer an opportunity to SMBs to be on par with large enterprises. At the conference jointly organized by Albion and the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Albion said, “SMBs contribute 40 percent of the entire output of India, and 35 percent of the industrial exports. After agriculture, SMBs are the highest employer in the country. They face many challenges such as non-availability of advanced technology, lack of skilled manpower and the conservative approach of lenders. Cloud computing can prove to be a game-changer for SMBs by providing them easy and affordable access to IT resources and services. Besides the opportunity to use the best applications, cloud computing reduces the need for capital expenses and provides freedom from technical support and services.” The event was attended by over 150 delegates comprising executives from SMBs, government officials, and faculty and students from various institutions. In his welcome address, Salil Bhandari, President, PHD Chamber, said, “Large enterprises have been able to invest heavily in IT infrastructure and leverage technological advancements. SMBs are somewhere left behind in this race, and have not been able to utilize the benefits of technology. Cloud

— Amit Singh

n Ravinder Chadha, Joint Secretary, Lok Sabha, lit the lamp with other dignitaries to inaugurate the event

n Sanjeev Gupta, MD, Albion Infotel, said cloud computing was a game-changer for SMBs

n Ravinder Chadha, Joint Secretary, Lok Sabha, called cloud computing an IT revolution

n Salil Bhandari, President, PHD Chamber, felicitating Ravinder Chadha, Joint Secretary, Lok Sabha

n Panel members shared their thoughts about current adoption trends and the future of cloud computing in India

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

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New Products Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet

Cooler Master Elite 431

enovo recently entered the tablet business in India with three tablet models out of which the ThinkPad is targeted at the enterprise customers. The primary feature of the tablet includes a capacitive scratch-proof touch screen, Android 3.1 platform and Nvidia Tegra-2 dual-core ARM processor. The tablet comes with enhanced security features like anti-theft and data encryption. It also comes with a ThinkPad Tablet Pen which makes it easy to jot down notes and draw pictures. The product weighs around 750 gms. Priced at `46,900, the tablet comes with a 1-year warranty and will be available by the end of October from authorized Lenovo distributors.

Ruckus ZoneDirector 5000 Wi-Fi controller

uckus Wireless, the Wi-Fi equipment supplier, launched ZoneDirector 5000 Wi-Fi controller and a collection of advanced features in a new version of its award-winning ZoneFlexSmart/OS software. The new product provides high-speed wireless access for clients distributed across multiple locations. It is the industry’s first smart Wi-Fi controller-based system that can be flexibly deployed according to the requirement of the organization, and supports up to 20,000 clients, 1,000 access points and 2,048 wireless LANs within a single, easy-to-use and highly resilient platform. It is priced at $35,000, comes with a lifetime warranty, and is available with authorized distributors.

ooler Master—the PC cooling solutions provider— launched two new gaming chassis, the Elite 431 and Elite 431 Plus, targeted at value-conscious gamers. The chassis have a USB 3.0 port and SATA X-Dock, support longer graphics cards and have a front steel mesh for improved air intake. The Elite 431 and Elite 431 Plus are priced at `4,249 and `4,699 respectively, and come with a 2-year warranty. They will be distributed across India by Acro Engineering Company.

Unistal Protegent 2012

nistal Systems, providers of data security products, launched the new version of the Protegent range of products for laptop and desktop users. The antivirus and Internet security product protects business and data from unauthorized access and theft. Protegent also works as a parenting software tool. In addition, it provides a special feature of laptop tracking for laptop users. Some of the other features include file transfer log, read-only USB drive, social network protection, rescue mode, virtualized browser and scan dispatcher. The price ranges from `1,250 for a 1-user box pack to `3,450 for a 10-user box pack.

Digisol AZTECA switch

igisol has launched DG-GS1526—its 24-port Giga Ethernet Web managed switch with 2 Gigabit small form factor (SFF) pluggable ports under its AZTECA Web managed switching solutions series. The SFF ports add the flexibility of fiber uplink to the switch. DG-GS1526 enables networks of all sizes to introduce Gigabit Ethernet with management features. It provides a flexible Web-based management interface that simplifies the configuration of switch features such as port settings, security, QoS, link aggregation and VLANs. It also has 52 Gbps switching capacity. The product is available at an approximate street price of `14,999, and comes with a lifetime warranty.

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 The Kareena effect

ony’s made a smart investment by signing on actress Kareena Kapoor as its brand ambassador because the Kapoor kudi is attracting many women. According to partners, Sony has made the biggest gains in the notebook market of late. They attribute the gains to two reasons. The first is that Sony has become aggressive, and dropped the prices of its products to such an extent that one or two of its SKUs are cheaper than even those of HP and Acer. The second reason is the ad campaigns with Kareena. According to a retailer in Bengaluru, ever since the success of the movie Bodyguard starring Kareena, almost all the women walking into his store ask for Sony notebooks. Says he, “We have never seen such a connect, not even when Compaq signed on Shah Rukh Khan. In fact, women are mentioning specific dress colors of Kareena in the ad, and ordering notebooks.” While PC numbers for Q32011 are yet to be released, we have learned from a leading research agency that Sony clocked sales of 1.4 lakh units, which gives it a share of 12 percent in the consumer notebook market. n

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Personal

“I would make the country corruption free” Ajay Data is Founder of XgenPlus, a leading provider of email server solutions. A graduate from Rajasthan University, MBA in Computer Science from Newport University, and PhD in Electronic Data Processing from the Netherlands, Data is responsible for product development and channel sales at the company. Ajay Data

If not in the IT industry: I would be in the hospitality sector, and own a

chain of restaurants. Biggest passion: Photography and reading. Behind the wheels: Lamborghini Gallardo. Gadget I can’t live without: My BlackBerry. Weekends are for: Family and friends. Favorite holiday destination: I would like to visit Switzerland. Hate the most: Corruption. Favorite movie: Sholay. Favorite stars: Al Pacino and Amitabh Bachchan. Role model: My grandfather. Ultimate ambition: To give my company, XgenPlus, universal recognition. Wildest thing I have ever done: Sky-diving. Thing I most want to do: Trek on Mount Everest. If I became the PM: I would make the country corruption-free. Celebrity I would like to spend a day with: Amitabh Bachchan. One person I would like to meet, and why: Sachin Tendulkar, to understand his passion and hunger for his profession. Deepest and darkest fear: Becoming old and helpless. n — CRN Network

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RNI NO. MAH ENG/1999/635 Postal Reg. No. MH/MR/NORTH EAST/193/2010-2012 Posted at Patrika Channel Sorting Office, Mumbai Due Date 2nd, 3rd & 16th, 17th Of Every Fortnight