INTERVIEW
“Our Global Partner Program ‘KASPERSKY UNITED’ is One of the Finest Partner Profit Programs” Cybersecurity is one of the prime challenges faced by people nowadays and it has become major concern for all set of customers. The awareness about deployment of right security solutions among such consumers is very less. This sometimes results in a huge threat for their digital life as they fall pray of cyber frauds or data theft. Kaspersky, as a leading cybersecurity player in the Indian market, is doing extremely well in the direction of keeping everyone safe digitally. To get more information about company’s vision, Rajeev Ranjan, Editor & Publisher of Digital Terminal interacted with Dipesh Kaura, General Manager, Kaspersky (South Asia) recently which highlighted their channel strength and product strategies to reach large customer base across all market. DIPESH KAURA, GENERAL MANAGER, KASPERSKY (SOUTH ASIA) RAJEEV: WHAT IS ONE OF THE MAJOR CURRENT CYBER SECURITY THREATS FOR B2C CUSTOMERS? DIPESH: For the B2C consumers there has been an increasing risk of smartphone security threats that can be observed. People have moved from using PCs and laptops to using their smartphones for most of their online activities. In addition to that the security threats for smartphones are getting more and more sophisticated with every passing day, iPhones too are vulnerable to cyberthreats and there are specific threats being targeted at iOS. Factors like a major push to digitisation, affordable & attractive internet packages provided by telecom companies, etc have given a boost to the smartphone market, which means people in the remotest areas in India are now connected online through their mobile phones. RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU PLAN TO ADDRESS THESE SECURITY THREATS? DIPESH: We plan to address these threats with the help of our very strong B2C national distributor Supertron Electronics. They have a strong network of regional distributors pan India and through them we plan to reach out to the consumers in 20
I MARCH 2020
the remotest areas of India, offering them our range of B2C products like Kaspersky Internet Security, Kaspersky Total Security, Password Manager, Safe Kids, Kaspersky Cloud Security, etc according to the consumers’ needs. RAJEEV: PLEASE BRIEF ABOUT YOUR CHANNEL STRENGTH ACROSS ALL INDIAN MARKET. HOW DO YOU ASSURE THAT YOUR PARTNERS ARE GROWING WELL AND MAKING DECENT PROFITABILITY IN SELLING YOUR SECURITY SOLUTIONS? DIPESH: Kaspersky being a 100% channel partner company, it is very important for us to keep growing and strengthening our partner network. Our partners help us connect with their regional distributors' network that is spread across India to penetrate the market for the various range of security solutions that we have to offer to end consumers, SMBs, etc. Our global partner program ‘Kaspersky United’ is one of the finest partner profit programs, it provides the partners with extra support in terms of regular trainings, skills development, opportunities to specialise in a particular sector and of course excellent margins. The program is very well appreciated by all our channel partners globally. In addition to the United
Partner Program, we also focus on coming up with other partner incentive programs locally every quarter in association with our national distributors for both B2B and B2C sectors. RAJEEV: WHAT ACCORDING TO YOU IS THE MAJOR CHALLENGE FOR ALL PLAYERS IN SECURITY DOMAIN? DIPESH: One major challenge that the cybersecurity industry faces is the lack of awareness amongst the audience. Many consumers are still not well aware of the evolving cyberthreat landscape and the sophistication of these threats. In many cases consumers may require customised solutions for their security needs but they have no proper guidance. Small and large enterprises are also trying hard to cope up with the evolving threat landscape, now more and more companies are also allocating budgets for cybersecurity but face challenges not understanding completely optimum utilization of these budgets. To fight against this problem, we closely work with our partners whom we provide with advanced trainings and keep them up to date on the threat landscape so that they can in turn help the end consumers and enterprises choose the right solutions. www.digitalterminal.in
