DT April Issue

COVER STORY 18

THE SUCCESS OF VENDOR &

CHANNEL PARTNERSHIP RELIES

ON MUTUAL TRUST & GROWTH

OPINION

HOW AI CAN ANTICIPATE DEMAND TO HELP MANUFACTURERS? AUTHORED BY MR. SUDHIR SINGH, MD ( SALES & MARKETING), MARG ERP LTD.

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iValue InfoSolutions Wins 2017 APAC VAD Award by Micro Focus

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Interview

“Astrum Aims to Make People Experience The Difference” Mr. Manoj Kumar Pansari, CEO, Astrum Holding Ltd

COVER STORY

THE SUCCESS OF VENDOR &

CHANNEL PARTNERSHIP RELIES ON MUTUAL TRUST & GROWTH

ICT industry playing bigger role in the development of our country as adoption of latest innovation and technology boosts growth of overall economy. The success of government’s all major projects depends on ICT. Its been almost three decades, since when we have seen this IT revolution which took our country from under developed nation to fastest growing nation. IT plays even bigger role currently in changing the lives of each and every citizen of India in some way. We all know the global or Indian IT brands who are offering excellent product and solutions to large consumer base across India. They all are successful brand today and will continue to succeed in coming future due the huge potential of Indian market. But their success is not being driven only by offering good quality products, they succeeded because they choose right partners. These channel partners are real conqueror, who worked hard to sell their products and solutions to different set of consumers. Brands can’t be succeeded in so large territory market like India with their own resources. Channel plays significant role establishing any brands in India.

But in last few years, traditional partners suffered a lot due to emergence of online partners. They are not bothered about online competition, they are concerned about predatory pricing module opted by e-commerce player. Yet this has not hampered their zeal and love for this industry. There are many other challenges like GST compliances, return filling, margins, services issues and many more. DT as a channel publication recently concluded a survey to highlight the major challenges for channel partners. The survey was conducted using online and offline techniques which gave us insight of overall issues related with channel partners. Take a look below the findings of DT IT Channel Survey 2018 report. We have also compiled, this story further with the inputs from key vendors and partners to know more about the current scenario.

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COVER STORY

BRANDS: CHANNEL HOLDS THE KEY TO SUCCESS The role of partners in today’s marketplace is very much crucial as they help brands to reach to their targeted audience and enhance business growth. Distributors bridge the gap between end-users and manufacturers and a manufacturer should treat its distributor as an integral part of their business to have better relationship.

“Channel partners are playing a key role in providing us extensive market reach and coverage.

Acer is constantly having clear lines of communication with the partners in order to grow the business together” says Chandrahas Panigrahi, CMO and Consumer Business Head of Acer India.

“We look forward to engagement activities where we can meet our partners regularly and develop transparent relations with clear policies and rules that would help us and help them grow. We are conducting programs for partners to educate them about the newly launched products and new developments in the market and the company along with trained sales person. We take great care to ensure our relation with our partners is as strong as possible.”

“Channel partners have played a major role in the overall expansion of Marg ERP business and today we have a PAN India presence. Coming across the local customer base in this segment is the biggest challenge faced by any company which can be easily sorted by our local channel partner existing in that geographical location. Marg ERP has categorized it’s channel partners as per business needs. We work on 2 tier partnership program. First is MMP- Marg Master Partner (Direct partner with Marg) Second is - MP (Marg Partner) - indirect partner working through MMPs. All our partners are an integral part of our system and also pillars of our strength” said Sudhir Singh, MD, Marg Compusoft.

Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director, Kingston Technology & HyperX – India added, “We believe that the Channel Partners are one of the strong pillars of Kingston’s success. They play a vital role in penetrating the market and enhancing the existing customer relationships. We have steadily developed a friendly and supportive relationship with our Channel Partners over the years, which has been more collaborative and value based, rather than being just transactional and price-focused. We believe in growing with our partners, and work with

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them to develop, maintain and manage productive go-to-market relationships that ultimately help sustain a competitive advantage and create a win-win situation for both. We strongly believe in the spirit of ‘collaboration’, which includes engaging with our Partners at various levels. Effective marketing support, training, incentives and recognition program, have helped us in empowering our Partners and letting them know that we value their contribution to the business.”

Commenting on the importance of channel partners, Bijoy Alaylo, General Manager – SOHO Sales, TP-Link India says, “Channel is the core of business in India. The companies who know how to build the Channel partners will always succeed in India. Specific to TPLink we always provide support to our channel through brandings, consumer ads, Channel ads, online marketing etc. We do always carry schemes for Channel partners which ensure rewards for their dedication towards selling TP-Link products.”

Speaking on the topic, Manoj Kumar Pansari, CEO, Astrum Holdings Ltd. said, “Our partners’ loyalty is an integral part to our success as a business, and we’re constantly striving to improve our offering of support, incentives and resources to help our partners also grow hand in hand. We have come up with dedicated programs, to bring new partners into the fold as well as build and maintain the relationships with existing partners in the program. Maintaining simple, easy-to-use partner programs and profitable incentive schemes, while adapting partner training and certification to reflect new customer demands, is vital for success.

Most importantly, both the brand and partners need to work in unison through effective co-marketing and sales initiatives to develop healthy pipelines.”

Frank Rao, Director, Tenda & IP-COM Business India shared his thoughts on evolving role of channel, “Channel partner is a prime pillar of a brands

establishment in any market. If we consider IT Brand and more our Tenda’s vision in India, it is greatly carried out by our enthusiastic and ever supporting channel partners.

Tenda as a brand believes in providing our channel partners with best, be it product or support they required. Whichever product we Introduce in India we are making sure we promote it on a good scale so that it’s easier for our partners to sell the product further.

Schemes and offers are always considered from time to time so that we keep market active and give our partners something extra than regular. We are having very strong channel base in India. We believe that our channel partnership should be more profitable in business and they should have an overall good growth into that particular segment.”

Rajesh Doshi, Director, Zebronics India Pvt Ltd stated, “Channel partners are the focal point and become our greatest strength to reach customers across all states in India. They do contribute to help consumers get products that are value for their money, and even after that, we make sure the channel partners get their due, for the efforts they put in. This way, our channel partners as well as our customers are happy. We are extremely strong with the channel and there has been increasing good recognition and acceptance of the Zebronics brand. We want to reassure our partners that increasing awareness and brand presence of Zebronics with our aggressive marketing in both BTL and ATL will mean good times for the channel community. There are many channel schemes that periodically vary from region to region/locations so that the efforts of our partners are well paid off but at the same time the terms and conditions control unhealthy competition at large.”

“Channel partners are the backbone of our business. They are also our eyes and ears on the market.

Customers can touch and feel the product at the retail shop / showroom which helps them decide fast. We are using digital technologies, mobile app and softwares to provide better services to our channel partners. Shortly we’ll come with an extremely attractive incentive package for distributors and retailers to reward their efforts” added Jasmeet Singh Sethi, Director, Portronics Digital Pvt. Ltd.

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Shrenik Bhayani, General Manager, Kaspersky Lab (South Asia) stated, “We are a 100% channel centric company and as our business depends on our partners’ success, we - at Kaspersky Lab - do our best to ensure our partners prosper. We do not sell directly to customers - so all business is managed and fulfilled by our channel partners. Literally, our partners’ success is our success. We encourage Kaspersky Lab partners to not only take advantage of our award winning anti-malware technology, but also our expert training, effective sales and marketing resources. We offer many advantages such as sales and technical trainings, lead generation, pre-sales support and marketing assistance.”

“We at Rapoo, always believe that channel partners are our brand ambassadors, they are the guys who help in making or breaking the buyers’ purchase decisions.

So our whole approach is always to give more rewards to our partners in terms of better profitability or incentivize them in cash and kind. We are now also focusing more on marketing activities PR and digital marketing just to ensure that channel partners are benefitted when they are promoting our brand

to end customers” said Mukesh Chaudhary, Country Head-India, SAARC & ME, RAPOO Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. Briefing about the role of channel and the support provided by DIGISOL to their partners, Mandar Joshi, Head Channel Business, DIGISOL Systems Ltd added, “We have always been a channel driven company and our endeavor is to always improvise on our channel policies and time and again we have been recognized

by Channel community as one of the most channel friendly companies in India. We ensure healthy margins for the Channels and also introduce new products with newer applications to increase the scope of growth for the Channels. These new products and solutions enable the channel to value add and hence can generate better margins from their customers. We feel that profitability of the partners plays an important role in motivating them to sell more. We offer the best Marketing & Branding Support to the Channel and the partners who enroll with us are there for long years. We also set targets which are achievable by all. Stocks are easily available as we follow RD concepts rather than ND concepts.”

Altaf Ansari, Regional Business Manager, PhotoFast said, “We at PhotoFast, believe that

the Channel Partners are key to our business to succeed in India.

They are the lifeline even in these changing market dynamics where the online medium is gradually gaining share and even here the partners play key role in its success. Our policy is quite clear in terms of working with our channel partners, they will remain our key associates in the Indian market. We are still in the early stage of business in India and are planning to go with the time tested and proven market development activities like channel incentive programs, trainings to their sales teams, product reviews, In-store branding etc. We also take feedback from our partners and are open to ideas that can result in direct sales to our partners.”

Manoj Jain, VP, Microtek International Pvt. Ltd. said, “Channel Partners is most important for as we achieve our sales through our channel partners only. We have complete marketing backup for our partners in terms of BRANDING IN-SHOP as well as DEALER BOARD. We organise dealer meets regularly for feedback and training. Our promotional incentive schemes are regularly awarded area by area.”

DT IT CHANNEL SURVEY 2018 REPORT

Q5

Are you satisfied with the support provided from vendor/brand’s side?

29%

14%

Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied

14%

Very satisfied

43%

Response Percent [1] Very dissatisfied

14.29%

[2] Dissatisfied

28.57%

[3] Neutral

14.29%

[4] Satisfied

42.86%

[5] Very satisfied

0.0%

*Source: DT IT Channel Survey 2018

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COVER STORY

DT IT CHANNEL SURVEY 2018 REPORT Q6

What is very important factor to have good product sale?

36% Good Product Quality Good Margin

29%

Excellent Service Support

7%

Product Awareness Effective Marketing Campaign

14%

14%

Response Percent Good Product Quality

28.57%

Good Margin

35.71%

Excellent Service Support

7.14%

Product Awareness

14.29%

Effective Marketing Campaign

14.29% *Source: DT IT Channel Survey 2018

OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANNEL PARTNERS IT industry has been flourishing very well and it has gained quite good momentum in past couple of years. New innovations are creating several opportunities for channel partners to grow their business and have more and more customers. Brands gives a brief overview about all the opportunities present in market.

“In the past few years, Indian IT channel has evolved and innovated business models to sustain in the competition. New opportunities like gaming, entertainment, mixed reality etc are growth drivers in the coming years and add more value to their existing business model” says Chandrahas Panigrahi, CMO and Consumer Business Head of Acer India.

“Collaborating with brand for exclusive stores, working to create a cloud-based platform, focusing on pricing and brand exclusivity are the key elements that can channel partners to add more value to their business.

In the coming years, these factors will help channel partners to form a One Stop Solution provider.”

getting more and more opportunities to sell the product and experiment various methods to expand the business there has been a big opportunity up for grab to all.”

Band and Mesh unit routers which can in return give them greater profit margin” added Frank Rao, Director, Tenda & IP-COM Business India.

Sudhir Singh, MD, Marg Compusoft commented, “Marg ERP is a company which is high on values. We believe in hardwork and appreciate that as well. We are giving 40% margin to become MMP and if you join us as a MP, we give them a discount of 15% on the product value as per our new Vistaar program.

The Vistaar program is the latest marketing program initiation taken by Marg ERP Ltd. to connect to more and more partners all over the country.”

Bijoy Alaylo, General Manager – SOHO Sales, TP-Link India says, “Channel today is comprised of value added selling. Just Trading is a thing of the past and those who can provide solution along with it will persist for a long duration. With the e-commerce space

“Channel Partners can sell more by joining hands to provide the consumer with the better technological products by understanding their requirement. Also with the rise of IOT and smart home categories, our channel partners will have better opportunity to sell out Dual

Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director, Kingston Technology & HyperX – India added, “Kingston is globally recognized as the largest independent manufacturer of memory products and has its operations in multiple countries. The brand has developed deep understanding and knowledge of market trends in different regions that helps our channel partners to adapt with rapidly changing market trends. It is an essential part of our channel strategy to work closely with channel partners to achieve scale necessary to compete in the market. Even from business point of view, there are new avenues like Cloud Computing, Gaming, IoT and Digitization of institutions that will play an important role.”

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COVER STORY

Manoj Kumar Pansari, CEO, Astrum Holdings Ltd. said, “Channel partners have for over the years been the delivery mechanism for all brands. I guess this role that they play will continue to grow in the coming years as more and more brands are making a beeline to India.

In addition to this there is a new breed of partners evolving with a focus on the Online Marketplaces. More specific to Astrum the value of our partners have been constantly on the rise in our overall business landscape as we aspire to reach out into more and more territories within India. Hence channel partners with a focus and skills to do consistent work on market development are always in dearth and would always be in demand.”

“We try to give our channel partners as much opportunity as we can, so it’s a win-win situation for both channel and the company. Apart from regular schemes for our channel partners, which in turn helps them indirectly with prices and sales, we are also going very aggressive in service support. Service support also helps the channel as well as end consumers. We also take feedback from channel and take action on them.

Lot of products have been launched, modified or improved because of channel feedback. Even with strict quality and value for money prices we make sure channel gets good margins for the efforts they put. If the company is a vehicle, the channel partners are like wheels which help the company/brand move forward. We are known for our EQR mantra that is (Excellence, Quality and Reliability) which no other brand has and the extensive range and the line of products that we have to offer is tremendous in every category” added Rajesh Doshi, Director, Zebronics India Pvt. Ltd. “Channel and principals like us should make

product presentation more attractive and attention drawing so that the end user is attracted to our offerings. This makes selling easier for retailers. Ease of doing after sales support must be continuously improved by using technology” commented Jasmeet Singh Sethi, Director, Portronics Digital Pvt. Ltd. “The emerging opportunities for the channel partners are our regular introduction of new models or different segments of product portfolio like solar etc.” added Manoj Jain, VP, Microtek International Pvt. Ltd. “We would like to develop a focused and dedicated partner base and enable them to acquire new customers while ensuring existing customers’ loyalty is maintained. We want to play to the need of market, which means we won’t overcrowd the market with our partners.

Hence, we need serious partners, who are loyal. We also plan to kick start partner training programs to create a community of channel partners that complement our tech support and provide on the ground support to our customers, furthering our reach and exposure” said, Shrenik Bhayani, General Manager, Kaspersky Lab (South Asia).

Mukesh Chaudhary, Country Head-India, SAARC & ME, RAPOO Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. commented, “The style of doing business is experiencing changes day by day, so the channel community needs to understand the same and accordingly, they have to come up with innovative ways to bring customers to their store. This can be done, by giving customers, more confidence, more satisfaction and offering solutions rather than merely box products. In the near future, we will see lot of surge in IOT products so our partners should be ready to

grab that opportunity which would otherwise benefit mostly the e-commerce platform partners.”

Mandar Joshi, Head Channel Business, DIGISOL Systems Ltd added “As a regular activity, this year also we will undertake events for our channel community, where we will be having 1:1 interaction with our channel partners. We also actively participate in the trade shows, expos, etc. Apart from these, we will also aggressively promote in-shop branding. We will regularly connect ourselves with our partners who have been selling our products through regular marketing updates and marketing brochures. Apart from these we conduct many training sessions to help upgrade their skills.”

Altaf Ansari, Regional Business Manager, PhotoFast stated, “The consumer behaviour is changing quite rapidly since a last few years with the increase in smartphone usage &internet bandwidth. It is very important to understand this behaviour and adapt to their needs and give them solutions based on their changing demands. So for channel partners, it is very important to start diversifying their offerings to the consumers and keep changing it to match the consumers’ taste with time.

Besides, it makes sense to have an online presence for them where they get a nationwide footprint and still do business without hassles, especially with the GST in place now. They can achieve this by becoming a seller on an online marketplace or have their own microportal where they can offer customised services to their customers for better customer experience.”

DT IT CHANNEL SURVEY 2018 REPORT Q7

How Will You Rate Overall Service Support from various brands?

Answered: 14 Skipped: 0

57% 7%

Unsatisfactory Poor Fair Good

14%

Excellent

21%

Response Percent Unsatisfactory

14.29%

Poor

7.14%

Fair

57.14%

Good

21.43%

Excellent

0.0%

*Source: DT IT Channel Survey 2018

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COVER STORY

OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANNEL PARTNERS Channel Partners are the perfect way to enhance your reach in the market and grow your sales but there are a lot of challenges that creates difficulties and restrict them to do the same. Channel partners need complete support and power to get over it so that they can run business smoothly. Below are the opinions of industry leaders that can explain the scenario in a good way.

Chandrahas Panigrahi, CMO and Consumer Business Head of Acer India says, “I believe that customer analytics and data driven intelligence will play a bigger role even in retail sales just like e-comm. It is important that partners stay abreast of technology shifts happening in the industry and customer expectations as retail plays a huge role in last mile reach, customer experience and informed buying process for any brand.”

The challenge we have faced is reaching the wide geographies of the country to cater to the demand but the advent of online business getting stronger, we see a bright future. Other than that, we see partners struggling due to their lack of product and market knowledge.

If they are from our partner network, we would like to help them out to understand our products and get them in touch with right sales personnel.”

“What comes as a boon also brings consequences along with it. Online is a good thing but also sometimes when they burn money during offer days it is difficult for channel partners to justify to their customers.

This is a challenge being faced from a long time which the whole industry is trying to balance. Even the regular changes in GST slabs plus every changing structure in logistics due to government regulations is causing confusion to the partners. Hope so we see 2018 getting the business back to normal and growing many folds” said Bijoy Alaylo, General Manager – SOHO Sales, TP-Link India.

Manoj Kumar Pansari, CEO, Astrum Holdings Ltd added, “Channel partners essentially help the brand for better penetration in the local market and establishing a wider outreach. In terms of Challenges, some key concerns include–Aligning business goals between you and your partners, &Partners offering competing products which cannot be controlled. Next being though they work for you, they are 100% independent entities hence one needs to try to leverage the power you have. Lastly, the changing buyer behaviour, wherein most buyers are independent researchers and not dependent on third parties, which makes it essential to establish in bound content Marketing and Training.”

Sudhir Singh, MD, Marg Compusoft stated, “The major challenges which channel partners are facing is to provide our user base with Marg software knowledge at one go, which is not possible and moreover every business is looking for a customized software as per their business requirement at one go as it is a vast software and needs regular training. It is a very tough task for every partner as well to understand each and every technicality of the product especially when it has been modified to suit the customer’s taste and choice.

Customer satisfaction is important and most valued at Marg ERP, hence we try our best to train our partners and customers always.”

Frank Rao, Director, Tenda & IP-COM Business India commented, “Although revolutionary, new government policies have seemed to slow down the market every now and then.

Partners find it hard to adapt to new policies instantly, which inadvertently is affecting their sales-out capability in the market. The speed breaker in cash flow throughout market has slowed down the traditional business process for partner leading them to adapt to the new procedure with a pause to understand it correctly.”

Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director, Kingston Technology & HyperX – India commented, “With the Technology and Storage industry showing a steady growth in India, the potential is huge as the Indian market is vast.

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Rajesh Doshi, Director, Zebronics India Pvt Ltd commented, “There are challenges in every industry, if there is no challenge you can be certain that there is no growth, but with time the old ones are addressed with and a new set of challenges appear. The current online segment is a challenge for channel partners but they’re slowly finding their way and things are getting settled. When it comes to sound systems, models across all categories are large that the look feel and demo is really important for the consumer before buying. This is only made possible by channel partners, also, if you note the market is getting streamlined but in case products is available bozth online and offline we try our best to ensure and control the pricing so that there is no disadvantage for our offline channel partners.

“Competition from other channels likes online and undercutting within the industry are some of the key challenges” said Jasmeet Singh Sethi, Director, Portronics Digital Pvt. Ltd. “Major Challenge for the channel partner is to maintain his margin because of huge competition” said, Manoj Jain, VP, Microtek International Pvt. Ltd.

Lab (South Asia) stated, “There are many IT / Networking channel partners who are not focused on cyber security want to be part of this growing industry and we will help them build the business plan and enable them to deliver quality solutions to their end customers. We would like to develop a focused and dedicated partner base and enable them to acquire new customers while ensuring existing customers’ loyalty is maintained. We want to play to the need of market, which means we won’t overcrowd the market with our partners. Hence, we need serious partners, who are loyal.”

Mukesh Chaudhary, Country Head-India, SAARC & ME, RAPOO Technologies India Pvt. Ltd. added “A major challenge is to win the confidence of customers in terms of giving quality products with better price and better service. The other challenge that partners, according to me, need to address is that they need to bring more creativity in their selling style as well as select innovative products to address their customers’ demands.”

Mandar Joshi, Head Channel Business, DIGISOL Systems Ltd. said, “We have a major portion of our marketing funds for Trainings and Seminar which helps the Channel to understand these markets and be technically qualified for offering these solutions.

DIGISOL invests considerably in training and empowering their channel partners to build their own technical expertise as well as enhance the DIGISOL’s brand positioning and visibility in the industry. Sound market knowledge and in-depth understanding is helping us to emerge as a front runner in delivering end-to-end products to customers covering a broad spectrum in SOHOs and SMEs.” “The pricing disparity between online & offline channel (though it has come down) still poses a big problem to the channel partners. The consumers tend to move towards online channel due to them being spoilt for choice with a wide range of products to choose from, up-to-door service and ease of transaction. The channel partners can turn it into an opportunity, by not only providing the consumers the offline experience of touch &feel, but also getting themselves online and serving those consumers who prefer to shop from the comfort of their home” added Altaf Ansari, Regional Business Manager, PhotoFast.

Shrenik Bhayani, General Manager, Kaspersky

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COVER STORY

CHANNEL BUSINESS: ENCOURAGING GROWING SENTIMENTS A business often goes through different circumstances and being flexible gives power to be alive in the market. Channel partners have also managed always to grow further despite all challenges. “Rashi Peripherals has been maintaining double-digit growth for the last 28 years and we expect the same growth to continue in the upcoming years. However, the overall market is not growing at the same speed and competition is also getting fierce. Thus, we need to have proper strategies and plans in place to overcome these challenges and maintain our growth momentum” said Rajesh Goenka, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Rashi Peripherals.

“The growth of IRIS in coming future shall come from Education Sectors. Primarily comprising Smart classes, Smart boards - Setting up Online Classroom, Online examination. Iris has done 10% revenue on this sector, we clearly see it can doubled / tripled touching 30 % in coming times” says Sanjeev Krishnan, Chairman, Iris Computers.

“The Second area is - E Governance. Smart Cities is big business with Wi-Fi and internet connectivity growing exponentially, Wi-Fi Internet connectivity of chosen villages and rural clusters, Railway Stations and more. Iris believes in Digital India initiatives and looks forward to help build a cashless society.

“IT distribution is as dynamic as any other business and over the last couple of years the changes that have happened in this segment have been quite radical.

These, in my opinion have been a reflection of the societal changes happening the country as well. But with some major policy decisions like implementation of GST and demonetisation way past more than a year now, the biz looks all set for a northward growth. With regard to our business – we have been observing a steady growth of around 2025% YoY. As mentioned, with implementation of GST, the need for having local branches has been reduced and we have further streamlined our biz accordingly – which has not helped increase our bottom line but also has brought in more agility. We have also been focusing more on segments like Gaming, storage, Power etc. as a growth engine in the coming years” said Gopal Pansari, Director, Savera Marketing.

Digital transformation journey of any customer across SMAC &IoT areas. Having engaged closely 2000+ CXO’s in addressing their business and IT challenge, the team has built tremendous expertise, engagement and equity across customer, partner and OEM eco system. Digital drive of the Government and DX initiative of most corporate hence has most relevance to iValue business which should help us accelerate our growth further in the coming years. Starting this year we have programs and initiatives to focus on new territory in India and abroad which is expected to accelerate growth.”

Sunil Srivastava, Director, Operations & Marketing, SARANI Retail & Marketing Pvt. Ltd. stated, “We at Sarani aim to have two-fold business growth in next coming years as this market has been flourishing dynamically and there are more chances that we can achieve all the set targets within planned timeframe.”

Krishna Raj Sharma, Director and CEO, iValue InfoSolutions Pvt. Ltd. commented, “iValue focus area of Data, Network and Application management (DNA of most businesses) is becoming increasingly pertinent in the

DT IT CHANNEL SURVEY 2018 REPORT Q8

How GST has changed your business?

Answered: 13 Skipped: 1

Commenting on the overall performance, Jagannath Patnaik, CEO, NNR IT Solutions says, “We are looking at expanding our horizon and concentrate on select Markets for some of our products , We want to focus primarily at Mumbai, Rest of Maharshtra, AP & Telangana, Punjab and Delhi, Bihar and Jharkhand geographically. We shall be adding some more brands and products besides AV segment. So we are looking at a growth of atleast 20-25% in next 2-3 years.”

DP Sinha, Managing Director, Graphline Computers Pvt. Ltd. says, “We see minimum business Growth of 20 to 25% in next two years.

This is because of new product line which we have added in our portfolio. Especially ORACAL.”

46%

15% Sales Decreased Sales Increased Sales Remain Same

38%

Response Percent Sales Decreased

46.15%

Sales Increased

15.38%

Sales Remain Same

38.46%

*Source: DT IT Channel Survey 2018

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COVER STORY

MAJOR OBSTACLES FOR DISTRIBUTION BUSINESS “Major challenges are on how to extend credit to dealers/ partners - as order sizes are getting much bigger than older times.

Earlier Rs 1 cr to 5 cr used to be regarded as big orders but now its 20 - 30 - 70 Cr orders are coming up as standard benchmarks and the partners dealer wants to go for it. The Partners are getting over leveraged while in each order their equity is much smaller than what they intend to garner from multiple channels - to feed into their orders, here lies the challenge of appropriating credit for them. We are planning to get higher limit for dealers / partners through NBFCs, help them / the partners get funding, focus on companies with larger bank limits and who can give LCs and Bank Guarantees” said Sanjeev Krishnan, Chairman, Iris Computers.

and Marketing, Rashi Peripherals added “Diversion of funds/finance to other shortterm business opportunities and import of a lot of unofficial material in India without the authorized distribution network are the biggest hindrance to the growth of this industry. At the same time, we also see that new entrepreneurs and even employees are not joining the IT hardware trade as they do not see it as lucrative as it was in 5-10 years back.”

Jagannath Patnaik, CEO, NNR IT Solutions stated the challenges, “The major challenge today is liquidity, the resellers and end users want more credit however the vendors need immediate payment. This is a major challenge, in addition to this there I lack of proper trained manpower and training. We are using our in house expertise to overcome this aspect.”

Sunil Srivastava, Director, Operations & Marketing, SARANI Retail & Marketing Pvt. Ltd. commented, “Today it is very difficult to create business opportunities and leverage such opportunities to benefit business.

Emergence of various brands have created a heavy price war among themselves. This leads to confusion among consumers who sometimes go for low price products to save some money. But such brands never provide better service support. This has hampered a

Rajesh Goenka, Vice President, Sales

lot as channel lose credibility in the market.”

Gopal Pansari, Director, Savera Marketing added “The major challenges today are proliferation of non-standardized brands all across the country. With government bringing in BIS certification couple of years back, this is proving to be an effective way to tackle the problem. Pricing is another critical factor in our segment where many a reseller play on price and thus compromising on the after sales services of the products. Availability of effective after sales service is another key area plaguing the industry.”

“Major Challenges was to detach material at multiple locations because of Road permit issue. Thanks to the Govt for implementing GST and because of that Road form issue resolved” said DP Sinha, Managing Director, Graphline Computers Pvt. Ltd.

“Traditional distribution business has its own challenges. Thanks to our got to market where we work very closely with every stakeholder and community. Our close proximity to customers and channels has given us opportunity to understand and be ahead of the technology curve, which has helped us to come out of fee traditional challenges” said Krishna Raj Sharma, Director and CEO, iValue InfoSolutions Pvt. Ltd. Our constant expansion plans, adoptions of niche and new technologies have always kept us away from unexpected challenges and they have also helped us build differentiators.”

DT IT CHANNEL SURVEY 2018 REPORT

Q9

Do you think that government policies really helping businesses to grow?

Answered: 14 Skipped: 0

50% Yes

29%

No Can't Say

21%

Response Percent Yes

28.57%

No

50.0%

Can't Say

21.43% *Source: DT IT Channel Survey 2018

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COVER STORY

SUGGESTIONS FOR BRANDS We received suggestions from key distribution business leaders which partners have highlighted during our conversation.

Sanjeev Krishnan, Chairman, Iris Computers, suggests, “Recommend longer CR limits from vendors / brands as earlier order payments used to come in 30 - 45 days this needs to increase to 90 days as Govt orders take a while for payments to be received atleast 90 days is good for now. The Vendors / Brands also need to Increase Upfront Margins rather than putting its a split as a low Front and a high back split this makes the deal attractive.

With present times - the split of low upfront margin and higher back-end is practiced where as it should be in one shot - and right at the beginning while the order is booked this makes the deal attractive structured and worthwhile.”

material just to achieve the quota. By avoiding such business practices, vendors will go a long way to improve business hygiene and profitability at all levels. Also, brands should invest more on demand generation and end customer training programs.”

orders and give better after sales service.”

Gopal Pansari, Director, Savera Marketing added “We always educate our partners to not sell the products on pricing. We take the initiative to help them understand a technology and how it can be useful for a user. This way there is always a possibility of upselling a product and getting higher revenue and margins. We do quite a few market connect activities for our partners along with our vendors to help bridge the gap of understanding a technology.”

Commenting on the top suggestion for brand, DP Sinha, Managing Director, Graphline Computers Pvt. Ltd. said, “Key Changes we will advise to our Vendors that they should work on timely delivery of material and stream line DOA process for replacement of Defective/damage material on arrival.”

“As the 4th digital transformation dawns upon us, organizations need to gear up for the shift in operations. Even in the B2B sector, personalization and user experience is becoming an essential part of growth. Building upon these definitely propels businesses to the top of the ladder” commented Krishna Raj Sharma, Director and CEO, iValue InfoSolutions Pvt. Ltd.

Sunil Srivastava, Director, Operations & Marketing, SARANI Retail & Marketing Pvt. Ltd. said, “Vendors should heed of their distributors, retailers or resellers because they face lots of problems and in some cases they don’t even know how to tackle those problems. They should actively focus on the marketing of products and create awareness among customers aggressively. Also, they should take care of the timely delivery of

Rajesh Goenka, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Rashi Peripherals said, “Vendors should focus and keep trust on distributors who are working with them for long and should not indulge in over dumping the

DT IT CHANNEL SURVEY 2018 REPORT

Q10

Have your business still affected by e-commerce sites?

Answered: 14 Skipped: 0

64%

Yes No Can't Say

14% 21%

Response Percent Yes

64.29%

No

14.29%

Can't Say

21.43% *Source: DT IT Channel Survey 2018

14

D I GI TAL TE R M IN A L I 1 6 -3 0 A P R I L 2 0 1 8

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COVER STORY

DT IT CHANNEL SURVEY 2018 REPORT Q11

Are you using E-Commerce Platform to sell your product?

Answered: 14 Skipped: 0

Yes

29%

64%

No Can't Say

7%

Response Percent Yes

28.57%

No

64.29%

Can't Say

7.14% *Source: DT IT Channel Survey 2018

DT IT CHANNEL SURVEY 2018 REPORT Q12

Do you promote your service and products on social media platform?

Answered: 13 Skipped: 1

54% Yes No Want but Not Have Enough ...

38% 8%

Response Percent Yes

53.85%

No

38.46%

Want but Not Have Enough Knowledge

7.69%

*Source: DT IT Channel Survey 2018

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15

L APPY CORNER

ACER INTRODUCES LATEST “AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR” SPECIAL EDITION NOTEBOOKS Acer brings the special edition notebooks to its customer with groundbreaking features and these notebooks looks very stylish as it comes in all new design. Acer launches these notebooks in collaboration with Marvel Studios. With this launch, Acer plans to engage the users who are looking for powerful and feature rich notebooks for their work, gaming and entertainment.

Acer announced three new Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” special edition notebooks in collaboration with Marvel, including the Aspire 6– Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” Captain America Edition, Nitro 5 - Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” Thanos Edition, and Swift 3 Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” Iron Man Edition.

“We’re excited to work again with Disney Consumer Products and Marvel to bring technology even closer to consumers through their favorite characters,” said Mr. Chandrahas Panigrahi, CMO and Consumer Business Head, Acer, India. “The Pixar 30th Anniversary Toy Story special edition of the Acer Aspire V13 we launched in 2017 was a huge success.

With the new series of notebooks, we hope to engage fans of the Avengers and the Marvel Cinematic Universe; as well as users who are looking for a versatile notebook for work, for entertainment, and for exceptional gaming experience”.

ACER ASPIRE 6 - MARVEL STUDIOS’ “AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR” CAPTAIN AMERICA EDITION Within a premium aluminum cover featuring with Captain America’s iconic pentagram, the Aspire 6 – Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” Captain America Edition is powered by an 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-8250U processor and NVIDIA® GeForce® MX150 graphics. The special edition Aspire 6 comes with 8 GB of DDR4 memory (user-upgradeable to 20GB) and 1 TB of SATA HDD storage, and also packs a HD camera with HDR while Dolby® Audio™ Premium provides a great entertainment experience.

Enhanced multimedia performance is what makes this special edition Aspire 6 stand out from the pack. Its 15.6-inch Full HD display with IPS technology[i] provides consistent colors and viewing from wide angles. Acer TrueHarmony delivers lifelike audio, while two digital microphones with Acer Purified.

ACER NITRO 5 - MARVEL STUDIOS’ “AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR” THANOS EDITION The new Nitro 5 – Marvel Studios’ “Avengers:

16

Infinity War” Thanos Edition’s is part of Acer’s Nitro product line for casual gaming.

The notebook’s top cover features a Thanos portrait decorated by IMR (In-Mold Roller) finishing technology, which complements its bold matte black chassis, outlines and hairline-brushed finish.

The special edition of Nitro 5 is powered by NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 graphics with 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, an 7th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-7300HQ processor and 8 GB of DDR4 memory (userupgradable to 32GB) .

Ideal for accelerating bootup time and shortening in-game loading times, the special edition Nitro 5 comes equipped with a super-fast 128 GB SSD paired with a 1 TB HDD for storage. A Gigabit Ethernet port delivers fast and reliable wired connections, while 802.11ac 2x2 MU-MIMO wireless technology provides blazingfast wireless connectivity.

The Nitro 5 – Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” Thanos Edition has a 15.6-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS display, while Dolby Audio™ Premium and Acer TrueHarmony™ technology provides incredible sound depth. The Nitro 5 features dual fans with Acer Coolboost™ technology, which deliver heightened fan speeds and cooling ability.

offers up to 10 hours of battery life to help users power through a full day of work and beyond. Swift 3 sports a collection of other indispensable features for achieving maximum productivity, including a vivid 14inch Full HD IPS anti-glare display, a fast 256 GB SSD, 8 GB of memory and 802.11ac 2x2 MU-MIMO wireless technology for fast and reliable internet connectivity.

ACER SWIFT 3 - MARVEL STUDIOS’ “AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR” IRON MAN EDITION

PRICING & AVAILABILITY

Measuring in at 17.95 mm in height and weighing 1.6 kg, the Swift 3 - Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” Iron Man Edition’s svelte and lightweight design features a sturdy aluminium top cover decorated with Iron Man’s glowing Arc Reactor. It features an 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-8250U processor, Intel® UHD Graphics 620, and

D I GI TAL TE R M IN A L I 1 6 -3 0 A P R I L 2 0 1 8

• The Aspire 6 - Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” Captain America Edition will be available at Rs 63999 • The Nitro 5 – Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” Thanos Edition will be available in April at Rs 80999 •The Swift 3 – Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” Iron Man Edition will be available in April at Rs 79999

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OPINION

HOW AI CAN ANTICIPATE DEMAND TO HELP MANUFACTURERS? Authored by Mr. Sudhir Singh, MD ( Sales & Marketing), Marg ERP Ltd. The world as we knew it even 10 years back, also considered as a ‘generation’ back then is not even slightly similar today. Our world is changing every day, be it tiny or huge, leaps of changes are happening everywhere. Have you ever thought what brings these changes?

It’s TECHNOLOGY. Yes, digital technology is changing the way we live, we bond and the way we think as well. The constant modification and upgradation of technology has introduced us to a complex yet intriguing concept of AI (Artificial Intelligence). Some believe this revolutionary idea will lead to a better, and brighter future, whereas others believe that this may lead us towards disaster. Despite vagueness, this concept is spreading like a hot buzz in industries across the globe. In fact, a recent study says, ‘there is not a single type of industry which will not get affected by the introduction of Artificial Intelligence.”

AI brings innovation which is the demand and need of today’s world. Today’s consumers are fastidious than ever before.

They have a fancy for products which are personalised and customisable according to their needs. However, when it comes to their expectations, they are simply unpredictable. They seek for products which are exceptionally good in quality, and unique from others that are available in the market.

It is expected that in near future, in order to meet the changing demands of consumers, manufacturing companies would need to rely on AI completely. Let’s analyse how AI can anticipate demand and help in the manufacturing process.

AUTOMATED QUALITY CONTROL Continuous monitoring and adaptive control on the process of manufacturing ensures production of excellent quality products.

However, this goes beyond human abilities due to abundance in product variety and quantity. Thus, a better approach to handle this cumbersome problem would be to incorporate AI which uses computer vision algorithms and triage glitches immediately at the time of production and identifies the real cause of lack of success.

Get rid of unplanned downtimes: Prompt detection of errors/defects during the

18

production process using AI gives the production department a chance to fix the root cause of failure at that particular instant.

This process directly helps the manufacturing industries to get rid of unplanned delays, less yield, and less production.

SUPPLY CHAIN EFFICIENCY AI technology considers all the possible factors that affect demand such as geographic markets, socio-economic segments, political diversities, and climatic conditions while forecasting the demand for any product.

These predictions are much more reliable than the predictions made by humans. Also, the algorithm used by AI checks the working of manufacturing machines on regular basis to avoid any malfunctioning at the time of production.

DEMAND-DRIVEN PRODUCTION

of products by consumers. This either leads to a stagnant stock of goods or lost sales.

Rather than being completely dependent on forecast patterns of demand for product manufacturing, it is better if we can get real-time demand visibility by connecting consumer apps and IoT (Internet of things) with manufacturing company’s IoT. This network can share consumer demands and behavioural data with companies on a realtime basis and companies can manufacture and supply the products to the consumers accordingly. However, the research on this concept is still going on and it has not been practically implemented by any company.

Hence, the aforementioned information clearly evidences that artificial intelligence in a manufacturing industry can help in overcoming the critical hindrances like poor demand forecasting, inventory control, unexpected equipment failures, their downtimes, and inefficiency of workers. Apart from manufacturing, AI offers opportunities to every profession and for that reason it has begun garnering interest for its potential applications in vivid facets.

One of the biggest forms of lost revenue for businesses comes in the form of overestimation or underestimation of demand

D I GI TAL TE R M IN A L I 1 6 -3 0 A P R I L 2 0 1 8

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PRESENTS

DIGITAL TERMINAL

PARTNER SUMMIT 2018 MOVING TOWARDS CONSOLIDATION OF CHANNEL BUSINESS

HOTEL : THE SURYAA, NEW DELHI DATE : 27 TH APRIL 2018 TIME : 6:00 PM ONWARDS LET’S COME TOGETHER & JOIN HANDS IN PAVING THE WAY FOR NEW BUSINESS AVENUES

KEY SPEAKERS

MR. NK GOYAL PRESIDENT, CMAI & TEMA

MS. CHANDANA GUPTA ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, CONSUMER BUSINESS, ACER INDIA PVT. LTD.

MR. RAJESH GOENKA VICE PRESIDENT, SALES & MARKETING, RASHI PERIPHERALS PLATINUM PARTNER

POWERED BY

MR. AMIT JHA DEPUTY DIRECTOR, MAIT

MR. RAJSHEKHAR BHATT COUNTRY MANAGER, ECS

NETWORKING PARTNER

SUPPORTING ASSOCIATIONS

MR. SAKET KAPUR GENERAL SECRETARY, FEDERATION OF ALL INDIA IT ASSOCIATIONS (FAIITA)

MR. ALOK GUPTA PRESIDENT, PROGRESSIVE CHANNELS ASSOCIATION OF IT (PCAIT)

SUNIL THARIANI DIRECTOR, TRADE ASSOCIATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (TAIT)

MR. PRITESH PATIL COUNTRY HEAD, MARG ERP LTD.

GOLD PARTNERS

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

KNOWLEDGE PARTNER

EVENT MANAGED BY

PRODUCT FOCUS

PORTRONICS BRINGS PURE SOUND PRO III AN ALL-IN-ONE WIRELESS SOUNDBAR

Portronics, a highly trusted name in field Digital Gadgets, is ecstatic to launch an audiophile’s dream - the High Quality and Extremely Versatile Re-Chargeable Wireless Stereo Soundbar - “Pure Sound Pro III ”.

What makes it different from other soundbars is the awe-inspiring style and its sheer versatility to play high quality music. You can play it with multiple sources of music.

They designed it keeping in mind your habit of keeping your favourite music scattered around in your multiple storages & devices like smartphone, tablet, laptop, pen-drives,

non-Bluetooth devices like MP3 Players & desktops. Your favourite music is also played on your favourite FM radio channels. So they made Pure Sound Pro III, the versatile soundbar allows you to connect any these music sources through latest Bluetooth 4.2v, AUX-IN, USB drive and FM. You can simply changes modes by press of a mode button. It will orally announce the current mode for your convenience.

PureSound Pro III comes with two powerful 5 W (RMS) inbuilt speakers with great amplifiers to offer fantastic sound output at low-min and high frequencies in the range of 180Hz to 18KHz and Signal to Noise Ration of 75dB. It

has powerful grill body of around 930 grams which packs the punch across the audio spectrum.

The powerful industry-leading size of 2500mAh lithium Ion battery can play music for more than 7 hours on a single recharge.

The battery can be recharged in just around 3 hours. All this makes it a very compact and highly portable Soundbar. The new Portronics PureSound Pro III is priced at a very striking price-point of INR 2999/- in both online and leading retail stores across India. It is available in very appealing jet black color.

PORTRONICS SOUNDDRUM: A BLAST OF MUSIC SOUND category. FM stations are loud and clear too. Due to decent weight and rubber feet at the base, the SoundDrum is very stable even at highest volume.

Multiple Music Playing Options:

Portronics also added “SoundDrum”- a blast of music sound from a compact powerhouse of sound to its existing product range. It’s a rechargeable Bluetooth 4.2 Speaker with FM and other multiple connectivity options. Bluetooth 4.2 BLE offers 250% faster speed and much more security than even Bluetooth 4.1.

Sound Quality: SoundDrum has two powerful 5W inbuilt speakers with great amplifiers to offer unbelievably loud sound output – with great bass and mid-ranges, the best in its

20

• Get the best music treat of your favourite numbers or enjoy a thriller on your smartphone, tab, laptop or computer, with Portronics SoundDrum using Bluetooth 4.2 or Aux cable.

•

Don’t worry even if your favourite music is in a non-bluetooth device like mp3 player or PC, simply use 3.5 mm Aux port or a pen drive.

•

Listen to your FM radio programs, be it early the morning spiritual songs or late night romantic nmbers using its powerful

D I GI TAL TE R M IN A L I 1 6 -3 0 A P R I L 2 0 1 8

FM tuner with inbuilt antenna.

Portronics SoundDrum also gives you great convenience of hands-free phone calls. With in-built mic and speakerphone facility so you can take/reject/end calls coming to your smartphone. You can end or deny calls very easily and continue with your favourite songs without missing a note.

Long Playtime: The powerful industry-leading size of 1800mAh lithium Ion battery can play music for more than 7 hours on a single recharge. The battery can be recharged in just around 1-2 hours.

Solid and stable drum shape in black colour goes well with stylish grille, gives SoundDrum a very classy appeal. SoundDrum pack a great punch at solid 330 grams. The new Portronics SoundDrum is priced at a very striking pricepoint of INR 2499/-. You can buy it for yourself or gift it on both online and offline stores from this festive season.

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NEWS IN BRIEF

XIAOMI OPENS THREE NEW SMARTPHONES PLANTS IN INDIA Xiaomi announced the opening of three more smartphone plants in India. Xiaomi has also started manufacturing smartphones at its power bank plant in partnership with Hipad Technology in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, resulting in a total of six smartphone manufacturing plants in India to date.

Marking a significant move in Xiaomi’s localization strategy, the company also announced its first SMT (Surface Mount Technology) plant dedicated towards local manufacturing of PCBA (Printed Circuit Board Assembly) units in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, in partnership with Foxconn. Manu Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi Global and Managing Director, Xiaomi India said: “Xiaomi’s highquality, well-designed products at honest prices have been instrumental in disrupting the Indian smartphone industry. In 2015 we extended our long-term commitment to the Indian market by joining the ‘Make in India’ programme. Today we are deepening this commitment with three more smartphone factories and our first SMT plant dedicated towards local manufacturing of PCBA units. Xiaomi is one of the pioneers in the country to start local assembly of PCBAs, and I believe we will continue to play a key role in transforming India into a global manufacturing hub.”

TP-LINK CONTINUES TO LEAD WLAN MARKET FOR 29 CONSECUTIVE QUARTERS

TP-Link is consistently ranked as the No. 1 global provider of WLAN devices for consecutive 29 quarters, according to the IDC Quarterly Wireless LAN Tracker, Q4 2017. The latest IDC WLAN Tracker revealed hat TP-Link made 18.04 million WLAN product shipments in Q4 2017 and possessed a global market share of 42.00% — 35.53% ahead of its nearest competitor. With such achievements, TPLink has retained its dominant position as the market leader in WLAN products for the 29th consecutive quarter. Over the course of 2017, TP-Link sold a total of 78.46 million WLAN products, the wholeyear WLAN market share was 44.08% and annual revenue for WLAN products hit $1.07 billion. “2017 brought some great achievements”, said Pingji Li, General Manager of TP-Link Networking BU. “2018 will be even more exciting, as we continue to develop products in line with our mission —making the advantages of latest technology available for all and empowering them to create a lifestyle that’s simple, smart and connected.

22

TAITRA TO ORGANIZE ‘TAIWAN EXPO’ IN INDIA Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), Taiwan’s foremost trade promotion organisation recently announced to host the first ever ‘Taiwan Expo’ at the Pragati Maidan, Hall No. 11 in New Delhi, India on May 17-19, 2018. The logo of the expo was launched at the press conference held in Delhi, along with details of the participants. Dignitaries from TAITRA, Mr. Som Mittal, Chairman of FICCI Electronics & White Goods Manufacturing Committee, Mr. Champak Raj Gurjar President, Federation of all India IT Associations (FAIITA), Prof. NK Goyal President of CMAI Association of India and other distinguished guests were also present at the occasion. Taiwan Expo in New Delhi will feature eight themed pavilions along with eight specialised industry exhibition areas dedicated to diverse industry verticals including green products, smart cities, EV Alliance, healthcare, tourism, food processing machinery, textiles, automobiles, sports, agriculture, ICT products, Mandarin education and business service. Around 130 handpicked vendors from Taiwan will present their high quality products and services at the much awaited event.

SEAGATE SHOWCASED 14TB HELIUM-BASED EXOS X14 ENTERPRISE DRIVE AT OCP SUMMIT 2018 Seagate Technology plc unveiled its 14TB helium-based Exos™ X14 enterprise drive at the OCP U.S. Summit 2018. The Seagate® Exos X14 delivers high performance and greater capacity for hyperscale data centers looking to efficiently and cost-effectively manage increasing amounts of data. Enterprises across the globe face the daunting challenge of managing a massive increase in data volume as the world is expected to create 163 zettabytes of data in 2025, according to a study by analyst firm IDC and sponsored by Seagate. As the need for hyperscale and cloud storage rises to unprecedented levels, Seagate’s Exos X14 hard drive is a direct response to customer demand for increased enterprise storage capacity and efficiency.

The Exos X14 offers the industry’s lowest power consumption, smallest footprint, and best performance in its class, making the hard drive an affordable solution for data centers looking to maximize their storage capabilities while reducing complexity and operational costs.

D I GI TAL TE R M IN A L I 1 6 -3 0 A P R I L 2 0 1 8

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CHANNEL BUZZ

ACER JOINS HAND WITH DELHI DAREDEVILS AS ITS TECHNOLOGY PARTNER Acer has announced its association with Delhi Daredevils (DD) as its Technology Partner for the 11th season of Indian Premier League (IPL).

Acer has collaborated with DD as their official technology partner. With one of the best Indian cricketers and decorated batsman Gautam Gambhir leading the team, Acer will play a key role in helping DD stay on top of the game with our ground-breaking technology and products.

Commencing the most awaited season of the IPL, DD players’ helmet and caps will prominently sport the Acer logo on the back. In addition, there will be numerous promotional activities with Delhi Daredevils across India to generate maximum excitement for our fans and customers.

Announcing the partnership, Mr. Chandrahas

Panigrahi, CMO and Business Head, Acer India said, “We are extremely thrilled to announce our first association with Delhi Daredevils, one of the most vibrant and enthusiastic IPL teams. The energy and passion that players’ of Delhi Daredevil holds for cricket resonates with Acer’s passion for technology and customers. We have always been in the forefront of supporting sports right from Ferrari in Formula 1 to ISL and IPL in India. With the beginning of this IPL we are excited to show our support to the spirit of the cricket and look forward to connect with youngsters.”

Acer’s consistent growth journey is propelled by its cutting-edge innovation, strong product portfolio and a robust foothold across the

country. Recently, Acer gained the top spot in the gaming market with its critically acclaimed and widely popular Predator and Nitro gaming series. Acer in India has the widest portfolio of mainstream and gaming products, which includes laptops, desktops, monitors, projectors, Virtual Reality, cloud based products, smart city solutions and accessories.

IVALUE INFOSOLUTIONS WINS 2017 APAC VAD AWARD BY MICRO FOCUS iValue InfoSolutions has received as the “2017 APAC VAD Award” by Micro Focus. This award was given in recognition of iValue’s outstanding business volume in the APAC region for Micro Focus in 2017. The award was presented at the 2018 APAC Partner Summit event which was held on 12th March 2018 in Cebu, Philippines.

With its unique go-to-market approach and focused teams for the BFSI vertical, and Government & Enterprise horizontal markets, along with Partner enablement and engagements, iValue has been delivering 4+ times market growth for its OEM’s consistently over the last 10 years. Micro Focus, with its best in class offering in business-driven security management solutions, is very attractive for iValue’s 2000+ strong Enterprise customer base, across BFSI & ITeS verticals. “The Collaborative approach between iValue and the Micro Focus team has helped iValue win recognition across APAC” said Subodh Anchan, Co-Founder and VP Alliance, iValue InfoSolutions.

“We cherish the success and growth through our long standing relationship with Micro Focus and look forward to partnering more deeply for world level recognitions moving forward.”

VR INFOTECH STRENGTHENS ITS TEAM BY APPOINTING RUPNARAYAN CHOUDHURY VR Infotech announced joining of Rupnarayan Choudhury in the team.

With this new appointment, company is eying next phase of growth for overall company’s business across India. Talking to DT over this new announcement, Vikram Mehta, V R Infotech says, “We are very much excited about joining of Mr. Rupnarayan in VR Infotech. We are more than sure that with his rich experience in IT Industry and expertise in consumer AV business VR will reach the new high in coming years.” Rupnarayan has 11 years rich experience in Consumer Antivirus Business development.

In his business carrier, he has executed major tie-ups, product launches, promotional activities, developed sales cum distribution strategy for complete market coverage and achieved Set targets, revenue, and market growth through channel and online. VR Infotech is currently National Distributor (Retail) for Kaspersky’s wide range of security solutions across India. With Kaspersky Lab’s support VR Infotech has established a robust channel network for consumer security products in India.

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INTERVIEW

“ASTRUM AIMS TO MAKE PEOPLE EXPERIENCE THE DIFFERENCE” Technology brands are working aggressively to bring innovative products to consumers to tap emerging opportunities.

They work consistently to bring affordable and quality products to serve their loyal customers. Astrum,one of the leading tech brands,offer innovative consumer products in India market. In a recent interview with Digital Terminal, Mr. Manoj Kumar Pansari, CEO of Astrum Holding Ltd shared his opinion about Indian market, their overall performance and future plans to be ahead in the competition.

DT: HOW DO YOU SEE THE EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES FOR TECHNOLOGY BRANDS IN INDIA? Mr. Manoj: The total subscriber base for mobile users in India is pegged at 990 million subscribers on pan-India basis. Out of this subscriber base 35-40% are smart phone users, which give us a substantial target achievable market (TAM) for us to work with. Hence, we envisage a quantum leap in our revenues in the current fiscal year.

DT: WHAT ARE THE MAJOR PRODUCTS WHICH YOU ARE FOCUSING FOR INDIA MARKET? Mr. Manoj: We carry a huge product portfolio across multiple categories like Mobile Accessories, PC Accessories, Smart Products to name a few. We also have an extensive line of Audio Products within our product portfolio. All these products are high focus products for us.

DT: WHICH ARE THE BEST-SELLING PRODUCTS AND HOW IS THE DURABILITY & AFFORDABILITY FACTOR IN YOUR PRODUCTS? Mr. Manoj: In terms of durability and affordability, our expert R&D Team focuses on ‘quality without compromise’ as we follow a stringent quality control procedure for all our products which has worked the best for the brand. Our precision engineered products scores not just in good looks but also in features. Astrum along with ensuring high quality standards stays focused on price performance as one of the key drivers for its product development. Our products suit the pocket of all the age groups understanding their needs. It’s the perfect mix of ‘Price and Quality’.

MR. MANOJ KUMAR PANSARI, CEO, ASTRUM HOLDING LTD DT: BRIEF ABOUT THE ASTRUM’S PERFORMANCE IN INDIA SO FAR. WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS DURING THIS JOURNEY? Mr. Manoj: Encouraged by our success as leading mobile & IT accessories player in the Global markets for a decade now, Astrum aims to establish the same league in India. With the key vision, to think smart and challenge the norm by creating high quality products that are innovative and serve the purpose of enhancing the way people live, Astrum aims to make people ‘Experience the Difference’. Undoubtedly, our products tailored with the new age technology at best price points have struck the right chord with the consumers, in the Indian Market.

Astrum has been successful to break the trade-off between innovation, quality and cost. Our widening product portfolio has seen a positive response amongst consumers and acceptance from the Indian Markets.

We are quite optimistic about our ventures and are expecting a steady growth for our products. . Today Astrum is proudly earned its place amongst the leading brands for accessories in India.

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DT: WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHALLENGES DO YOU SEE CURRENTLY FOR THIS MARKET? Mr. Manoj: India, being such a large geography has always posed a challenge in terms of market penetration into Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities, to counter this challenge; we are planning some very aggressive measures to reach out to the consumers in these cities. Another key challenge is the price sensitive nature of the Indian Consumer where quality takes a beating to accommodate more aggressive price points. We in Astrum spend our energies in balancing the price requirements while not compromising on the quality standards.

DT: PLEASE SHARE YOUR DISTRIBUTION SETUP IN INDIA. HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO SET A BALANCE BETWEEN OFFLINE & ONLINE PARTNERS? Mr. Manoj: Our distribution strategy takes cognizance of the diverse nature of the Indian channel. Our products get distributed into multiple channels of the likes of mobile retailers, IT dealers, gift channel and through online market places. We have dedicated regional distributors with clearly defined focus on Brick & Mortar channel as well as online.

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Z240 SMALL FORM

FACTOR WORKSTATION HP’S ENTRY LEVEL WORKSTATIONS JUST GOT BETTER. THE HP Z240 SFF PACKS THE PERFORMANCE, FEATURES, AND RELIABILITY OF A WORKSTATION INTO THE PRICE POINT OF A DESKTOP PC. H P R E CO M M E N DS W IN DOW S 10 PRO. Available in Two Variant HP Z240 Small Form Factor Workstation

HP Z240 Small Form Factor Workstation Intel® Core™ i5-6500 Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz) 8 GB RAM 500GB Sata HDD AMD FirePro W2100 2GB Graphics Win10Pro Downgraded to Win 7Pro 3 Year Onsite Warranty Without Monitor

Intel® Core™ i7-6700 Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.00 GHz) 32 GB RAM 500GB Sata HDD AMD FirePro W2100 2GB Graphics Win10Pro Downgraded to Win 7Pro 3 Year Onsite Warranty Without Monitor Price: `64990*

Price: `41990*

HP Z440 Workstation Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-1607 v4 (10M Cache, 3.10 GHz) 8GB DDR4 RAM 1 TB 7200 rpm SATA HDD Slim SATA SuperMulti DVD writer NVIDIA Quadro K620 2GB Graphics Win 10 Pro 64 Downgrade Win 7 64 INDIA 3 Year Onsite Warranty Without Monitor

HP ZBook 15u G3 Mobile Workstation

Core i7-6500U/ 8GB (1x8GB) 2133 DDR4 1TB 5400RPM NO DVD RW / FPR WiFi BT / HD Web Cam USB 3.0 / Media Card Reader AMD® FirePro® W4190M (2GB) 15.6” Anti Glare LED Screen Windows 10 Prof downgrade to Win 7 Prof Price: `63990*

Price: `99990*

Graphline Computers (P) Ltd. Available only at: Authorized Sales & Service Delivery Partner 4B/52, 1st Floor , Old Rajinder Nagar New Delhi - 110060, India Ph: 011-49499900-100 Fax: 011-28742393 Email: dpsinha@graphlinecomputers.com

Branch office: 204A - II floor Skylark Building 60, Nehru Place, New Delhi 110019 Ph: 011-41306711, Fax: 011-26213786 *GST Extra @ 18 % For Channel Enquiry please contact: dk@graphlinecomputers.com CIN NO: U72200BR1989PTC003613

NEW ARRIVALS

Dell Inspiron 15 Notebook Dell in India has announced the launch of the new Inspiron series, now equipped with AMD Ryzen™ Processor with Radeon™ RX Vega Graphics.

The Inspiron 15 (5575) is the latest additions to Dell’s portfolio of mainstream performance notebooks, powered by AMDRyzen™ to deliver split-second responsiveness and an incredibly fast and reliable performance. Dell’s line up of notebooks in 2018 prioritise an immersive experience, delivered by an irreplaceable backbone that is the latest AMD Ryzen™ processors. A sophisticated design in a striking aluminum finish, along with an array of options to deliver a fully immersive & elevated entertainment experience, the Inspiron 15 (5575) is a sure shot head turner. With consumers turning to their laptops for viewing high definition content on larger screens, there is no looking away with the stunning anti-glare HD and FHD display, available on the Inspiron 15 (5575). The machine incorporates features of the exciting CES 2018 launch – Dell Cinema – with built-in speakers tuned with Waves MaxxAudio® Pro software and advanced processing to deliver studio-quality sound as well as a lag-free video streaming experience with SmartByte, a connection optimizer solution that prioritizes video streaming ahead of other network traffic for uninterrupted entertainment.

HyperX Cloud Alpha HyperX®, the gaming division of Kingston® Technology Company, Inc., has launched its next generation gaming headset – the HyperX™ Cloud Alpha – for the Indian gamers and pro teams. Building on the comfort and sound DNA of previous awardwinning headsets, Cloud Alpha offers a range of new and enhanced features, including HyperX Dual Chamber technology for better sound and less distortion. Cloud Alpha is designed to deliver the ultimate comfort for hours of extended gameplay with premium HyperX signature memory foam, pliable leatherette and an expanded headband to fit a wider range of gamers. Its durable, lightweight aluminum frame features a unique accent design easily recognized during major tournaments or at a local gaming event. With 50mm drivers, the dual chamber design allows HyperX to tune the bass frequencies separate from the mids and highs, creating a dynamic sound that makes gaming, music and movies more realistic and immersive. The HyperX Cloud Alpha headset will be available in all leading online and retail stores starting from March 26, 2018 and with an MRP of INR 10,499/-.

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SoundBot “SB574” Bluetooth Wireless Speaker

SoundBot launched its latest Bluetooth Wireless Speaker - SB 574 designed for the music lovers and youth across the world.

The speaker gives the listener clear dynamic full range music on a 6W HD Bluetooth speaker with premium drivers and it is the perfect speaker for music enthusiasts who want exhilarating sound quality for an incredible listening experience.With cutting-edge technology, subtle grey color, and minimalist grill design it is ideal for today’s millennial and partygoers.

This gadget can synchronize with any device such as the iPad, iPhone, Android and MP3 and MP4 as well. The SoundBot SB 574 comes with a Passive Radiator Subwoofer and a large speaker cavity with improved range of 33 feet. Built in with an HD3 watt loud deep bass and premium drivers it produces perfect listening quality for excellent sound effect.

Ambrane Unveils WH-1100 Headphones Ambrane India rolls out its newest addition to the audio category, ‘WH-11 Headphones’, premium sound quality without compromising on style.With robust design and leather covered headband’s appealing guise, the headphones go a step ahead to enhance your style quotient. The headphone houses an enhanced digital amplifier that cancels the every other ambient noise promising the highly redefined acoustic experience. The headphones come with Fast Charging feature, which only takes up to 90 minutes for a full charge and offers superior listening expertise for long hours up to 8 hours; thanks to the 300mAh battery.With its latest version of Bluetooth integrated into WH11, play music from any corner of the room, of about 10 meters of range. Receiving calls is also easy with control buttons, the built-in mic with amazing frequency range and high-quality drivers, allow you to have a smooth user experience.

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RNI NO : DELENG/2010/31992