CRN India April 2018 (Vol.1, No.1)

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

THE EVOLVING ROLE OF IT CHANNEL

Vol 1. No. 1. April, 2018 Chairman of the Board Viveck Goenka Sr Vice President - BPD Neil Viegas Editor Srikanth RP* Delhi Mohd Ujaley, Sandhya Michu Mumbai Nivedan Prakash, Abhishek Raval, Mohit Rathod Bengaluru Rachana Jha DESIGN National Design Editor Bivash Barua Asst. Art Director Pravin Temble Chief Designer Prasad Tate Senior Graphic Designer Rekha Bisht DIGITALTEAM Head of Internet Viraj Mehta Web Developer Dhaval Das Layout Vinayak Mestry Photo Editor Sandeep Patil MARKETING National Head Harit Mohanty Regional Heads Ravi Nair - West Prabhas Jha - North Kailash Purohit - South Debnarayan Dutta - East Marketing Team Shankar Adaviyar, Ajanta Sengupta Navneet Negi Aparna Tawde

Edit

T

he IT channel ecosystem is undergoing a massive transformation. The channel’s role has crossed over from sales enablers to IT transformation agents with rapid adoption of next-generation technologies. The best solution providers that have solid customer relationships and a growth strategy to drive more recurring revenue are highly sought after.

Digital business transformation is creating connected platforms and new industry revenue streams, thus opening up window of opportunities for the partners in this digital disruption era.

Looking at these changing market dynamics, partners are Nivedan Prakash re-aligning their go to nivedan.prakash@expressindia.com market strategies in order to be more relevant in the current scenario.

It’s all about selling solutions and that too according to customers’ business needs. This is where the evolution of channel and distribution has to focus on and while it is happening, more and more momentum is required to develop this practice. Even distributors are going beyond the traditional business of distributing products and now offering more value to the whole channel ecosystem, including vendors and end customers. In line with the changes taking place in the ecosystem, most of the distribution companies in the

country are in the process of transforming itself into a 'services organisation'. They are building infrastructure, skills and resources, which would transform them into leading services organisation, on the back of a strong distribution business base.

Looking at the changing landscape of IT channel industry, global giants have made big shifts in their strategy, wherein they simplified channel engagements and removed all the barriers, which will allow partners to seize the digital transformation opportunities. For instance, Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner initiative is designed to focus on partners’ success and growth while harnessing their expertise and knowledge. Similarly, Dell EMC created a new Partner Program post the integration that gives an opportunity for partners to expand their product offerings and gain higher share in the market. Likewise, HPE has made enhancements to its Partner Ready Program with an intent to help partners better engage with customers and streamline sales processes.

These technology companies are also creating new incentives to encourage pursuit of new market opportunities, while ensuring that partner mix has the right skills and competencies to pursue these opportunities. Even the partners are putting focus on learning new ways to take advantage of the opportunities being presented by digital transformation and emerging technologies.

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COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I APRIL, 2018 I crn.in I 5

CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

CONTENT

20 |

Sunil Sharma,

36 |

MD, Sophos India

Raghuram Krishnan, Director Partner, Alliances, Hitachi Vantara

22 | Joybrata Mukherjee,

38 | Andy Stevenson,

India Leader Channels, SMB, Service Provider, HPE, India

24 |

Rajiv Sodhi,

40 | Rohit Datta, National Channel Head, Delta Power Solutions

General Manager – Partner Ecosystem, Microsoft India

8 | Anil Sethi,

28 |

Nitin Kaushal,

44 | Jagdish Mahapatra,

Head – Enterprise & Government Business, North, East & SAARC, Avaya India

32 |

47 | Devendra Taneja,

Srikanth Doranadula,

Director, PC Solutions

Senior Director, Head – Alliances & Channels, Oracle, India

18 | Mary T McDowell, CEO & Member of the Board, Polycom

6 I COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I APRIL, 2018 I crn.in

46 | Ashish Dass, VP & MD, South Asian Subcontinent, Infor

Head - Channel Business, Digisol Systems

General Manager, Kaspersky Lab (South Asia)

Senior VP (Global Sales & Marketing), eScan

Chief of Channel, APAC, McAfee

30 | Mandar N Joshi,

12 | Shrenik Bhayani,

Sunil Kripalani,

Director Channel Sales India, Juniper Networks

VP, Sales & Marketing, Rashi Peripherals

Senior Director – General Business (Commercial Sales & Partners), VMware India

16 |

42 | Harshavardhan Kathaley,

26 | Rajesh Goenka,

Vice President, Channels, Dell EMC India

10 | Sundar Balasubramanian,

MD, Fujitsu India

34 | Vivek Malhotra, VP—Global Channels, General Business, SAP Indian Subcontinent

48 | Sanjiv Krishen, Chairman, Iris Computer

CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

DELL EMC SET TO SIGNIFICANTLY SCALE ITS CHANNEL PARTNER ECOSYSTEM The firm has rolled out a new channel strategy which would be common for all parts of the business. The company is capturing more large-scale deals with customers that span a range of Dell EMC’s integrated products and services

By Sandhya Michu

“

PARTNERS’LOYALTY IS AN INTEGRAL PIECE TO OUR SUCCESS AS A BUSINESS,AND WE’RE CONSTANTLY STRIVING TO IMPROVE OUR OFFERING OF SUPPORT,INCENTIVES AND RESOURCES TO HELP OUR PARTNERS GROWWITH DELL EMC ANIL SETHI, VICE PRESIDENT,CHANNELS, DELL EMC INDIA

S

ince Dell’s purchase of EMC in 2016, the newly formed entity, Dell EMC, is focusing its energies on the channel community as the channel community will play a vital role in synergizing the strengths of the two brands. It has rolled out a new channel strategy which would be common for all parts of the business.

The company is capturing more large-

8 I COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I APRIL, 2018 I crn.in

scale deals with customers that span a range of Dell EMC’s integrated products and services. This is helping in driving the company’s efforts in multi-cloud environments and emerging market opportunities, including the Internet of Things (IoT).

Moreover, Dell EMC feels that partners should focus on learning new ways to take advantage of the

opportunities presented by digital transformation and emerging technologies, as well as advancing their digital transformation capabilities through IT, workforce and security transformation.

In 2016-17, the way Dell and EMC have come together, the channel commitment at the global level across the world is phenomenal. It will be an

Dell EMC

important year for the IT infrastructure market and especially Dell EMC’s position within it.

Dell EMC channel program turns one Dell EMC has completed the first anniversary of the IT industry’s largest corporate acquisition. Dell EMC is also profiting from its strategically aligned businesses, VMware, Pivotal and SecureWorks. The company appears well-positioned to compete in numerous new market opportunities and creating partner ecosystems to drive the large mega infrastructure projects including multi-cloud environments and IoT. Currently, close to 65 per cent of the business comes from channel and rest is direct. Dell EMC has over 4,000 registered partners in India and over 40 strategic partners. Channel partners are an important part of the Dell EMC strategy, currently responsible for about 45 per cent of the company’s revenues in India.

The company has helped partners drive profitable growth through new lines of business, acquisition of new customers, and larger and more profitable solutions. “Globally, we have announced an investment of $150 million for building our channel programmes. India is one of the most important geographies for us and we will be investing in developing our partners here and help them increase their profitability,” says Anil Sethi, Vice President, Channels, Dell EMC India.

The company has identified key industrial verticals that offer the largest opportunity for partner growth such as healthcare and life sciences, energy (oil & gas, utilities), video surveillance, and SLED (State and Local Government, Education).

Additionally, it is looking for significant opportunities in helping partners build solutions in some trending areas including IoT, AR/IR and machine learning.

“Our partners' loyalty is an integral piece to our success as a business, and we’re constantly striving to improve our offering of support, incentives and resources to help our

TO DRIVE CHANNEL ENGAGEMENTS, THE COMPANY HAS FORMED EMERGING CHANNELS TEAM THAT LOOKS TO BRING NEW PARTNERS INTO THE FOLD AS WELL AS BUILD AND SUSTAIN THE RELATIONSHIPS WITH EXISTING PARTNERS IN THE PROGRAM partners to grow hand in hand with Dell EMC,” says Sethi.

Unified channel initiatives Within the last one year, Dell EMC has continued to enhance its program. The program was built on a strong framework supported by partner feedback. Throughout the year, Dell EMC has maintained strong relationships with its channel. “As we refine the program to make sure we and our partners capitalize on the opportunity in emerging technologies, we look forward to have strong and productive relationships,” informs Sethi.

To drive channel engagements the company has formed emerging channels team that looks to bring new partners into the fold as well as build and sustain the relationships with existing partners in the program.

The importance of partner training According to Sethi, it is important for a partner to participate in the emerging government led projects — be it digital India or smart cities.

Learning the new ways with a strong capital will be the two ‘must-have’ eligibility for partners to be part of this drive. Training and building capabilities of partners will be the core focus of Dell EMC India. For reducing the go-to-market time for customers, it has specialized resources that can help partners to configure faster.

“We have specialized teams in all the core areas, be it storage, compute,

network followed by Smart Pricing concept. We have an Insight Engine that does a great job. Through our MDF (Market Development Fund), partners are now involved in the demand generation exercise. Instead of passing leads to them, we provide them with funds and want them to provide returns on investment here.

It’s all about execution now after having put in place the strategy along with our channel partners,” adds Sethi.

Driving partners’ profitability The $74-billion company, which follows a February-January fiscal year, has over 20,000 channel partners in APJ, of which 600 have been elevated to a three-tiered structure of partners as a part of the new unified Dell EMC channel partner program. The company has also protected profitability of partners with an investment of $150 million incremental dollars globally in channel rebates.

“Partners can now earn 1.5-8 times more than they did in the old programme. Our unique proposition to partners is that we bill directly to the 600 metal partners and give them direct credit lines, depending on their financial strength. Partner profits increase as they would have had to pay something to buy it from the distributor, who buys from us,” says Sethi.

The biggest trend that Dell EMC sees is the cloud getting mature as a technology and becoming a stable revenue stream for customers. “The message to partners is how they can add great value at the customer end as new models and changed buying methods evolve faster. We believe around 50 per cent of the traditional way of buying IT infra will change and channels need to shift gears,” says Sethi.

Sanjiv Krishen, CEO, Iris Computer, believes that the combined entity will open up new avenues for partners and distributors. “For Iris, Dell is one of the largest vendors. We distribute notebook, servers and storage products. Having said, we have yet to move to selling EMC solutions.”

COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I APRIL, 2018 I crn.in I 9

CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

WE ARE VERY ACTIVELY AND PASSIONATELY FOCUSED ON BUILDING PLANS WITH OUR PARTNERS VMware is moving much beyond its core virtualization roots and positioning itself to be a company that is an integral part of every data center component. Sundar Balasubramanian, Senior Director – General Business (Commercial Sales & Partners), VMware India, shares his views on how he sees the channel community playing a role in helping the company meet its business objectives

By Rachana Jha In terms of the market, technology, environment and innovation, what direction is VMware moving in?

Last year and the next year, the biggest positive and the challenge that we have is the way the company is spreading itself from a uni-product company. We are well known in server virtualization. Our product portfolio is completely grown, not just on brochure but customer deployment as well. We are now active in network virtualization as well as storage virtualization. So the three pillars of data center — server, storage and network — are the key areas of focus for us.

We are adopting the software layer, the virtualization layer; the CIO and the IT team can see from a single pane of how the network looks. We have the end point management, AirWatch and digital workspaces. Through our tools and solutions, we are making sure that be it an iPad, a laptop or a PC — everything will have the same look and feel. We have management capabilities through which a CIO can look at on premise or public clouds, and drag and drop workloads across diverse environments.

10 I COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I APRIL, 2018 I crn.in

What kind of opportunities do you see for the partner ecosystem?

We have very good programs which basically look at the reselling profitability. We are very actively and passionately focused on building plans with our partners. If you look at VCloud product suite - sign or any of our product categories, we ensure that a partner can build a service line around it.

Emerging technologies need different services. There is a gap between available skills sets, and we look at partners to bridge the gap. We work with partners to develop the business plan and we train the partners adequately. We’ve been running partner training programmes aggressively around VCloud, NSX and AirWatch. We have spent substantial amount of money just skilling our partners.

We also do ‘PS advisory’. PS advisory team looks at the infrastructure of the client, benchmarks the infrastructure vis-à-vis their industry peers and global benchmarks.

This is then prioritized into short, medium and long term goals, in terms of what the customer needs to do. Now

we take a partner along the journey because the short, medium and long term goals, all need to come together.

Besides cloud, which are the key technology areas?

Cloud is a very visible shift happening. Security is also a key priority area and we are innovating to ensure that our customers are always protected. Our AppDefense product is an example, wherein we ensure that our customers are protected through an automated threat detection and response system. AppDefense focuses on good behavior compared to looking at bad behavior. By focusing on what an app or a workload has to do or has permissions to do, the attack vector for malicious apps gets reduced substantially.

How are you aligning partner ecosystem with this changing market dynamics?

On the partners front, our programs are the best in the market. We are also uniquely positioned in terms of rewarding partners. Our focus has been on how do we make and keep them

VMware

profitable. We have enriched the programs and we do various enablement sessions, especially on upcoming products. This year we have also started to focus on building service line within partner businesses. Despite having small professional services teams, our product capabilities have been increasing. The only way we can scale in the market is by making the partners skilled on our products. The focus has been on how we can create service line within partners not just reselling, but actually selling, supporting, maintaining, implementation, design, architecture.

In terms of building service line, what sort of hand-holding has been done for them to become a complete package for customers?

We do a lot of hands-on training, typically three-five days training on all technologies – for our partner groups, we subsidize the training or even make it free. We also work with them on live opportunities. For instance, there is an opportunity where we have professional services that are engaged to design and deploy. We have a partner who can shadow us and look at how that is done in real life examples.

Alongside, we also support them through our professional services in terms of transferring those skills from PSO to the partner organization. These technologies are advanced and complex; many of the products like vSAN and NSX need clear architectural design capability – if you don’t design it well, it becomes worthless. Even if you get the design right, you probably won’t get the implementation right – that’s something we do on the job.

Hence, we provide enablement on the job and transfer of skills wherever possible, but we need to get tighter about how we are going to package it and put it in the market. Unless we get our partners to go out and do this confidently in the market, we will not be able to scale – we can’t be present everywhere. However, partners will only do that if there is money involved; these are billable services. How do we actually match the demand and supply – that’s the iteration we are

partners are interested, we transfer skills. Given the technology is new and partners are evolving the business, they are also getting bottom-line focused. It’s a two way street and it’s an iterative process driven.

“

THERE IS A GAP BETWEEN AVAILABLE SKILLS SETS, AND WE LOOKAT PARTNERS TO BRIDGE THE GAP. BESIDES,WE WORK WITH THE PARTNERS TO DEVELOP THE BUSINESS PLAN AND TRAIN THEM ADEQUATELY SUNDAR BALASUBRAMANIAN, SENIOR DIRECTOR – GENERAL BUSINESS (COMMERCIAL SALES & PARTNERS),VMWARE INDIA

going through in terms of figuring out how to do it.

Have you identified certain sets of partners who will be moulded in this direction; or are you looking at a new set of partners?

Software defined networking, virtual storage, mobile device management are new compared to other technologies in the market. EUC possibly is the only technology which has existed because of Citrix creating a market for that use case, but many of the technologies are new, so there is no legacy partner who come with those skills. We aren't choosing partners; the partners are choosing us. Wherever there is two-way communication and

A few years ago, there was lot of insistence on partner’s scalability. Is this the new direction which will be followed as part of the strategy?

Scalability is absolutely the key for any partnership and the markets and customer demands are changing rapidly. The way customers spend money is also changing. Enterprises are also changing; CIOs are under pressure on how they could make businesses more nimble. Companies like Uber and Flipkart have changed the game. For example, Uber, without having a single taxi, is the biggest cab aggregator in the world. With that in mind, we as a technology company, also need to adapt to the changes and needs to serve them better.

Partner also need to scale and adapt better to the changing needs.

Scalability is always there; just the focus is going to be more on how to make them profitable and sustain the profitability. We are not changing the course, but we are just getting more focused on the skills and the scalability part.

Moving forward, what are the key thrust areas for the company, from partners perspective?

We are really focused on building service lines. We want our partners to build service line on our technologies.

Selling products is easy, but delivering a service on the product is not easy, so we are going to be absolutely focused on that. We will continue with what we are doing well – being profitable, making sure we impart the right skills, enable them, create demand generation for them in the market. The thing that stands out in terms of focus areas will be building service lines and how do we get partners to build a service line around vSAN, digital workspace and mobile devices. These are certain things which are on top of the head right now.

COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I APRIL, 2018 I crn.in I 11

CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

KASPERSKY STRESSES ON CHANNEL PARTNERS FOR ITS GROWTH PLAN IN 2018-19 In an exclusive interaction with CRN, Shrenik Bhayani, General Manager of Kaspersky Lab (South Asia), charts out the company’s focus and efforts on products and channel partners, in order to ensure growth in 2018-19

By Mohit Rathod Since you have recently come onboard, how are you taking the company’s success story forward?

We are in the planning phase for 2018 and 2019. Predominantly we are pretty much established in the market as a consumer company. Kaspersky Antivirus and End-point Security is something which people acknowledge as decent products.

They have also shown decent acceptance in the market. More importantly, the channel as well as the market is not aware of our products for enterprise market.

Anything beyond antivirus and endpoint security has less visibility among people, which is largely because we have neither conveyed it extensively, nor our channel community has understood it in terms of our offerings. For those who have understood, they have probably not been enabled in terms of how should they bring this in market.

The whole focus has been to understand the current environment.

We know the evironment that we need to be in 2018, and how we will go towards this journey and put our plans in place, which is largely to ensure that we are preparing ourselves for 2018 with all the multiple channels that we

12 I COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I APRIL, 2018 I crn.in

got to activate so that we see a very high growth in 2019. The current year for us is a year of consolidation, laying down the foundation, building and enabling the right channels, working on specific verticals where we want to prioritize the numericals. Then we will set the base and have exponential growth in 2019.

From our channel positioning standpoint or from go-to market standpoint, we are only visible in the retail segment. There are numerous other channels and avenues for us to explore, and have more sales. The second perspective is around looking at more exciting avenues; we are also looking extensively at the xSP model, wherein a service provider can offer this along with a mobile connection on a per-user, per-month basis.

A big focus will be on industrial cyber security. At present, in the industrial environment, we have the operational and IT technology, but the emphasis is on how the operational technology environment is secured – from a cyber security standpoint, they are not completely secured. So if there are variations, for instance in the turbines, how can we report these variations to the IT. Again, we will have to leverage our partners,

because a partner who has the knowledge of SCADA based environment will be in the position to do justice to this kind of a setup.

What are the efforts being put as part of the company’s enterprise focus?

The first effort is within ourselves, in terms of ensuring we have the right team which will be competent enough to do the right sales. The channel expects OEMs to play equally hard in terms of winning the opportunity. Our internal sales transformation process was initiated three-four months ago, and we are now working on ensuring our representation in the market is with the right people. We will have regional force which will assist and work along with the partners. The second focus will be on profiling of our own channels, what is it that we currently do with our own channels and distributors – some of them are doing great job, while some are sitting on the fence and some are dormant.

For the ones that are doing good work, we intend to work on a business plan approach. For the ones who are performing average, we want an ecosystem where they get support from our distributors more proactively.

We will try to activate the one who are

Kaspersky Lab

dormant, but our focus will lie with people who are serious with us.

As your focus will be also be on industrial cyber security, are you also looking at specialized partners?

We will have to do that, because every partner can’t do everything. We will have specialized partners specifically for two platforms – Kaspersky Industrial Cyber Security (KICS) and Kaspersky Anti Targeted Platform (KATP). There are a few partners who are already working with KATP, whereas discussions are ongoing with a few for KICS. This needs specialized traning from our side, because KICS is a lot more than KATP, and we are in that direction. KICS will come as a combination with services from the partner – to a customer, the partner will be more relevant. Also the partners will make decent margins in this business, because of the stickiness of the customer and the unique customizations built by the partners.

Managed Security Service Providers (MSSP) will have a fair play.

MSSPs have also graduated over the period; customers are also looking at options for cyber security as a service.

We also have our MSSP platform, where we sell our softwares and applications on subscription model.

We are also coming up with a new partner program which will have MSSP as a defined metal status.

With the emergence of next-gen technologies like AI and IoT, is Kaspersky looking at providing security to protecting such environment?

Definitely; in the enterprise segment, one is the normal security solution, the second aspect is around industrial cyber security. The third and fourth aspects are IoT and Smart Cities respectively.

We will be 100 per cent positioned to cater the IoT needs to customers. We do have solutions for it which are getting deployed. We also have solutions for the BFSI segment. We see the trend increasing on IoT-based devices. When we look at cyber security as a solution, we are not just looking at end-points, we are looking at this environment – the

Looking at the right distributors is also part of the same plan. Now we have to look at set of distributors who can handle the transactional workload as well as cater to the basic security aspects, and is also keen to invest in their technical skillset for these newer technologies. We are in discussion with a couple of them, and this year we will have this distribution operational. This structure will largely focus on the enterprise market.

“

THE CURRENTYEAR FOR US IS AYEAR OF CONSOLIDATION,LAYING DOWN THE FOUNDATION, BUILDING AND ENABLING THE RIGHTCHANNELS,WORKING ON SPECIFIC VERTICALS WHERE WE WANTTO PRIORITISE THE NUMERICALS SHRENIK BHAYANI, GENERAL MANAGER, KASPERSKY LAB (SOUTH ASIA)

solutions are already there today. The question lies how the channel scales up and sells it in that environment; that’s where our focus will be.

Any special efforts being put to gear up channels for this kind of changing market dynamics?

Special efforts are put in terms of people within the company building the channels. There are specific head counts which are approved only in terms of building the channels. They are the ones who will look into channel enablement – this is supported by our technical team specifically dedicated for South Asia business. I am intending to effectively have a calendarized based approach.

How imperative is it for Kaspersky to have the right channel program in place?

The phase where Kaspersky lies today, is the phase of building the business using channels. One aspect is leveraging the portfolio and make the team sell more. However, you can’t sell without a channel community. So the companies prefer to select a candidate who can help and build the channel ecosystem around selling the portfolios. The whole ecosystem is all about channels now. We will have people who will sell, but there should be people who will implement and maintain it.

From Kaspersky’s perspective, what key message would you give to partners and prospective partners?

When it comes to our enterprise business, I would convey to our partners that we are very serious to do business and we have right products and services, which will complement the products and end-user experience.

There are numerous opportunities for partners to leverage upon the services they have built around cybersecurity, and complement with our products and operate as a solution for the consumers. There is also an option where the partners take our products, a larger component of our services, add a small wrap-up of their services and deliver it to the consumer. Our own presence in the markets and regions will help them build confidence with the customers and sell more. I also want to assure our channel community that we will not overcrowd the space; we will play to the need of the market and onboard only the right ones.

COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I APRIL, 2018 I crn.in I 13

CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

Advertorial

RANSOMWARE – HOW TO STAY SECURE AGAINST THE MOST WIDESPREAD AND DAMAGING THREAT TO CONNECTED BUSINESSES

By Sunil Sharma, Managing Director Sales at Sophos India & SAARC

I

T security remains highly challenging for organisations across the globe – the gap is growing between the knowledge and skills of the attackers and that of the IT professionals charged with stopping them. The cyber security landscape is complex and evolving fast – especially when it comes to ransomware; the most widespread and damaging threat facing connected businesses today.

According to recent a Sophos survey, ransomware attacks are prolific – both globally and in India. In fact, $13.74 million was spent by 3 percent of organizations worldwide to rectify the impact of ransomware. What’s more – more than 90 percent Indian organizations claimed to be running up-to-date endpoint protection when impacted by ransomware.

The role of the right technology Traditional methods of protection are no longer enough to keep organisations ahead of today’s threats.

Ransomware, as an example, works by extorting money from victims by encrypting their files until the ransom has been paid. And, one of the biggest challenges in the fight against ransomware is that there are thousands of variants, constantly being reinvented and used for attacks.

At the same time, 89 percent organizations in India stated that malware threats have got more complex over the last year–

14 I COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I APRIL, 2018 I crn.in

What’s next?

contributing to ransomware’s continuous success.

Unlike lightning, ransomware does strike twice. On average, affected organisations were hit by ransomware twice in the last year as attackers are no longer removing previous victims from their target lists.

Some sectors are also at higher risk.

The survey found that healthcare was the top target, followed by energy, professional services and retail.

Financial services are least likely to have suffered a breach – but 4 in 10 have fallen victim to a ransomware attack in the last year. Despite healthcare having the highest propensity to suffer an attack (76 per cent), it is also the sector with the highest level of anti-ransomware protection in place (53 per cent).

Businesses must be ready to protect and prepare themselves for today’s cyber security threats. The key learnings to remember are: ◗ You are a target – be prepared!

Ransomware does not discriminate – small, medium, and large companies have all been hit, expect to be a target and prepare to safeguard accordingly ◗ Get educated – employees can be an organisation’s weakest link or strongest security advocate, it is vital that they have the training and skills to ensure they are not the former ◗ Investigate advanced technologies – traditional anti-virus and endpoint security will only block known ransomware variants, but with these variants evolving every day it is critical for organisations to deploy nextgeneration technologies that will block zero-day attacks ◗ Patch early and patch often – Organisations looking to get ahead of ransomware must be on top of software updates and patches which are commonly used by hackers to gain access to systems, patching early and patching often is the only way to overcome this ◗ Invest now – The cost of the technology is a fraction of the cost of the impact of an attack, which has the potential to bankrupt organisations both financially and in terms of reputation – businesses cannot forget this when investigating their security

Everything you need to know to stop ransomware.

67% of Indian organizations were hit by ransomware in the last year.

91% were running up-to-

date endpoint security at the time of the attack.

Protect against Ransomware with CryptoGuard The proven CryptoGuard capabilities in Sophos Intercept X block ransomware as soon as it starts trying to encrypt your files, returning data to its original state.

“Intercept X stopped all ransomware attacks we tested against it in seconds.” - ®ESG Labs “Since deploying Intercept X we’ve had zero ransomware infections.” - ®Flexible Business Systems For more details visit www.sophos.com/intercept-x Tel: +91 79 66216838 Email: indiamarketing@sophos.com

CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

WE HAVE STARTED DEPLOYING ALMOST 90 PER CENT OF OUR RESOURCES IN INDIA Security service provider eScan has been committing a large part of of focus on the India market. Sunil Kripalani, Senior Vice President (Global Sales & Marketing), eScan, shares how the India market has evolved over the last decade and the efforts being put by the company to capture the burgeoning market opportunities here in the country

By Mohit Rathod

W

ith a goal to do significant business in India, eScan has been tremendously driving its efforts in the country, penetrating into newer regions across the country.

“We have taken a big team from the security industry. Currently our focus in India is increasing drastically.

Everything including partner engagement and partner ecosystem is prime focus for us. We have launched our Touchpoint Reward Network more aggressively for our partners; this reward programme gives a margin of about 10 per cent to the partners over and above the margin they get upon sales of the products. We have developed an app for this programme,” informs Kripalani.

Currently, the company’s focus is not just on primary sales, but more on secondary sales. In retail and SMB, it is focusing a lot on activation and partner training programmes – partner training across tier 2 and 3 cities has also increased tremendously, according to Kripalani. “We are active in partner engagement, activation programmes, aggressive channel schemes to ensure that our products go to the last mile.

Earlier we had many distributors and

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regional distributors who bought big volumes, but the activation focus was less. Whereas, now with our focus on activation, our last mile efforts have increased significantly; our schemes and penetration for tier 3 and 4 partners is increasing day-by-day, resulting in more turnover – from the channel, retail and SMB front,” he says.

From the enterprise space, eScan has started engaging with certain SI partners for enterprise customers. The company aims to convert enterprise customers into eScan users not by selling product and features, but by understanding their pain areas. With every eScan licence, we provide remote monitoring management.”

The company has now come up with Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT), which will be launched shortly. It is also coming up with Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) and eScan Remote Monitoring Software. Kripalani informs that eScam has numerous solutions in the roadmap for enterprise use.

Speaking specifically about the India market, Kripalani states, “Once we get the oppotunity to show enterprises what we can do, I am sure

they will definitely shift to eScan.” eScan now plans to work more with SI partners who deal with infrastructure projects. For instance, recently the company did a project with Airtel in Kerala. “We want to have more engagements with tier 3 SI partners, because the big players work on infrastructure projects, but they aren’t aware of eScan. Last year we spent about ` 12 crore on marketing in India; this year too, we will be spending significant amount on marketing. However, we have not touched the tip of the iceberg. We have a lot of customers with more than 5,000 users in India, but still there is a long way to go, as we started focusing on the India market late,” he elaborates.

India story Being associated with eScan for about 18 years now, Kripalani started its worldwide business. However, during that phase, he observed that Indians opted for assembled machines and anti-virus came free of cost.

Security was also not a major issue then; however, the use of internet has increased today, making anti-virus a small part of security – it has now

eScan

become a macro issue. Kripalani explains, “Only over the last five to six years, the market in India has opened up drastically. Earlier we provided customizations for companies outside India. However, the scenario in the country has changed now; people realise that security has become a field where they can’t afford to compromise.

Every enterprise is now thinking of multi-layered security – gaetway, endpoint, Sandbox. None of our customers were adversely affected by Ransomware, because about three years ago, we came up with enhanced technologies which prevents Ransomware attacks. Additionally, we came up with automatic backup at the endpoint, instead of gateway. Due to this, our critical customers were not affected by Ransomware.”

Admitting its late entry in the India market, Kripalani cites an advantage that eScan didn’t have to educate customers on security needs – customers were already acquainted with security’s importance due to existing players then. Kripalani says, “Now we have to inform customers about the additional solutions we offer, in addition to offerings by existing players. We don’t have to create a need for security, customers know what they don’t have. We are very strong on Linux too; there are numerous enterprises who go for MailScan (our content securoty offering and antivirus for gateways). These customers have Linux at the gateway and Windows solution at the endpoint, and we provide a combination of these.

Now we are also doing customization for data centres.”

According to Kripalani, with changes and enhancements, eScan solutions have evolved due to suggestions from partners in Germany and other developed markets such as the US; and the company is active in deploying these best practices in the India market as well. Whereas in terms of differences between Indian and international partners, he feels that systems and IT infrastructure is superior in global markets. Citing an example, he says, “One of our partners deploys bandwidth and security

“

OUR SCHEMES AND PENETRATION FOR TIER III AND IVPARTNERS IS INCREASING DAY-BY-DAY, RESULTING IN MORE TURNOVER – FROM THE CHANNEL,RETAILAND SMB FRONT SUNIL KRIPALANI, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT (GLOBAL SALES & MARKETING),eScan

solutions for rural district co-operative banks across India. It has deployed only eScan solutions all across. We made several customizations and update size smaller, for it to work on the primitive infrastructure in rural districts.”

Opportunities and strategies Cloud is being extensively adopted aross India, thereby giving fillip to cloud security; however, with lack of skillset, training and enablement is crucial for solutions providers.

Commenting on eScan’s efforts in this areas, he informs, “We have been offering on-premise solutions. For instance, the UAE is an advanced market; but we are very strong in the interiors of Africa, we have different teams for various regions of Africa.

These regions still don’t understand

cloud, they don’t want to risk their data on third party cloud. So we need to have an on-premise product. We have already come up with two solutions on cloud, but are also coming up with all of our products and solutions on cloud, resulting in a mix of on-premise and off-premise.”

Amidst emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning, being adopted by enterprises, eScan has solutions catering AI and is coming up with IoT solutions shortly.

As part of its roadmap, the company plans to penetrate deeper into this space. Kripalani believes VAPT will give them a bigger edge as the solutions will be more affordable.

Over the years, tier II partners in the country have also scaled up. Currently 100 per cent of eScan’s enterprise business comes from tier II and III partners. In global terms, 95 per cent of its sales happens through partners.

At present the company is working with various system integrator partners in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru – wherein it the maximum number of customers. Whereas, eScan has deployed smaller teams in other markets like Chennai, Hyderabad and Kerala. “We are a partner-driven company. We are definitely trying to upscale our business with tier II partners by arranging more training for them. We have also come up with incentives for sales team of partners.” states Kripalani.

Alongside enterprise, eScan is also tapping the government segment aggressively. It has formed a focus team dedicated to the government segment.”

Shedding light on the company’s expectations from the channel partners, he adds, “We can provide everything to our partners – margin, training, pre and post sales support. However, we expect opportunities from them. We have also started working closely with many pharmaceutical companies, ATM machines. We are a technology company and customization is our biggest strength, followed by support, affordable and comprehensive solutions.”

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS HAS NOW EVOLVED INTO AN OVERALL ENTERPRISE STORY Over the years, Unified Communications has generated a more approachable image for itself, with many customers realizing its importance. Mary T McDowell, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board, Polycom, shares insights into the market evolution, challenges and the company’s strategies

By Nivedan Prakash

T

he market for Unified Communications (UC) has seen evolution over the past few years, which earlier used to be a pure video conferencing industry; it has now become more collaborative in nature. People used to think of video conferencing as high-end and expensive, and a solution that would be implemented only in large board rooms. “If you are a millennial addicted to your phone, you got to have the same tools that work on your phone even though you may not be in the boardroom. This is putting a lot of pressure on corporations to bring collaborative solutions across the enterprise in a way that hasn’t happened before. As a vendor, we say that we are going to have immersive conference rooms, but we also need to think about huddle rooms and everything in between, so we have the right size solutions and price solutions to video-enable the whole enterprise,” says McDowell.

Market scenario According to Polycom’s observation from its interactions with customers, there are certain similarities in terms of

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requirements across different verticals.

A common thread is, when people start bringing in video more broadly across their campus or state, they are surprised with how much video is actually consumed. “We have seen this with some of our largest consumers.

We knew people wanted video but when you make it easy and make it pervasive, almost all of a sudden, all interactions start using video so the number of video meetings and video starts to grow – many customers have been surprised at that. All of a sudden, it becomes about how you do business and it really takes off. For example, if I

wanted to have a meeting with someone, we would get on a video bridge so that we can get on a call together and there is a lot of consumers like that; so it becomes really pervasive. Then, there are specific vertical requirements – on the industry, price might be a factor, or security for things like healthcare so some of those things can be vertical specific.”

Speaking specifically about the challenges that are addressed by Polycom, she shares, “Earlier UC was kind of its own island and now you see it folded into overall enterprise story; so how it interacts with messaging and allows people to interact and is why the partnership with Microsoft has been such an important piece to us, because the first thing people ask is how is it going to work with their email, with messaging, teams because we don’t want a standalone island, we want something that is part of our larger collaboration strategy and I think that is very different.”

Partnerships and collaborations Polycom has been talking about partnering with its competitors, and as McDowell puts out, it is a conscious

Polycom

decision of the company. As Polycom sees the growth of Microsoft, Zoom, Blue Jeans, it will continue to offer its own video infrastructure for people who want to have on-premise or private cloud. However, the company also wants to embrace these high growth companies and partner with them to bring Polycom end-points to customers who want to leverage cloud solutions.

Highlighting Polycom’s collaboration with VaaS, McDowell says, “They are high growth, highly funded companies backed by a VC. They are attracting customers who thought that video conferencing was too complicated for them – it is a simple to deploy solution. When we look at the strengths of our end-points, it would be crazy to not attach to those rocket ships to participate in their growth.

From their standpoint, if they partner with us, we have enterprise selling capabilities, great enterprise channels and higher end products that bring them up market as well.”

Strengths and strategies Polycom has been growing at a CAGR of 23.6 per cent for the last four years continually. Last year was the toughest with demonetization and Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation. Despite that the company marked a phenomenal year.

Polycom enjoyed a huge market share in India in the last three years as well – close to 55 per cent on an average per year. Mentioning about the company’s strengths, she highlights, “The devices themselves offer best in class audio and video capability. We have world class engineers dedicated to audio and video algorithms. For example – when you buy our product, it stands alone in terms of capabilities that it can deliver.

More than that, as a customer, when you buy a Polycom end-point, you’re not locked in to a particular backend solution. One of our biggest differentiators is our focus on interoperability and integration: At Polycom, we believe interoperability with other communications solutions in the market is critical. This provides investment protection for our

customers and does not put them in a position of having to rip and replace like other competitors require.”

As part of its efforts to create a winwin proposition for itself and partners, the company is banking upon continued collaboration with partners; and further make its partnership with Microsoft, Blue Jeans, and Zoom as seamless as possible. Adding to this Minhaj Zia, VP – Sales, South East Asia, India & SAARC, Polycom, says, “Business is growing in India. Invest in this technology, resources, etc and you will gain. Polycom has right team, price points to help you succeed.”

Shedding light on Polycom’s strategies, McDowell adds, “We have a lot of focus on how we enhance our channel strategy and reward partners that deliver value added services and capabilities to customers; so there comes new tools and capabilities. With a new partner portal that we are rolling out, people can track their progress with Polycom as well as the rewards they get by working with us.”

Polycom has also been active in organising partner conferences.

During the last two years, according to Zia, the company received consistent feedback from partners on the partner profitability standpoint. “As we have been growing, they have been growing as well but they are saying they need better incentives to get more money out of this business. We launched a programme for reseller partners – especially for platinum, gold and silver partners; wherein, we will sign up a quota with them and deliver that number and they will get extra rebates. We completed the program for the first time last year, and we

delivered one million dollars’ worth of rebates to these partners.”

From a go-to-market perspective, Polycom adopts four different approaches. It has an enterprise team which focuses directly on end customers to develop demand. “They need hand holding, they want long term OEM relationship directly, although we don’t do any transactions directly, we still have a partner and those accounts with us but we take the lead, we develop those businesses and we work with partners to implement and deploy the solutions for our customers,” explains Zia. Mid market is where the partner takes the lead and develops the business, while Polycom extends support. Whereas, the government business is slightly different, wherein Polycom works on both partnerships and some direct approach.

Adding further, Zia says, “In distribution business, we don’t take any lead. It is the distributor who drives this business. We provide marketing support, programatic approach in terms of what they need to do and that’s how we lead in that. SMB is a fast growing segment in India.

Despite all the challenges last year, we grew faster in the SMB business because there are many new customers who are adopting these solutions. Coverage is the most important factor in SMBs; we had covered almost 70 cities by last year.

This year, we have taken it to 100 cities. We have developed partnerships in these cities and distributors are playing a big role in making sure we have footprints everywhere and our distributor partners have now invested their own resources in about 10 cities where they did not have dedicated Polycom business.”

This strategy is specific to the India market. In its direction to increase business volume, tap mid-market SMB, the company has a global strategy for sales. In terms of volume market the company has been investing in sales capabilities, primarily in the US and Western Europe, alongside expanding relationships with DMRs in the US and Europe.

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

SOPHOS TO MOVE FROM ‘CHANNEL FIRST’ TO ‘CHANNEL BEST’ COMPANY IN 2018 For Sophos, a global player in network and endpoint security, 2018 will be focused around channel enablement and profitability. In an exclusive interview to CRN team, Sunil Sharma, Managing Director, Sophos India, talks about the company’s directions for its partner base and mid-market segment

By Sandhya Michu As the network security threat landscape has become more complex and is targeted at mid-market. How, as a security vendor, are you going to address these challenges?

Sophos is a 100 per cent channel driven company; we understand the security threats and its landscape like no other vendor. We are investing heavily on product innovations and partners’ skill-sets for addressing the network security challenges of the midmarket segment. We have invested in developing next-gen technology that will enable us to secure businesses of all sizes across all platforms – onpremise or cloud, at the network gateway, servers, or endpoints.

Can you shed light on a recent acquistaion of Invincea. How Sophos will integare it into its exisiting product portfolio?

We are excited to integrate the machine learning technology that we acquired from Invincea last year into our product suite, a next-generation malware protection solutions provider.

With this acquisition, Sophos will add Invincea’s endpoint security portfolio to its endpoint protection strategy by

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WE HAVE PROGRESSIVE PARTNER PROGRAMS, WITH DIRECT REPRESENTATIVES OF SOPHOS IN TOP B AND C CLASS CITIES leveraging Invincea’s patented deep learning neural-network algorithms that detect and curb unknown malware and sophisticated attacks. Invincea will strengthen Sophos’ leading nextgen endpoint protection with complementary predictive defenses that, we believe, will become increasingly important to the future of endpoint protection and allow us to take full advantage of this significant new growth opportunity. Sophos synchronized security solution is onestop solution for our partners and we will be making more innovative solutions and expand our reach through partner-led programs.

What would be Sophos' three key priorities for the India market in 2018 and beyond?

We believe in innovations and strengthening our product portfolio at a global scale; this way we can serve our customers much better. We continue to invest in building a world-class channel program and are delivering on our 'Channel First' promise. However, in 2018, our company’s motto has moved towards 'Channel Best’. We do 100 per cent channel business, catered to SMBs and mid-markets. As we know these segments work in a small team, so pushing such partners to sell security products, we enable them with free training and we have a solution which can be managed by a single person with automated remedies. Today, security postures cover web, email or overall, security needs and our synchronized security solution is the one-stop solution for all the security needs. We want to enable our thrust on endpoint. It's imperative that our partners are enabled and equipped on everything related to endpoint security.

How new technologies like AI and machine learning will make security products more robust. What new offerings Sophos has in this space?

Sophos

We have announced the availability of Intercept X with malware detection powered by advanced deep learning neural networks. Combined with new active-hacker mitigation, advanced application lockdown, and enhanced ransomware protection, this latest release of the next-generation endpoint protection delivers previously unseen levels of detection and prevention. Deep learning is the latest evolution of machine learning. It delivers a massively scalable detection model that is able to learn the entire observable threat landscape. With the ability to process hundreds of millions of samples, deep learning can make more accurate predictions at a faster rate with fewer falsepositives when compared to traditional machine learning.

The deep learning neural network of Intercept X is designed to learn by experience, creating correlations between observed behavior and malware. These correlations result in a high accuracy rate for both existing and zero-day malware, and a lower false-positive rate.

Being able to protect against the next unknown attack instead of waiting for it to arrive will change the way IT operations in every organization can protect their users and assets. Intercept X can bring the most advanced nextgeneration protection to any organization, regardless of their current strategy.

Traditionally, Sophos believes in sub distribution model and reaching out to smaller partners at large. How well are you entrenched in your distribution reach?

We are the only company to follow Tier II distribution model; our sub distribution model has paid off well since the Cyberoam days and now in Sophos we are strengthening it more with new channel friendly policy and programs such as Deal Registration program; we keep on recruiting

“

CHANNEL PARTNERS HAVE TO BE GEARED UP FOR THE EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES AND START ENGAGING WITH THE RIGHT SET OF VENDORS THATWILL RESULT IN HIGH PROFITABILITY SUNIL SHARMA, MANAGING DIRECTOR,SOPHOS INDIA

smaller categories of partners to keep our sub distribution agile. We have progressive partner programs, with direct representatives of Sophos in top B and C class cities. Our tradional sub distribution model has been the key pillar of our partners. Our partners have been consistent in selling Sophos products in the mid market. As we grow our channel base, we have been emphasizing on focus and prioritizing security as a key component of their portfolio.

They should continue to invest in people competencies as new age security technologies come to the fore. And they should adopt a scalable model for their business.

Today, channel is undergoing extreme employee retention problem. Being a channel friendly company, how big is this issue for your partners?

In my vast experience in channel business, I have seen evolution of channel from selling a typewriter to branded PCs, servers, networking solution and now cloud. But all this while, the fundamental challenge which most of the partners suffer is staff retention. Vendors like us train our partners, both pre and technical sales. But the stickiness is very low. In my view, channel has to invest in employees’ retention and follow MNCs' standards and SOPs for keeping the team. The second part is that partners need to be dynamic and look for new business opportunities.

Selling security as a box will not be enough for smaller partners. Today, we have programs which allow smaller partners to sell security as a service. Network security is another area for network partners to look beyond servers and storage.

What would be your key message to your security partners?

The key message to our partners is very clear: Do not treat your security business as just five-six per cent of your total business. I strongly believe that cybersecurity will be the core focus for any organization, be it large, medium or small. Today most of the CIOs and CTOs are more worried for protecting their IT infrastructure from any kind of cyber threats as most of their business is going on cloud. Hence, the need for the right security advisor is something most of these companies will be looking for. Therefore, partners have to be geared up for these emerging opportunities and start engaging with the right set of vendors that will result in high profitability.

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

IN INDIA, AROUND 85 PERCENT OF OUR BUSINESS IS ROUTED THROUGH THE CHANNEL Hewlett Packard Enterprise India has been on a solid growth trajectory in India.

Joybrata Mukherjee, India Leader - Channels , SMB and Service Provider, Hewlett Packard Enterprise India, shares his perspective on some of the company’s key plans for 2018

By Rachana Jha How has been 2017 for HPE; what are the firm’s key plans in 2018?

Last year was fantastic for us. We have been successful in all the verticals, whether it is BFSI or Telco or the public sector. Our focus has been on threefour areas. Firstly, our focus is on the data center and our belief is that data centers will move towards being software defined. Our entire strategy around data centers is software defined, whether it is server, storage or networking. This translates into better manageability as everything can be managed from a single console.

Additionally, with Aruba and the ClearPass portfolio, we are ensuring that more and more intelligence is embedded to the edge. As we move forward, a lot of decisions will be taken in the edge. Manufacturing units will be more intelligent; retail units will be more intelligent. Hence most of the decisions and customer experience will be pivoted around the edge. That’s what we are doing with the Aruba portfolio. The third thing we are focusing on is the consumption model.

We basically believe that as we move forward, everything will be deployed as services, hence the consumption model becomes very-very important.

The public cloud is becoming popular,

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but the issue here is that once you reach a scale, the economics don't support the business case. Lots of people who have invested in public cloud are now preferring on-premise models. Under GreenLake Flex Capacity, we are trying to give our end customer the benefit of a cloud like experience with a control and security of on-premise infrastructure.

We are also bullish on flash storage, and we are seeing a gradual movement towards an all-flash infrastructure. If overall storage is growing up to 10-15 per cent, then all-flash is growing up to 40-50 per cent. We believe that the majority of our large customers will adopt all-flash.

What is the importance of the channel?

We are a channel focused company.

In India around 85 per cent of our business is routed through the channel.

Hence our dependency on channel is huge. We also understand that going forward, the survival of channel partners will become more and more difficult if hardware resale is their core competence. Hence, creating a service around a product becomes very important, which can be outcomebased and offer greater value.

We have started an initiative this year, FY18, across APJ. We started a concept called “Partner of the Future”. We explained to partners on how we see them, and how our partners can create value. We did a POC for about 20 partners across APJ out of which six partners are from India. This is the first proof of concept of what we are doing.

We organize events wherein we do a deep dive workshop with partners for three days and before that we do deep dive assessment of the partner’s business. We look at the overall business matrix of the partner, what is their core competence, and what are the various practices they have. Based on this information, we will evolve a strategy over the next two-three years where the partners can invest and diversify and develop a line of business with the help of HPE. For example, we are working with one of the partners, wherein we are jointly developing a security practice and go the market with HPE for our end customers. With another partner, we are concentrating on IoT, where the focus is on lean manufacturing. We plan to identify areas where we can coinvest and create a value business for our partners.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise

What are your plans for SMBs? The SMB market is the fastest growing segment for us in India. We are growing almost 25 per cent year on year. In order to tap this segment, HPE has a dedicated team that focuses on SMBs. This unit further bifurcates into SMBA (SMB Attended) – managed by dedicated account managers and SMBU (SMB Unattended,) which is partner led.

HPE makes considerable investment in accelerating demand generation through inside sales, tele-calling or external agencies. The opportunities generated through this are shared with partners on a cumulative basis.

This is a particularly profitable area for us which is growing within all segments. We will continue to see investments in this area to further strengthen the business.

As per our partner profiling, we have got 200 partners; of which 15 are platinum partner, 35-40 are gold partner and the rest are silver partners.

There are various solution and product providers which are focused on the mid market. Hyper converged is the product which is focused on the mid market. We are going to market with a leadership product portfolio called SimpliVity. As a part of market development fund (MDF), we have invested with 10 partners across India and enabled and trained them in terms of creating POCs, back up services etc.

On the hyper converged infrastructure front, we have 20 partners across India who are focusing around the hyper converged theme and addressing the mid market segment. As a result of this focus, we are seeing phenomenal results.

While large SIs have the resources and capabilities to build large solutions, how do you plan to enable your tier 2 partners to tap the huge opportunity in IoT, analytics and so on?

With SIs, we share a mutual understanding based on an excellent governance model. We leverage our respective areas of competency and deploy very large projects together.

The tier one partners are our

managed partners by HPE but they are tightly coupled with our tier 1 partners to drive transact business, in a low touch account.

For instance, we are working on a few projects with our tier 2 partners in Bengaluru. We are creating a center of excellence around various consumption models such as composable where you can very quickly deploy compute storage network through managed smart provisioning. We are in the process of building a proof of concept while showcasing test and use cases. This will further be verified by our service provider partners.

“

WE UNDERSTAND THAT GOING FORWARD,THE SURVIVAL OF CHANNEL PARTNERS WILL BECOME MORE AND MORE DIFFICULT IF HARDWARE RESALE IS THEIR CORE COMPETENCE. HENCE,CREATING A SERVICE AROUND A PRODUCT BECOMES VERY IMPORTANT, WHICH CAN BE OUTCOMEBASED AND OFFER GREATER VALUE JOYBRATA MUKHERJEE, INDIA LEADER - CHANNELS , SMB AND SERVICE PROVIDER, HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE INDIA

distribution partners. These partners may sometimes be engaged in value distribution, while some may be involved in system integration. Now outside of this, we have our stock partners which we call as tier 2 partners. In this category, we have 16 platinum partners, 45 gold partners and about 140 silver partners. Apart from the 200 stock partners which form 85 per cent of our business, we have about 750 odd partners which are non-

What is HPE’s strategy to ensure the profitability and margins of partners?

HPE is very strongly positioned in the market. Hence, there is a good demand for our products. However, it is seen that there is stiff competition in the server and storage market. This invariably impacts our profitability in the country as well as our partner’s profitability.

We are tackling this area of concern by delivering more value to our partners by architecting three packet solutions around areas such as composable, IoT, data mining, data analytics, data management systems, SAP, HANA etc. With this model, profitability margins are higher thereby benefitting both HPE and our partners.

Any message for your partners?

First and foremost, we would like to state that we are completely committed to our partner ecosystem and hence it has been a happy and long term relationship based on trust. If you speak to any of the HPE partners, you will find one standard response — HPE people are always black and white and there is no grey. Whatever we say, we deliver.

And, we will continue doing that. That is in our culture.

Our partner ready framework is acknowledged by all our 200 partners as the best framework in the industry.

We are making huge investments to do an assessment of our partner’s business, and ensure their progress and profitability.

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

WE ARE REMOVING ALL BARRIER TO TAKE OUR PARTNERS CLOSE TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OPPORTUNITIES For Microsoft, partners play an intrinsic role to bolster its growth for its cloud business.

The company had made several changes to simplify its channel engagements and remove all the barriers that will allow its partners to seize the new digital transformation opportunities. Speaking exclusively to CRN, Rajiv Sodhi, General Manager – Partner Ecosystem, Microsoft India, talks about the channel directions for 2018

By Sandhya Michu Could you explain Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner(OCP) and its need?

Starting our last financial year, we made a big shift in our partner approach. The first change was making Microsoft more partnercentric. We are a fairly large and complex company. Previously, there were 17 different teams inside Microsoft who used to work with different partners to talk and manage partners; and every team had its own views on partners. Based on our partners’ feedback, we decided to merge all 17 teams into one unit called ‘The One Commercial Partners’ organization, a global initiative. The reason behind this move was simple.

We’re bringing together partnerfocused teams from across the company into one organization. One Commercial Partner harnesses our partner expertise and knowledge – technical, marketing, business development, and programs. It brings

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capabilities and other is taking them to market.

ONE COMMERCIAL PARTNER HARNESSES OUR PARTNER EXPERTISE AND KNOWLEDGE – TECHNICAL, MARKETING, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, AND PROGRAMS together the things that work so that every partner can benefit, regardless of size, business model, or geography.

This organization is not just partnerled, it’s partner-first, and it was designed to put our focus on your success and growth. All of our partner-facing roles will have the responsibility to work with you in one of these three primary functions: Build with, Sell with and Co-selling. Earlier in the past we had combined ‘Build with’ and ‘Sell with’ team, but now we have separated the two out. One is focusing on building partners’

Can you dwell more on MicrosoftPartners co-selling concept?

Our focus on selling with partners and bringing new solutions to market and connecting with customers is an area where we are seriously focusing.

A third big change we had introduced was the concept of Co-Selling – what it does is, in this partners and Microsoft are selling together in front of the customers. As we want more solutions to the market and in coselling, we retire our own sales teams quota based on the partners build solution/IP that he will sell. So now you have sales force team inside Microsoft which is fully vested in the partners’ IP and partners’ solution being sold in the market and paying our own people on their solution. In co-selling, we are taking these IPs which partners are building solutions based on our platforms and when the

Microsoft

deal gets closed, we take the portion of that and retire the quota. This way we are reducing all kind of friction between Microsoft and partners. Co-selling provides comprehensive sales and marketing support for partners building solutions with Azure.

Azure is the only public cloud providing partners with this incredible benefit through which Microsoft sales representatives are paid up to 10 per cent of the partner’s annual contract value when they co-sell qualified Azurebased partner solutions.

analyzed. Without data insight, this data has no value. Having said that, we see that startups are investing more on driving meaningful insights from this data. For example, companies like Uber, Netflix, Flipkart and Skype do not control underlying asset they offer. The underlying strength of these companies is the software platform.

Today, Microsoft sees these opportunities with every customers. With the wave of digital transformation, data is being used in multiple departments for better decisions. Every inch of a company is opening up that means we will need more solutions and partners who will build such solutions. We need partners to reach out to these customers using our platforms and drive our cloud business.

How do you ensure partners’ profitability within OCP? Partner Profitability is the most crucial proposition we offer to our partners whether you are doing business on cloud or on-premise or somewhere in between, GLOBALLY,95 PER CENT OF MICROSOFT'S Microsoft ensures partner REVENUES COMES FROM PARTNERS AND WE HAVE profitability for our cloud THE LARGEST CLOUD PARTNERS ECOSYSTEMS AS focused partners with >50 per What are the top three cent cloud mix having 2X channel direction Microsoft COMPERED TO OUR COMPETITIONS growth, 1.5X gross margin has set for its partners in than non cloud partners.

2018?

RAJIV SODHI, Global research suggests We are very clear with our GENERAL MANAGER – PARTNER ECOSYSTEM,MICROSOFT INDIA Microsoft partners generate 19 channel directions; one is per cent higher margins than that partners need to have competition. Moreover, we complete insight about its have doubled our investments in FY Globally, 95 per cent of Microsoft's customers’ businesses by spending 18 driving Azure and CSP motions, our revenues comes from partners and we more time with the customers and partners can earn >50 per cent of the have the largest cloud partners their business needs and challenges, revenue they generate via Azure on ecosystems as compared to our so that our partners can build a strong CSP range of programs supporting competitions. alliance and contribute largely for pre-sales, sales and consumption. business success. The second Will the new partner-focused direction is building the right How is the cloud partners ecosystem initiatives will bring more business capabilities. We have invested gaining momentum compared to onopportunities? resources to bring out the right premise business?

The reason we carried these capabilities in our partners and their We are seeing that our cloud enhancements was to keep our teams. We are emphasizing on these ecosystem of partners has been partners ready to address the need of directions at various forums accelerating year-on-year. With the customers’ world. We know digital developed for our partners. Recently, newly discussed changes, we will transformation is the over-arching we have concluded our quarterly further strengthen our cloud journey theme with every customer, as the partner leadership conclave in with our partners’ support. Overall, data is getting bigger and doubled. In Gurugram, where 200 partner leaders we have 9,000 partners in India and every two years the total world data is and 100 of Microsoft’s top leaders met about 430 new partners are getting getting doubled, but what is together. It’s a giant partner added every month. One in nine is a fascinating is that just less than five networking event in which we carry unique cloud partner in India. per cent of this data is getting out around 300 meetings in six hours.

“

COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I APRIL, 2018 I crn.in I 25

CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

Rashi Peripherals

SERVICES AND SUPPORT WILL BECOME THE PRIME DRIVERS FOR PARTNERS Rashi Peripherals is putting in a lot of efforts and budget for hard and soft skills training for its employees. Rajesh Goenka, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Rashi Peripherals highlights the importance of upskilling and how critical it is for partners to upscale their techno-commercial skills in order to adapt to the changing times

By Nivedan Prakash What’s the direction for Rashi Peripherals as an organization in 2018 in terms of focus areas and initiatives being taken?

Rashi Peripherals continues to register double-digit growth despite market challenges like demonetization and GST among various other disruptions. This is predominantly due to a very wide product portfolio and the largest reach of over 50 branch offices spread across India.

Our aim is to keep the double-digit growth in the year 2018 as well. In order to sustain this momentum for the next three years, we are now targeting verticals like system integrators, LFRs, retail, SMB, enterprises, and government. With this focused approached, we should be able to sustain our momentum for the next few years.

In this digital disruption era, how do you envisage the role of partners evolving with the changing market dynamics?

As digitization progresses, just product delivery will become almost a secondary job; whereas, services and support will become the prime driver.

Hence, it is critical for partners to upscale their techno-commercial skills in order to adapt to the changing times.

The overall partner landscape

26 I COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I APRIL, 2018 I crn.in

very difficult. This year itself we will be conducting more than 10,000 hours of training to our team.

would remain similar and since we as Indians, especially in the IT industry, are learned, techno savvy and more adaptive, I foresee that partners would upskill themselves.

What efforts are being put to build capabilities and skill-sets of your internal team so that they are ready to address customer requirements?

Rashi Peripherals is putting in a lot of efforts and budget for hard and soft skills training for its employees. The focus is not only on sales and marketing but also on finance, logistics and services team. Fortunately, at Rashi, we implemented SAP almost 11 years ago, therefore our systems are very robust and more adaptable to the changing requirements of business. If we were to be with the older software platforms, adaptation would have been

How much support do you receive from OEMs / vendors in your bid to be market-ready? Is there any specific channel program being run as part of hand-holding?

In today’s scenario, vendors, distributors and even partners approach business hand-in-hand. Any one missing in this link is a recipe for failure. Various vendors have various system and processes to support the same.

For example, vendor ‘A’ has a very good online portal wherein you can lock-in all the leads and then progress along with them to close the deal.

Another vendor ‘B’ lays more focus on training about product and technology and tries to upgrade the skill-sets of sales and marketing team periodically.

What are your expectations from the vendors / OEMs? Realistic business planning with appropriate support of demand generation activities is the key for success. Also, some vendors are not investing in manpower, which is the need of the hour. I think vendors should consider these critical factors while framing their roadmap in India.

CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

WE CONSTANTLY RE-INVENT AND RE-SKILL OUR PARTNERS Nitin Kaushal, Head – Enterprise & Government Business, North, East & SAARC, Avaya India, shares insights into the key strategies designed to empower the company’s channel community for achieving the business objectives.

By Nivedan Prakash In this digital disruption era, how is Avaya aligning with the changing market dynamics?

With the government going gungho on digital, this is by far the most exciting phase for communication companies - so much happening around smart cities and citizen centric activities, the way we are gearing up to respond to these changing market dynamics. From Avaya stack, we have Dial 100 for emergency response and with this we are ensuring that the citizen response time is the least. This is on the contact center side.

Similarly, smart classrooms and tele-medicine are coming up big time across the country. This is because the government is making efforts to reach out to rural population which really needs these services. And we are enabling government and related agencies in this direction. From the CSR perspective, we are supplementing and complementing a lot of these initiatives.

Across the globe, Avaya has been traditionally working very closely with the government and a lot of our solutions have been around public services – be it healthcare, education, emergency responses, and disaster management. Globally, we have a very large footprint in these areas.

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WHILE WE HAVE A VERY FEW DIRECT ENGAGEMENTS WITH THE CUSTOMERS FOR MISSION CRITICAL OR HIGH-END APPLICATIONS, THE REST ARE PREDOMINANTLY SERVED THROUGH CHANNEL PARTNERS Has this also called for the way you approach customers in terms of addressing their requirements?

Our every solution is designed keeping customers in mind and we always strive to ensure how we service our customers better. We engage with the customer’s rights when this thought process is seeded.

We are a bit ahead of time when it comes to addressing customer requirements. A lot of our customers are large global players and they keep re-inventing themselves with the time in terms of technology adoption. So, when we are aligning with them, we have to constantly be on our toes.

When we come out with any solution, it is generally in line with what the customers want. In many

scenarios, we have the early mover advantage. Avaya is amongst the very few companies that have end-toend omni-channel portfolio, out-ofthe-box from Avaya itself. A lot of our competitors have plugged those gaps with third-party or complementary partner solutions. We keep on reinventing and that’s where the customer’s happiness index is very high. While we have been following this for the last four to five years, the trend is now visible among other companies wherein everyone not just wants to be satisfied but also be a happy customer.

As the company has transformed from a hardware to a software and services company, what are the unique value propositions that you bring to the market that have put you in the advantage position?

By becoming a software and services company, we are less dependent on infrastructure. Since the whole approach is softwaredriven, our offerings are more agile and the architecture is open to interface with third-party applications. This would not have been possible if we were just a hardware company. And this is one of the biggest advantages of being a software-driven company.

Today, customers are closely

Avaya

looking at artificial intelligence, IoT and machine-to-machine learning.

While servicing the customers, you want this information to come really quick to them. If I am still working on the infrastructure or hardware environment, by the time we respond or react to it, a lot of time lag would have happened. On the other hand, if I am working on-the-fly, where I am looking to create or service a request or up-sell to a customer, unless I see his past history, I won’t be able to do it.

The environment becomes very dynamic and if you want to make any changes or launch a new programme or scheme for my customers, it becomes quicker and the response to the market is much faster. And finally, everything boils down to the cost.

You have lesser number of people to manage the infrastructure and this gives you a green footprint, as there is no delta power or electricity consumption happening.

Where does the role of channel come into the play to take your success story forward?

Globally, we have about 6,000 channel partners through which we service 130,000 odd customers. We wouldn’t have been what we are without our partners. While we have a very few direct engagements with the customers for mission critical or high-end applications, the rest are predominantly served through channel partners.

This means that we have to constantly re-invent and re-skill our partners, and be open from the ISV perspective as a lot of development would happen around our system.

We can’t do everything on our own and that’s why partners come onboard to develop delta applications. This helps us augment our reach and sell as well as service better.

From the partner enablement point of view, there is a constant effort from our side when we come out with new technologies or get into new areas like cloud. Hence, supporting and building the partner

“

MARKET PENETRATION CAN ONLY HAPPEN THROUGH PARTNERS; AND IT GIVES ME IMMENSE PRIDE THAT WE HAVE EXCELLENT PARTNERS IN THE COUNTRY LIKE AGC NETWORKS,ORANGE NETWORKS,AND WIPRO AMONG OTHERS WHO HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH US ALL THESE YEARS NITIN KAUSHAL, HEAD – ENTERPRISE & GOVERNMENT BUSINESS,NORTH, EAST & SAARC, AVAYA INDIA

ecosystem becomes equally important.

Market penetration can only happen through partners; and it gives me immense pride that we have excellent partners in the country like AGC Networks, Orange Networks, and Wipro among others who have been working with us all these years. They have supported us in covering the largest as well as smallest of the customers.

If you look at our mid-market penetration servicing the emerging business segments within the country today, which are starting their business operations in Tier II or Tier III cities, we have partners helping them to do so. With the help of partners, it becomes very easy for us to service these customers. While some think that with the arrival of cloud, our ecosystem of partners would shrink; it is still the same and probably it will keep on augmenting.

On the contrary, it would not have been possible had we remained just a hardware infrastructure company.

After taking a software-driven approach, today we are working with partners like AWS and CtrlS. It has opened up more doors but surely in a different spectrum.

Do you mean this will create more opportunities for new age partners in comparison to the traditional ones?

We have never bracketed partners in one specific zone. One of the major reasons for our success is that partners have been constantly reinventing themselves. Most of the partners who have been with the Avaya traditionally have re-skilled themselves with the time.

Meanwhile, many new partners have come onboard. With the advent of cloud, we have started going out to partners having cloud based expertise but at the same time, we have not neglected the existing set of partners. I don’t see a reason for partners to be wary of the fact that with the advent of technologies like cloud, they would run out of the business.

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

DIGISOL SYSTEMS CONFIDENT ON ITS GROWTH PATH Amidst several recent adverse market conditions, including the GST impact, Digisol Systems has sustained its business performance, and is now bullish on further growth. Mandar N Joshi, Head - Channel Business, Digisol Systems, explains how the company witnessed minimal impact during the difficult phase, and how is it approaching the market ahead

By Mohit Rathod

M

arking a phenomenal recovery from bad market conditions, Digisol Systems has reaffirmed its position in the market over the last fiscal. The company, which predominantly belongs to the wireless market expected to grow at an approximate rate of five per cent according to IDC, has marked significant recovery in FY 2016-2017 with various initiatives such as Digital India and the low broadband penetration acting as catalyst. Joshi explains, “We have recovered upto a large extent in FY 2016-2017; whereas, our business did phenomenally well in FY 2017-2018. We have seen a large recovery in FY 16 Q2 and Q3; Q1 was hit by the Goods and Services Tax (GST), making people wanting to carry lean inventory. However in Q2, the overall industry has grown by about 22 per cent, but our company has grown by 46 per cent.”

The company observed marginal growth quarter-on-quarter and yearon-year, amidst quarters which were impacted for many companies. Hence, though it’s a smaller growth, it’s encouraging for Digisol, affirming that it’s on track. Meanwhile, the company also made several decisions in terms of products. “We introduced 4G Wi-Fi router, which is being sold well and

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there is a demand for the product – particularly from people looking at brand diagnostic devices. Alongside, 4G dongles are also doing well in the market – these are future ready products,” informs Joshi.

Digisol also forayed into the Fibre to the Home (FTTH) space, and believes its passive products have also helped the company significantly. Joshi comments, “Earlier we weren’t able to bid for certain projects, because our portfolio didn’t have passive products, which has now changed. Now we have a complete portfolio – active products including channel solutions and surveillance, wherein we are focusing on IP. This has made our product line comphrehensive, catering the enture gamut of customers. From a product standpoint, we have everything form routers to industry-grade products. I am sure that having the products at the right price will result in better sales.”

Growth factors There are multiple aspects that contributed to the growth. In FY 16 Q2, the company aggressively ran schemes for every tier of the market. In terms of schemes, Digisol has something to offer to markets right from tier 1 to tier 3, depending on targets. Significant efforts are put to ensure that the

partners are motivated and the focus is sustained. “We have also been providing better margins for the partners, among our competitors. This has helped in gaining the confidence of them. Also the right product which we cater have played a crucial role in driving the growth. Even during the Jio onslaught, some of our products such as USB adapter marked significant growth; the sales boosted by almost 2.5x. With the right products at the right price and channel market, we have been able to retain better margins,” he states.

The company put significant efforts in order to rebuild confidence among its partners, while the overall market situation was recovering. Digisol has to motivate its partners; however, when the demand started growing, the partners regained confidence. For instance, ISPs were earlier not even enquiring about routers, but now Digisol is witnessing demand for premium routers too, indicating opportunities.

In terms of integration of the active and surveillance business, Joshi informs that there are two different sets of partners. “However, we have observed that surveillance partners are also interested in few of the active products, because of their

Digisol Systems

comlementary nature. Predominantly, surveillance and nertworking have separate channels – we haven’t seen consolidation here,” he says.

Whereas, the company didn’t have to realig its go-to-market strategy, as there are no paradigm shifts happening in the distribution landscape every quarter or every year.

It’s about maintaining constant communication with the channel, and Digisol has been actively interacting with them, providing updates. He adds, “Over the last three quarters, we have taken certain decisions in line with the market dynamics; additionally our digital footprint - which was earlier not active - has been expanding.

Moreover, the biggest advantage we have is that we fulfill the ‘Make in India’ initiative - we have a state-ofthe-art factory in Goa, which contributes to 70 per cent of our products sales. Also our failure rates are one of the lowest; we make sure every device is tested before shipping, instead of sample testing. All of these factors have always helped us.”

Another significant development during this phase has been the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which has come with numerous reforms; partners had to adopt many changes in order to get acquainted with the entire ecosystem.

According to Joshi, partners who were inclined towards a cash-driven economy were finding it tough to continue with Digisol. “We haven’t seen real consolidation, however some of the partners struggled initially. However the numbers have been constant.

Usually, the period from October to December is a lean quarter - IT business is at its highest in Q2 - but we have been able to maintain the numbers in Q3 also,” he informs.

Channel and strategies During the diffcult phase in the market, which impacted the overall industry, consumer behaviour was observed changing. For instance, instead of broadband, customers considered 4G connections and sharing it with multiple devices.

However, this doesn’t seem to the current phenomena. This can be

“

WE MAKE SURE THATTHE PRE-SALES TEAMS REACH OUTTO SMALLER TOWNS AND EDUCATE OUR PARTNERS MANDAR N JOSHI, HEAD - CHANNEL BUSINESS, DIGISOL SYSTEMS

affirmed by the increase in sales of routers which had taken a plunge then.

For smaller ISPs, that phase was for critical in terms of survival in the market, which made them offer better bandwidth to customers; which inturn helped to revive router sales for Digisol.

These ISPs were being serviced solely by the company’s channel partners – this is where Digisol saw overall market recovery. “For Digisol specifically the last two quarters have been very encouraging across the product range. With the Digital India initiative, our solutions portfolio is also performing well. Between Q2 and Q3, our sales of this portfolio had gone up by six per cent,” says Joshi.

At the tier 3 level, Digisol currently has over 4,000 partners, of which 20-25 per cent are its solutions partners as well – they are aware about the entire products line, and are not restricted to any specific segment. There is about 30-40 per cent overlap between the

company’s active and passive sets of partners.

In the areas of upscaling partners, the company has regional pre-sales teams, which conducts various events for system integrators in multiple locations. These events are also aimed at understanding the needs of customers, because system integrators are the ones are active with customers.

Joshi comments, “We make sure that the pre-sales teams reach out to smaller towns and educate our partners. The numbers are growing, and I feel that the company is on track.

India is extremely fragmented; hence in order to increase sales, we have to reach every corner of the country. At our events in smaller towns, we have witnessed significant participation, because they are also looking at opportunities to grow. Profitability of partners in smaller towns still remains a concern for everybody, even though there are different feedbacks from various people. If they have a channelsolution of 70:30, then the margins would be healthy – the volumes in channel are much higher than solutions. Channel partners have to focus on both, not just one segment.

We educate them on this aspects.”

Way ahead Joshi predicts that it will take another quarter for the GST impact to stabilise and for the demand to kick in.

FTTH is one segment where the company has seen remarkable growth, in terms of both, active and passive.

The smaller ISPs are increasing bandwidths and are offering better data plans in order to compete with major telcos. This creates a need for them to switch to fibre and have an entire ecosystem ready.

Commenting on his expections from partners, Joshi concludes, “We are on the verge of finalising our plans for the next year. We look at realistic growth and we communicate that across our partners. For instance, if we look at 25 per cent, we reach out to partners and inform them how are we planning to achieve this growth, thereby translating this into thieir growth as well.”

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

PARTNER ENABLEMENT IS INHERENT TO OUR CHANNEL STRATEGY As Oracle is betting big on cloud business, there is an increased focus on upskilling as well as reskilling of partners. Srikanth Doranadula, Senior Director and Head – Alliances & Channels, Oracle India shares insights into the various initiatives that the company has undertaken as part of the partner empowerment strategy

By Nivedan Prakash What’s the direction for Oracle India in 2018 in terms of focus areas and initiatives being taken?

Cloud remains our topmost priority for 2018 and beyond. Our Oracle Partner Network (OPN) partners are investing with us on an ongoing basis.

We will continue to provide opportunities for every partner to choose an area in the cloud, be it IaaS, PaaS or SaaS. Our other businesses like License and Systems business continues to be on track.

Our focus will continue to be on skill enhancement of our partners. This is a continuous journey. We encourage our partners to achieve more specialization, receive proper recognition and win more with Oracle across all areas of our solution stack, in our vertical applications and in the cloud as well.

How are you weaving the channel piece into this plan?

Partners continue to play a vital role in Oracle’s plans for India. From a cloud perspective, we want partners to play a key role in closely working with and supporting customers during their journey to the cloud. Hence, suggesting the right path, successful implementation and customer references will continue to be the key driving forces. We urge partners to stay

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THE ACCENTUATION CLEARLY IS ON PARTNER UPSKILLING AND RESKILLING TO ENSURE OUR CUSTOMERS GET THE BEST AND ARE VERY HAPPY focused on upskilling and reskilling themselves, and also on ensuring we have more successful go-lives.

Partner enablement is inherent to our channel strategy. We view it as a perpetual process and empower our partners via regular training programs delivered through virtual classrooms, hands-on implementation workshops, or partner focused boot camps.

How significant will be their role in building the company’s growth story?

Partner business has always been a core element of our growth strategy. At Oracle OpenWorld 2017 held in October in San Francisco, USA, we announced that we are continuing to see strong cloud leadership and momentum across our 25,000-member strong partner program. Since its launch in February 2016, more than 2,600 unique partners have joined the Oracle PartnerNetwork Cloud Program.

Additionally, cloud resell revenue from our partners increased 105 per cent year over year globally.

Selling cloud is one part, ensuring the solutions are implemented smoothly and successfully is the other equally important part. Implementation and successful customer ‘go live’ are key, and we clearly see our partners’ role getting bigger and bigger in the coming months.

How much focus will be on building skill-set of partners? What sort of efforts are being put in this endeavour?

There has been a considerable amount of change in our channel engagement program last year and we expect it to get bigger and better in the coming years. Our partners went through an evolution phase with greater focus on cloud.

The accentuation clearly is on partner upskilling and reskilling to ensure our customers get the best and are very happy. We recently concluded a thorough, hands-on implementation partner training workshop at Jaipur, underlining our emphasis on and commitment to fully enable our partners. Such initiatives are in line with our partner empowerment strategy and we will undertake many more of these

Oracle

programs in the coming months.

In this digital disruption era, how do you envisage the role of partners evolving with changing market dynamics?

We work with a strong certified, well trained partner network and we believe that they are an extended sales team of Oracle, supporting us to take our offerings to customers across diverse verticals and geographies. We closely work with our partners and reward them for their efforts, especially when they successfully see the customer through proof of concept to Go-live.

Our partners can select between coselling and implementing, or just reselling.

Are we going to see any fundamental structural changes in the channel structure (vertical-wise / product— wise segmentation)?

Oracle formally recognizes partners that have invested time and resources in developing significant expertise in specific Oracle products and solutions.

We are committed to delivering value to three primary groups: our community of partners, our end customers, and our Oracle internal sales force. OPN offers a number of ways for partners to differentiate themselves in order to be recognized by these three audiences. Having said that, we will always have large partners playing across the entire length and breadth of the market, and across all solution stacks. These could be the large global SIs. We will also have partners focusing only on niche areas, and boutique partners addressing specific single solution areas. Our program is designed to encourage partners across all segments. We also have VADs addressing the regular run rate business.

We are heavily investing in OPN programs to help our channel partners succeed in the marketplace with our products and solutions especially cloud offerings. With reselling and implementation of cloud, our channel partners are making a significant

“

WE ALSO CERTIFYPARTNERS THROUGH OUR RECENTLY LAUNCHED ‘CLOUD EXCELLENCE IMPLEMENTER PROGRAM (CEI)’,WHICH HELPS CUSTOMERS MAKE A SMOOTH TRANSITION TO THE CLOUD THROUGH ORACLE IMPLEMENTATION PARTNERS SRIKANTH DORANADULA, SENIOR DIRECTOR AND HEAD – ALLIANCES & CHANNELS,ORACLE INDIA

difference to their businesses. Last year, we unveiled a new OPN Cloud Program to help partners accelerate the growth of Oracle cloud business by providing them with technical and goto-market support. Through this program, partners showcase their Oracle cloud expertise, vertical market offerings, and success with customers through tiers of recognition and progressive benefits. Customers are now able to easily identify and engage with partner firms that best align to their specific project needs.

What’s the bigger message for the channel community?

I am a firm believer that we need to leverage each other’s strengths to address our customer requirements in

the best possible manner, especially in complex markets like India where customer needs are so varied and diverse.

Our message to the partner community has been consistent all these years: understand the customer’s needs and focus on specialization, which should be a continuous process that’ll help our partners stay relevant in the market and closer to the customer. It’s important that our partners recognize the need to start speaking and thinking the cloud language, because cloud is the new currency and it is here to stay.

It’s also crucial for partners to ensure what solutions they propose to customers, are indeed implemented and being utilized in an effective manner by the customer. Both Oracle and our partners should never ever take our eyes off the customer.

From a skilling perspective, we are also investing heavily in OPN programs to help our channel partners succeed in the marketplace with our products and solutions, especially cloud offerings.

Using the Oracle Cloud Marketplace, partners can expand the visibility of their applications to 425,000+ Oracle customers and partners.

We also certify partners through our recently launched ‘Cloud Excellence Implementer Program (CEI)’. The CEI program helps customers make a smooth transition to the cloud through Oracle implementation partners. The new program recognizes and rewards those partners who have invested in building their Oracle Cloud expertise and demonstrate a proven track record for delivering high quality cloud implementation projects across Oracle’s customer base.

With the CEI distinction, partners that work with Oracle to implement Oracle Cloud around the globe will be able to further differentiate themselves in the marketplace, and benefit from increased enablement and go-tomarket support from Oracle. The CEI program is available to OPN members now and will initially focus on implementations for Oracle’s SaaS Cloud services.

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

PARTNERS LED MID MARKET APPROACH BECOMES GROWTH ENGINE FOR SAP INDIA For SAP India, close to 80 per cent of customers in India are SMEs, most which are facilitated by SAP India’s partners

By Sandhya Michu

F

or SAP India, mid market has emerged as a key focus business in the last two years.

Currently, SAP India has total of 9,000 customers in India. Close to 80 per cent of customers in India are SMEs, most which are facilitated by SAP India’s partners. As part of the channel strategy expansion plans, the company is on track to achieve 100 per cent partner-led go-to-market strategy for its SME business. The renewed channel partner strategy is centered around consistent partner profitability and is designed to help them grow their business sustainably. To further strengthen this line of business. SAP India has introduced slew of changes such as partner packaging factory, removal of distribution layer and faster implementation ready solution for the mid market.

“We have been adding huge numbers of customers every year. In the list of 9,000 customers, the majority of them were added in 2017.

Primarily, 2017 was an interesting year, as we entered into the year after the demonetization and GST was getting to be rolled out. But the business started seeing momentum sometime in the mid of July 2017 and we saw significant amount of momentum coming back in the

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market,” opines Vivek Malhotra, Vice President — Global Channels & General Business, SAP Indian Subcontinent.

The company feels that as the SMEs in India aspire to become enterprises, it is important for companies like SAP to start focusing on this segment.

“From an SMB perspective, our philosophy right from the beginning has been that we will focus on this market through channels. As an organization, we used be known as going direct and do business direct, but we changed this outlook for SMBs completely. At this point of time, upwards of 90 per cent of the business we do is through channels. I would aspire to become 100 per cent.,” he continues.

The company has added 14 new locations and for the first time it has started taking serious efforts in building the channel base beyond major metros, which will help in going close to the MSME market. “Our geoexpansion plan to reach deeper into the country where MSMEs operate, will be led by our extensive partner network. The primary driver of this strategy is our partner program, SAP PartnerEdge, which gives them everything they need to build and grow a successful SAP business

Additionally, we also offer Market Development Funds to enable our partners to promote themselves as well as for marketing demandgeneration activities. To boost profitability by leveraging the latest opportunities offered by the market, we provide our partners tools, resources and training,” states Malhotra.

Moved from tier 2 to single layer model The one big change SAP did to its distribution model in September last year was to do away with old distribution model and get into a single tier model. The company graduated all its traditional EBMs to VARs business. Even the company removed its old time distributor Sonata Software from a distributor to the VAR category. Now all the VARs will be working directly with SAP channel team. Without putting additional on ground resources, the company empowered more its VARs for its geo-expansion strategy.

“We are very sensitive to our partners and their requirements. We will continue to invest in channels for their success. In line with this, we have recently fortified our policies to strengthen the risk and compliance

SAP

processes in our business through partners. For this, we will be migrating our EBM partners to VAR partners based on the partner request, their business plan and other processes meeting SAP requirements. We are already seeing significant numbers of EBM partners migrate as per the new model. Sonata has been a fantastic MVAR for SAP till last year. We will continue this partnership with Sonata as a VAR partner,” explains Malhotra.

He further states, “We know what the top priorities for our partners are — business growth, cost reductions, improving efficiency, productivity and customer loyalty. Our robust partner strategy is geared towards these priorities and is designed to enable them to grow their business sustainably.”

Partner Packaging Factory: A new format SAP has introduced a new business format for its channel named- Partner Packaging Factory an industry-first online initiative that aggregates endto-end SAP packages developed by partners. These packages are built to include SAP software, services, maintenance in addition to hardware.

SAP Partner Packaging Factories includes solutions for- SAP S/4HANA, SAP Cloud, BusinessObjects Business Intelligence and SAP Analytics Cloud.

This initiative creates unique opportunities for partners to reinvent business models, drive volumes and enhanced revenues. It will give a twofold advantage to customers: it would have ready-made solutions which are templatized and in addition, it will allow faster implementation.

It is an industry-first online initiative that aggregates end-to-end SAP packages developed by partners.

It thus provides them an opportunity to set up a one stop shop for our customers who can easily evaluate SAP solutions and fast-track their digital transformation journey. By building packages to include SAP software, services, maintenance in addition to hardware, it enables them to offer a combination of self-serviced assets and best practices

network is a key component in our efforts to simplify our customers’ technology landscapes and improve the lives of people everywhere. This community is also crucial for the success of our customers and we are fully committed to their growth. The SAP Partner Packaging Factory is an extension of that very commitment. It provides unique opportunities to our partners to reinvent business models, drive volumes and enhance revenues.

Our clear partner strategy continues to propel our objective of growing together.”

Tapping the MSMEs with collaboration

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WE ARE VERY SENSITIVE TO OUR PARTNERS AND THEIR REQUIREMENTS AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO INVEST IN CHANNELS FOR THEIR SUCCESS VIVEK MALHOTRA, VICE PRESIDENT—GLOBAL CHANNELS & GENERAL BUSINESS,SAP INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

“10 -15 years back, SAP solutions used to take longer duration of implementation time. Today we are talking about getting a partner, starting the implementation and winding it up within 90-120 days for SMEs customers. One of the main criteria for selection of partners for this initiative is successful implementations in specific industries and industry sub-segments. What we focus on more are their industryexpertise as well as on the replicability of those solutions. Those solutions, while could be industryspecific, should be deployed for all customers, irrespective of their geography,” he says.

Malhotra adds, “Our partner

To be successful, today’s growing businesses are required to manage their increasing data in an effective way. The ability to extract intelligence from information is increasingly being seen as a key differentiator to grow and expand. SMBs are therefore being innovative and are embracing technology in order to improve their business, to reach out to new markets and to create new revenue streams.

An example of this is SMEs increasingly moving toward cloudbased ERP. This move and the digitization of the enterprise are being fueled by better use of enterprise data derived from operations and thirdparty big data. To succeed, SMBs have to make the right investments to digitally enable all aspects of the business, including how they engage with customers at every touch point.

SAP India has also launched Bharat ERP in collaboration with the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (M/o MSME) to empower MSMEs with next-gen technology to fuel their digital journey. The initiative aims to digitally enable nearly 30,000 MSMEs and youth in the next three years as the program expands.

“Through this program, MSMEs will be able to access cutting edge next generation technology from SAP that can streamline and integrate key processes such as financial, sales, inventory, and more – with a single business software,” Malhotra concludes.

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

HITACHI VANTARA LEVERAGES DATA INFRASTRUCTURE BUSINESS TO DRIVE IoT, DATA ANALYTICS GROWTH Following the recent formation of Hitachi Vantara, the company is banking upon its existing sets of customers to further develop its customer base. In an interaction with CRN, Raghuram Krishnan, Director - Partner and Alliances, Hitachi Vantara, shares how the company is planning to build its IoT and data analytics solutions

By Mohit Rathod What was the rationale behind the formation of Hitachi Vantara?

Hitachi Vantara was formed in September 2017. Businesses which evolve on the internet and which use technology extensively, are disrupting the existing players. All the CEOs are now understanding that if they don’t change, they will be completely eliminated from the market. What’s driving this is essentially the user behaviour, which is based on digital transformation. What comes in the center of digital transformation is data. Hitachi Vantara is the amalgamation of Hitachi Data Systems, Pentaho and Hitachi Insights - data is central to the solutions of all of these.

Hitachi Data Systems, on its own, was a pioneer in infrastructure, be it computing data, storing data, governing data or mobilizing data. Pentaho took it one step ahead; the data data needs to be analyzed to get insights out of it and Pentaho does that.

Whereas, Internet of Things (IoT) gets data from machine learnings to

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provide more insights to businesses.

Instead of three companies working in silos, Hitachi Vantara became a natural progression.

When it comes to educating customers on the offerings of Hitachi Vantara, the role of the partner ecosystem is crucial. How have you put efforts on the partner ecosystem, thereby resulting in customer requirements?

Pentaho is not a newly formed company; it was already present and it had its own set of partners, so did Hitachi Data Systems. In our new program, we ended up merging them.

In today’s world, it’s not about competition or cooperation; it’s a mix of both, because there will be areas where we’ll have to align with our competitors too. This holds true not just for the OEMs, but for partners as well. The landscape of partners India, who do meaningful business in the marketplace relevant to our business line, includes the GSIs, MSIs, value

added resellers, and cloud service providers; each bringing its own uniqueness. They are also realizing that if they don’t embark on this journey, they will be extinct in the market, because the way customers buy has changed. Customers don’t buy products anymore. About 60-70 per cent of the IT budget is spent on keeping the lights on. The existing infrastructure needs to be maintained and upgraded, because the number users is increasing. However, CEOs want to utilize this money to embark on digital transformation - optimizing processes, building more revenue with customer experience and entering new markets. This is where the partners play a role to bridge the gap between the CEO’s expectations and what the CIO is able to deliver.

There’s so much money spent on keeping the lights on, that CIOs are not able to focus on things that are critical for the organization; this is where the partners come into the play, with their solutions, our solu-

Hitachi Vantara

tions and both embedded together to create a value proposition for the customers. These are the kind of partners who will be able to help us.

As Pentaho, Hitachi Data Systems and Hitachi Insights has their own set of partners; how has been the synergy between these partners?

This is an ongoing process which takes time. Partners who realize that they have to move up their value chain in front of the customers, will start investing in these technologies. Till the time they invest in them, they need to leverage the exist strengths of the Pentaho partners, learn from them and build skill levels within their own organizations. Similarly, the Pentaho partners who talk about data analytics, are leaving the infrastructure piece free for someone else to address.

The GSIs and MSIs are adapting to this whole situation rapidly. They are going on a rampage in terms of skill building around data analytics, IoT the existing infrastructure they have.

System integration has gone into a new dimension altogether; it’s not about putting together third party elements and creating a solution. Today the solution is about understanding the business challenges of customers and finding out the right technologies which will be needed to address the outcome of the business. Other partners will also follow, because they realize that the last-man-standing strategy may not work for everybody.

So those who really want to move up the value chain and build their profitability will be the ones to embark on this journey at a rapid pace.

Post the formation of Hitachi Vantara, did you have to restructure the channel ecosystem or revamp the channel programs?

The channel programs are still evolving; and we know where to invest money, keeping in mind customers and partners who want to move up the value chain. Whereas from a channel strategy perspective, we are clear about the markets we want to address, and out positions in each year. So it’s we are clear on how

partners would specialize in identifying data analytics projects, whereas another set of partners would not specialize in the same, so we have defined the training clearly for each set of partners. We have a team of pre-sales persons which does this on an effectively. However, there are various other functions within the partner organization that need to be trained, alongside pre-sales - such as the delivery and practice teams.

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THE ETHOS OF OUR CHANNEL STRATEGY IN INDIA IS TO CREATE SELFSUSTAINING,PROFITABLE AND VALUE SELLING PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS RAGHURAM KRISHNAN, DIRECTOR - PARTNER AND ALLIANCES,HITACHI VANTARA

to address the markets, the skill levels and trainings needed - the complete capacity and capabilities matrix has been drawn for the partners which is being done effectively.

Alongside GSIs and MSIs, large VARs are also asking us about what they can do to move up the value chain.

Today all the large VARs end up doing what they do the best in terms of providing a product solution to the market, and they that in the future, it has to be technology solutions.

We have a programmed training schedule for our partners - this is the derivative of the capacity and capability matrix we have drawn. That training for a particular set of partners will be different from that of other sets of partners. One set of

How are to ensuring win-win situation in the channel ecosystem, and what expectations do you have from partners?

In today’s world, selling boxes isn’t the way anymore. You start making money when you take products which are new solutions in the market - the moment these become commodities, you start losing money there as well. The myth of profitability in this industry is related to backend rebates. Profitability is never directly proportional to backend rebates, but to the value that you give to customers. To ensure value for customers, one has to address what’s closest to them - not just in terms of business outcomes, but also in IT infrastructure. The reason why GSIs and MSIs are making better profits because they have moved up a notch. When you move up the value chain, annuity business increases which is a critical factor in partner organizations.

The ethos of our channel strategy in India is to create self-sustaining, profitable and value selling partner organizations; and we firmly believe that technology is best when its spread across the gamut of customers. Hence it becomes necessary to pick the right partners for the right set of customers, because we can’t be present everywhere. The only way we get our customers harness the potential of technology, is by getting the partners to take the technology to the market; for that, the skill level needs of partners need to grow, and they need to be able to identify, address and close opportunities.

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES TO BE FUJITSU’S FOCUS THIS YEAR Andy Stevenson, Head of Middle East, Turkey and India; Managing Director for India, Fujitsu explains the company’s focus areas, current market scenario and opportunities in the future

By Rachana Jha What are the main focus areas for Fujitsu currently?

We have a scope for products and services that really try to address the challenges that would be faced by people, looking at building any kind of digital business platform. Typically we have a portfolio of services which is called MetaArc, essentially bringing together a cloud offering, virtualization and then a whole suite of digital business, application and infrastructure delivered as a partner’s service. So, that will include things like Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and a whole bunch of new tools, which allows people to basically realize the modern API infrastructure. That will help them adapt their existing businesses and transition them into a full cloud infrastructure; and then go forward with different aspects and portfolio that they can modernize and innovate on that platform. So, that produces overarching strategies to bring MetaArc and everything that contains into the India market. Now we have a suite of Hobart portfolio as well, and that’s obviously looking at things like hyper-converged infrastructure that leads into the building box that brings in a full hybrid IT suite. That hybrid IT suite allows us to take

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what we have in terms of server technology; but then to put that into a virtualization concept that we can bring. Using the tools and suite around Meta Arc will allow our partners to go to market with that. What we’re trying to do with the channel partners is to bring solutions that are in the industry vertical field, so that with those partners we can start addressing specific verticals in the India market, that will help us.

We have banking and financial services too. HPC (High Performance Computing) in general is looking at the educational research organizations. Those are the kinds of key focuses that we’ll have in the market.

So, we’re starting to build the capability, and we want key partners to work in those sectors.

Having a wide portfolio of offerings, which are the key areas you’ll start getting benefits from this year?

In general, this thing about hybrid IT is really what we are dealing with; so we have a suite of platforms in the primary series which is our server technology. That server technology is increasingly focused and scaled. So, we can give a real economies of scale – how people will build infrastructure or build their product ‘cloud’ infra-

structure. We are pushing that very hard. We also, as part of that suite portfolio, have a suite of HPC offerings. Increasingly we are seeing HPC being adopted in the private sector.

Typically it used to be academy and research, but now we’re starting to see people begin to realize the opportunities in AI. We’re now starting to see people really starting to invest in HPC in those types of environments; and specifically on the AI algorithmic basis or whether some things like Big Data and Big Data Analytics.

When we talk about areas like Hybrid IT or HPC, from the partner perspective, it requires lot of skills.

What efforts are being put to train them and enable them in these areas?

We have built our HPC Competency Center in Bengaluru.

Historically that was based in Germany. However, because of the talent that we can attract in India, we have built our HPC Competency Center here. Therefore, when it comes to people looking at the specific skill sets that they need to develop HPC-type solutions, we can bring them here, we can bring our subject matter experts to work alongside them, help them find algorithms or do

Fujitsu

benchmarking in terms of those algorithms on particular infrastructure.

So, we built our OPM; we made our investment to bring it to Bengaluru.

What about the cloud part of it when you speak about Hybrid IT? Essentially we’re running an internal program which we call fit for digital. We’re particularly focused on MetaArc and K5. Meta Arc is the overarching suite of technologies that we have built digital platforms.

Whereas, K5 is the cloud offerin; within that, we have public cloud and virtual private cloud variants, within which we also have different delivery mechanisms that you can buy as a complete open sack – you can either buy as a VMware configured stack or you can buy SBI Metal – so we are very specific in storage of funds. We can buy SBI Metal and we can integrate that into a whole suite using MetaArc. With new opportunities arising along with the changing market dynamics, are there more opportunities for new-age partners, and for those who’re born in the cloud and who are just focusing on the security part of it?

Cybersecurity is obviously a big focus for lots of companies; and obviously it’s a more specialist skill set that you have in security. But I think what people are beginning to understand is that, the commoditization aspect of product is no longer sufficient to engage clients. The buying behaviors of clients are changing, because traditionally it might have been a CIO or an IT expert who will actually procure things. He is seeing a lot more of business people, being involved in decisions about what technology have to be adopted. So, that has to change the selling behavior of partners. Now businesses are struggling with a variety of different things. It is much more about the engagement to marketing of CFOs or specific business owners, who’re actually looking for how can a partner or a technology provider like Fujitsu solve the particular business problem,

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND IS THATTHE COMMODITIZATION ASPECT OF PRODUCT IS NO LONGER SUFFICIENTTO ENGAGE CLIENTS ANDY STEVENSON, HEAD OF MIDDLE EAST, TURKEYAND MANAGING DIRECTOR, FUJITSU INDIA

because they know they can buy computing, they know they can go to cloud vendors. So, the buyer is becoming much more sophisticated.

That’s forcing us to learn new ways of selling. So, we’re training our sales teams at the moment on something about challenges, which is really about the business conversation, giving insight to customers about what’s happening in the industry which is relevant to them and how Fujitsu may have helped those customers to solve those problems.

When you talk about getting into the new areas like HPC and Hybrid

IT, do you also think there’s a requirement to have more partners in the entire ecosystem or you want to stick to the value part of it?

There’s also a bit of a dilemma. You never reject a new partner who comes with an interesting proposition. But we want to work with those partners who actually get the value for Fujitsu and how they can take it.

So, the select experts that we have in the program are obviously wherein we’re continuing to develop in that; and we don’t want hundreds of those.

So, the reality is that we probably limit that to a maximum of 20 partners who’ll really get the Fujitsu portfolio, who want to develop the market with Fujitsu. I think that makes more sense. And then generally other partners come on; we wouldn’t reject them. It’s just the case of what’s the value proposition that’s there.

What are the main focus areas particularly for this year?

For us, it’s really focusing on key verticals. So, my view is banking and financial services are the areas that Fujitsu is going to focus heavily this year, and we’ll also have some good wins which we’ll be talking about shortly. And I think that is opening up in that area. Any of our partners who have a real interest to be in that area can come and talk to us.

What message do you want to give to your partners, who are already in your ecosystem and who can be your prospective ones going forward?

I think they’re saying particularly about the next generation Hybrid IT, particularly around MetaArc and K5.

The adoption of those technologies will really accelerate their business.

So, ‘come and talk to’ is more about MetaArc. We can explain exactly how we can actually go to market together. That will be my key message. It’s big and complicated, but once you get into the methodology of using the tools, it’s very well structured, it’s very easy to understand and actually the building box uniquely come together very easily.

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

Delta Power Solutions

DELTA POWER SOLUTIONS BANKS ON MCIS BUSINESS The company is planning to significantly grow its mission critical infrastructure solutions business

By Sandhya Michu

T

he Mission Critical Infrastructure Solution (MCIS) business arm of Delta Power Solutions India is looking to grow its current sizable 30 per cent of channel business contribution to 50 per cent in the next two years. MCIS is one of the fast growing businesses of the parent company, and cuts across segments from home to large companies.

Delta has taken a two-pronged strategy with respect to the MCIS business. Today, close to 70 per cent of the business is handled by the direct team of Delta and the remaining is driven by channel partners. In the last one year, this division has revamped its channel focus and introduced a new channel friendly policy. Deepak Singh Thakur, who heads the MCIS business and Rohit Datta, National Channel Head believe that the channel contribution can be scaled to 50 per cent by 2020. Globally, Delta is restructuring its channel business and entering into countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Srilanka.

Building the channel business Traditionally the MCIS business was managed by the direct team and the scope for channel was limited, but in last one year, the company has seen the channel becoming more mature for its range of products. Previously the channel business was small, and it was used to supply the products to the partners directly, but as the pie of channel got bigger, the company added a distribution layer into the model and appointed Ingram Micro and Iris Computer as the two national

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distributors. In addition to the national distributors, Delta has 50 loyal ASPs and more than 150 VARs. “Last year we billed close to over 200 partners and this year we are expecting billing to exceed 300 partners. Channel design and channel management are important elements in Delta’s competitiveness. Our focus is on building the channel ecosystem and by 2020, our vision is to have 50 per cent of our business coming from channel partners,” says Rohit Datta, National Channel Head, Delta Power Solutions.

More products for partners Although there is no product and solution differentiation in terms of the enterprise and the channel line of business, Delta offers a wide range of products for the partners that includes UPS, Icool rack solution, PDU, STS, solar inverters, video walls and projectors. “In line with our channel focus, we have also expanded the product offerings to our partners.

Earlier, the channel used to sell only

UPS upto 40kVA and now they can buy and sell upto 120 kVA , Icool rack solution, PDU, STS whereas the enterprise vertical products are 120 kVA and above,” informs Deepak Singh Thakur, Head, MCIS Business.

The company feels that the fragmentation of the business will allow the enterprise team to go more deeper and stronger with large customers and explore new opportunities. At the same time, the channel too has opened avenues for new segments like retail, pharma, medical OEMs, media and entertainment industry, banking, hospitality, education, government and smart cities.

Expanding reach By going indirect, the company has added new cities into its fold and moved beyond metros. “This year, we are going to put new resources in select Class C cities and our overall reach this year will be in more than 70 cities,” adds Dutta.

“We are a strong believer of channels, and we have tasted the success of the channel in our industrial automation business. The core message to our existing and new partners is that Delta is a very open and flexible power brand. We have a highly motivated channel team. We are getting more competition partners into our fold. Today every business is becoming critical and digitized. Hence, every organization needs to operate all the time which in turn demands a reliable and strong power back up solution,” concludes Thakur.

CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

JUNIPER NETWORKS BETS BIG ON PARTNER TRAINING & ENABLEMENT Identifying partner training and enablement as a crucial factor, Juniper Networks has been actively undertaking various initiatives in this area. Harshavardhan Kathaley, Director - Channel Sales (India and SAARC), Juniper Networks, shares the company’s focus, opportunities, and channel strategies

By Mohit Rathod How has been the recent growth for Juniper, and what have been the key factors to drive that growth?

Things have been good and 2017 was a good year for us. The India market is doing good overall, and we are one of the beneficiaries of that growth. The year has been great for us across verticals. We kept doing what we have been doing - efforts on marketing, partners and sales engagement. We also had a new leader for the India market who joined us at the beginning of the year. People, technology, market opportunities among other things have helped us to build good business.

What will the the key focus areas for Juniper in 2018?

At Juniper, we help customers build high performance networks and we will continue to do that, alongside leveraging new technologies and software automation which are the new innovation areas now as part of the company’s overall product roadmap. In India particularly, we will consolidate in the segments where we have done well. Meanwhile, there are some segments where we sense more opportunities; this is something that we will go after. India, for every IT company, is an exciting market presently. It is one the fastest growing

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large economies and ranks second in telecommunications, internet users.

Rural areas are also getting onboard internet at a fast pace; 70 per cent of which are mobile users, so mobility is the key and Juniper is well poised working with service providers and telecom companies, to help them build the next generation networks.

From a channel perspective, it’s always about matching the capacity with the opportunity. My team’s role is to ensure that we build enough capacity - capacity building is a twoway process wherein we build capacities for the channel and the channel also builds capacity for itself because they also have to address the market opportunities.

Our underlying philosophy has always been about dependent partnering and partner-first strategies which are the guiding principles. We have a partner program called ‘Juniper Partner Advantage’ which has been built on these broad principles.

With many new opportunities coming in with the changing market dynamics, has Juniper made changes in its partner program to align it with the current market?

Juniper Partner Advantage is a modular program and it keeps

evolving every year, wherein we take into account new market opportunities, business models, domain expertise, technology trends, and what we are doing in terms of getting new products and innovations - the program is always transformative is nature. This year’s program is called Juniper Partner Advantage 4.0, wherein numerous good changes have come in. Earlier the program was more about core networking capabilities and opportunities, but now we have started specialization, because we realized that, for instance, data center and cloud is one area.

We have specialization on data center and security, which are two main areas of our specialization.

Based on these, our current marketing tiers are also segregated. We are putting enough amounts of market development funds (MDF) to ensure that we carry out marketing activities around these areas. We are also focusing on training and enablement initiatives which are clearly directed towards specialized areas - our overall investment and focus on training and enablement has been extremely high which is something that’s required by the channel.

Channel looks for skills in the principal company and we realize that

Juniper Networks

we need to have highly skilled and capable partners who are able to deliver the high performance network we look forward to.

Last year, I did some internal tracking, and we found that Juniper did more than 100 training programs last year in India alone, which reiterates our focus on training and enabling partners; this will continue in 2018 as well. Many tools that we now have for our partner program address every aspect of the sales cycle such as demand generation.

We also have deal registration tool, through which we provide protection and preferential treatment to partners; this is one of the key areas that partners look at. We also have rebates of various kinds, free Juniper training credits and partner rewards, making the Juniper Partner Advantage program rich.

Are there special efforts directed at building capacities?

Our effort is aligned with the market growth, opportunities, and prospects where Juniper and the partners can work together. The capacity is dependent on various pillars including technical skill building and coverage.

Overall our efforts are in line with market opportunities and the company’s growth strategies to tap these opportunities. We have been successful in these for years now and we will continue it. Juniper has invested big time on partners and channel last year.

What are the efforts to address challenges in training and skilling of partners?

The challenge of retaining will be everywhere, because it is based on human aspirations. We want to continue to enable and we are not confined to training programmes. We have also tied up with around five universities, wherein we work with them to networking and Juniperrelated into the curriculum of these universities. This creates a larger pool of skilled resources, which will further engage into the business in a more productive way.

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CHANNEL LOOKS FOR SKILLS IN THE PRINCIPAL COMPANYAND WE REALIZE THATTHERE IS A NEED TO HAVE HIGHLY SKILLED AND CAPABLE PARTNERS WHO ARE ABLE TO DELIVER THE HIGH PERFORMANCE NETWORK HARSHAVARDHAN KATHALEY, DIRECTOR - CHANNEL SALES (INDIAAND SAARC), JUNIPER NETWORKS

Juniper has done a lot of technological innovations and with vertical opportunities coming in, where do you see the role of traditional channel partners envisaging?

As long as customers feel that network is central to business needs, and the partners also have networks as one of their core offerings, there are opportunities for us to engage. We have been able to work with partners who are very keen not just to look at IT infrastructure, but also to look at the entire thing with higher focus on networking. Whoever believes customer or a partner - that network is strategic, that’s where we engage and can add value.

Networking has always been a major business arm of large VARs and SIs. Do you think they are ready to address the opportunities in the current scenario?

Indeed, because networking as a technology and requirement, has become mainstream. Earlier the solution offerings were disparate in nature, but solutions are now more integrated and network is the core of it.

I have seen all these partners getting graduated and enabled over a period of time, to be able to address the networking opportunities in an effective way. Connectivity, automation and virtualization help to get IT infrastructure working in the most efficient way.

Many VARs and SIs think they haven’t been able to get through the government vertical, because it’s probably dominated by the global system integrators. How do you get these players get into the government business?

The answer to this lies in the way government looks at IT infrastructure as an utility. That’s the basis for a lot of e-commerce services, e-governance.

The Digital India initiative is not just driving the central government and ministries, but also the state governments and PSUs to to digitize infrastructure; I believe there are enough opportunities for every system integrator who has the capacity to build networks.

Also the Government e-Market (GeM) provides opportunities for every partner and the barriers are getting lower. We work with these VARs and SIs on government opportunities.

Our partner program this year addresses traditional partners and also the born-in-the-cloud partners.

We help them to develop services and roll them out to customers - this is a new specialization been have added this year. We are already in talks with partners from this segment; as we go forward, we will have onboard some of these partners. In terms of our expectations from partners is to create a win-win environment for both of us.

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

WE WANT ALL OF OUR STRATEGIC PARTNERS TO BE MANAGED SERVICES PARTNERS In a conversation with CRN, Jagdish Mahapatra, Chief of Channel, APAC, McAfee, shares about the current security market scenario with a focus on the India market, and how McAfee is planning to approach the market in 2018 and beyond

By Mohit Rathod How has been the recent growth in the company?

Asia Pacific has always been an exciting territory for us for the last few years; and we have always believed that we will grow faster than the markets – we deliver on that promise.

However I think today, it is not about speed, it is about relevance. The security landscape is changing so fast, customers are looking at the threat landscape and they realize that they need more. However, the question is that what’s needed more – people, technology, tools, or redoing things we have done in the past? That’s the journey, as we feel, holds prominence for our partners and eventually our customers. We operate across Australia, New Zealand, ASEAN, North Asia, China, Korea and India; overall we are very satified with our achievements in these markets. Every market has its own set of challenges, and I think India is starting to gather growth. We also do strong business in South East Asia and there are numerous small and mid-sized economies which are thriving well, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and more. Whereas, Australia and New Zealand have always been progressive markets in

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terms of future business models and cloud adoption. For instance, New Zealand is entirely on cloud; we have a big range of market maturity.

What’s the uniqueness about the India market, when compared with other countries which are high on technology adoption?

The best part about India is that it gives you layers of understanding.

Indian banks are at par with international banks, and there’s a notion of first-world maturity in some of the verticals in India. The broader SMBs and some other verticals still need to catch up. However, the layers of market dynamics in India can be applied to mid-sized or smaller economies around the region – this is a big value that India brings. Overall, India has been a very strong market for us over years; India is a market we look forward to in terms of more and more ideas. A lot of international markets such as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia have the basic dynamics the same as India.

What similarities do you see between Indian partners and those in other markets?

I believe the fundamentals are still the same. When you work with

partners, it’s not just about telling them the products and technologies. We are always in a hurry to show them that we are smart, and we have the best technologies. The reality is that people don’t work with you just because you have the best products, but because they believe that they can trust you and this point is the same across all the regions. We have been successful in meeting the partners’ expectations.

Building a better partner ecosystem is the key point that unites everyone. In matured markets, the expectations are different in terms of profitabiltity and services revenue – markets like Australia and New Zealand are rich on the services side; whereas, market like India still haven’t reached that level.

However, I think if we start getting into complex projects with our customers and truly sell value, the services revenue will start ramping up. We do work with many India partners on services delivery, and a lot of them are our services partners as well.

Are there any best practices which you have implemented in other regions, and are planning to implement in India or vice-versa?

We have a professional services arm, designed to look mostly at some

McAfee

large customers looking to sign the contract with us directly. However, that’s a small team; we are a productselling company and to drive outcome, we need to have a strong services team. The sweet spot we have identified is how can we mentor our partners to deliver a big part of the deliverables. This teaming is something we are finding as a best practice across the region - the teaming of professional services and McAfee partners is beneficial for both the sides. In cases wherein customers need more, it’s better for us to collaborate with partners.

but it will also get their customers asking for more.

Do you think the born-in-the-cloud companies also have ample growth opportunities?

Our offerings are available on the AWS market as well. Many of our AWS partners belong to this space, andd we probably have not engaged much with them. However, that’s our next step, as we start to see security getting consumed by models like AWS. For instance, we acquired Skyhigh Networks which was a big acquisition in the cloud space.

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With the changing threat landscape and security being one of the major investment areas across enterprises, what innovations has McAfee brought in its product line that sets the company apart?

In the last eight-nine months, we have put a lot of thrust on digital campaigns disseminate useful information. Today the biggest threat to cyber security is not from technologies; it is from us. Our lower awareness level makes cyber attackers’ activities easier. For instance, Ransomware happened on an home computer at some small office, which usually lie neglected. McAfee is shifting this conversation more and more, and we are ensuring that decision makers know about this. In terms of technology, we continue to make our platforms story even tighter.

One of the things we have realized is no single vendor can fix everything.

distributors to run those programs – this is part of our broader commercial mid-market coverage. We have built a strong foundation through this last year. Additionally, another thing is looking at different routes to markets.

Managed services being one of them, we had great experience with MSSP partners last year.

Could you elaborate on creating awareness in the partner ecosystem?

Obviously we want to join hands with large strategic partners such as large SIs and MSSPs – this is one of the types of engagements. We also want to work with big consulting firms, because they have their own unique spots. We have also started to give our distributions a bigger play, and have been running programs to drive more partner management. We realize that our channel team can manage a limited number of partners, so are trying to give a lot of ownership to our

The traditional channel business has also evolved. Do you think MSSPs will have a fair play than the traditional channel?

I urge all of our partners to have a managed services strategy; it’s not an option now, because customers are tired of managing their own setup.

Managed services has to be a core component of every strategic partner who wants to be a serious player in the security space; we want all of our strategic partners to be our managed services partners as well. It’s a profitable business for them for sure,

THIS YEAR WE WILL HAVE MORE STRATEGIC AND DEEPER ENGAGEMENTS WITH FEWER PARTNERS, BECAUSE IT PROVIDES VALUE TO BOTH SIDES JAGDISH MAHAPATRA, CHIEF OF CHANNEL,APAC,McAfee

Any focus area for McAfee in 2018?

This year we will have more strategic and deeper engagements with fewer partners, because it provides value to both sides. Alongide, managed services will be a mainstream focus for us throughout the year. Our distributors will also lead the whole commercial market coverage; we will continue to develop programs and invest in marketing to drive the commercial space. Addtionally, the DXL fabric is unique to our table, so will identify and look at partners who would want to build that – this will be a small project, but over the time, it will grow. In terms of channel expansion, the distribution base will expand.

What expectations does the company have from the partner ecosystem?

We are challenging our partners to challenge us. We always ask our partners to push more value. For instance, we ask them to mull on what we can our with our programs, marketing, andd joint developments that provide value back to our customers. Many of our partners have responded positively and are doing well. Some are still lying in their comfort zones, and we have to constantly direct them to things that are moving. We are bullish on endpoints, but we are equally focused on cloud adoption. We will follow our partners more in the future, because they will lead the conversation – we want them to lead the conversation, because that’s the future.

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

Infor

AS PART OF OUR VERTICAL APPROACH, WE EXPECT PARTNERS TO REACH OUT TO TIER II CITIES For Infor, channel partners are critical to the success of its vertical strategy, as they not only help deepen the reach to tier II cities, but also rapidly expand the customer base. Ashish Dass, Vice President and Managing Director, South Asian Subcontinent, Infor talks about the significant role that partners play in driving the company’s business momentum in the country

By Nivedan Prakash What’s the direction for Infor as an organization in 2018?

Infor aims to continue strong business momentum using our threepronged approach. It involves new customer wins across multiple industries, a laser sharp focus on innovation to deliver purpose-built software for cloud, and a robust partner network.

On the partner front, we recruited seven new partners in FY17, and are doubling down this number in FY18. To give you a brief background on our partner strategy, we go to market with InforPartner Network (IPN).

We will embark on our 2018 journey with an enhanced focus on specific industries and verticals as we believe growth in India is coming from 49 tier II cities. Channel partners are critical to the success of this vertical strategy as they help deepen our reach to tier II cities and rapidly expand our customer base.

How significant will be their role in building the company’s growth story?

Infor’s channel partners in India are key drivers of our business momentum as they help deepen our reach and

strengthen our grip in the market.

Partners in India contribute around 30 per cent to the channel business and 50 per cent of services are delivered by system integrators who have specialized knowledge and skills in Infor's solutions. The roadmap for Infor Partner Network is ambitious in India and we are witnessing almost a 50:50 mix between channel and direct business, which is considered healthy.

Our channel network is a true reflection of Infor in the region. Customers are at the heart of everything we do and we consider channel partners also to be customers, in a way.

How much focus will be on building skill-set of partners? What sort of efforts being put in this endeavour?

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Building the skill-sets of partners is a key focus area for us and we are streamlining efforts towards enhancement of skills for the partner community. Infor takes a collaborative approach, working with its partners and devoting time, energy and budget towards making both partners and the end consumers of the software more successful. We have our enablement arm called Infor Education, which periodically trains and educates the partners not just on the software and solutions, but also the industry, the trends and how it affects the customers.

In this digital disruption era, how do you envisage role of partners evolving with the changing market dynamics?

India is riding on a new digital wave which is disrupting business models and transforming entire industries.

Digital technologies are changing at an exponential pace, and in this context, partners help give us on-ground insights on the evolving market dynamics. Our partners’ efforts in this area complement our offerings. This model helps insure success of customers which in turn insures the success of partners.

CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

PC Solutions

WE ARE LOOKING TO CONSOLIDATE OUR PURE PLAY CLOUD OFFERING UNDER A NEW DIVISION Devendra Taneja, Director, PC Solutions believes that in order to remain relevant, partners will have to choose technology niches and build practices along with creating IPs in the specific domains

By Nivedan Prakash What’s the direction for PC Solutions as an organization in 2018?

From 2018 onwards, we shall have great thrust to consolidate all our pure play Cloud offering, including IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, and other services and solutions under a new group/division catering to the customers in this domain and all these services will be offered on a subscription/services consumption model.

Additionally, cybersecurity, IoT solutions, and Big Data analytics are going to see aggressive investments for building customer base.

How do you envisage the role of partners evolving with the changing market dynamics?

To remain relevant in the next two to three years, partners will have to choose technology niches and build practices along with creating IPs in the specific domains. Over three years, there should emerge partners with proven industry specific solutions and practices backed by IPs created.

Meanwhile, the space for me-do-all partners will shrink as customers are more and more seeking outcome in their business from solutions/technology offered.

Transformation from owning the IT to consuming offered solution at customer end is forcing OEMs to change their stand from treat all partners equal to bet bigger on likely winners. Here, partners are likely to survive the onslaught of market changes. OEMs are engaging with potential partners by creating partner specific program too.

What sort of efforts being put to build capabilities and skill-sets of your internal team?

Reskilling of internal resources and creation of focused groups along the lines of solutions are the primary initiatives that we undertake for the internal team. Simultaneously, we emphasize a lot on quality external hiring so that we are quickly able to bridge gaps in our core focus areas.

How much support do you receive from OEMs / vendors in your bid to be market-ready? Is there any specific channel program being run as part of hand-holding?

Swift changes in technology landscape has left OEMs too with no choice but to change internally as well as the desired partner ecosystem.

Are we going to see any fundamental structural changes in the channel structure?

Yes, in the two to three years’ time horizon, channel is likely to be technology aligned and further down, towards market vertical aligned.

What are your expectations from the vendors / OEMs? 1. Understand and acknowledge that new solutions sales cycles involve longer run of PoCs and Pilots, hence, deeper and longer hand holding of partners is required. If possible, build programs to reward partners for successful POC/Pilot runs.

2. A healthy double-digit percentage margins for partners who are offering solutions and services on consumption model.

3. Strongly discourage partners from selling on price discounting practices.

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CHANNEL DIRECTIONS 2018

Iris Computer

IRIS COMPUTER SPRINGS BACK INTO IT DISTRIBUTION BUSINESS Delhi based Iris Computer, one of the oldest and Tier I national distributors in India, is bouncing back with full grit and determination after it was acquired by John Sculley-led Inflexionpoint in the year 2014

By Sandhya Michu

T

he sudden closure of Inflexionpoint-led Dragon Technology Distribution in Singapore has now relinquished its hold, leaving Iris in the hands of Sanjiv Krishen, who originally founded the company in 1996. Both Neeraj Chauhan, CEO of Inflexionpoint Asia and Vishal Sopory, CEO of Iris Computer have been out from Iris Computer. Under the leadership of Krishen, the original management team of Kamini Talwar, Som Arya, Sameer Chaudhary and Himanshu Chawla is back to steer the company to new heights of success.

The news of Iris closing down its operations came at a time when other major old distribution houses like Neoteric and Global Infonet were too on the spree of shutting down their shops. Despite the rough business climate situation, distribution veteran and chairman of Iris Computer, Krishen saved the goodwill of Iris Computer and re-established the business.

For Iris, business was flourishing and going steady, but the need for funding made Iris to sell its share and stake to Singapore-based Dragon Technology Distribution, for additional limits and strengthening its growth path. However, in September last year, Dragon had filed for bankruptcy and wound up operations as early as October last year which jolted the Iris business, an Indian distribution arm of Inflextionpoint and its turnover

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in Ranchi. The distribution house is now looking for more credits and bank limits to pick up more orders in the government and education space.

A new start for Iris Computers

dropped from ` 2,600 crore to ` 100 crore.

In April, 2017 Krishen salvaged Iris from getting closed and brought back the company’s shares and stakes from the hands of the Singapore High Court.

He revived Iris with the support of the old team and employees, and put back ‘Iris Computer’ name into the IT distribution business.

Speaking exclusively to CRN, Krishen informs, “All the development happened soon after other distribution houses closed down their operations – we did not want to be one of those.

My first priority was to save Iris from closure and retain trust of our employees, partners, vendors and banks. Having said, we are building the blocks and reinveting the distribution business.”

In spite of business challenges and amidst rumors of Iris getting closed, in just six months of revival, the company bagged and executed fairly large orders

Iris Computers, through its partner, has been able to bag an order of ` 60 crore from the Jharkhand government to provide tablets. Another significant order which it has been able to procure is from the Kendriya Vidayalaya Sangathan worth ` 38 crore. Iris Computers has delivered and installed 25 software loaded desktops in each of its language laboratories. This has been a gargantuan logistical task as 8,000 desktops have been delivered and installed in 320 schools across the country.

Krishen further adds, “We are in a unique business where a little bit of money and limits and can multiply our growth. Iris is back in safe hands; partners are trusting, so are our vendors like Dell, HP and Samsung.

They are giving us big orders and we have goodwill and confidence to set out on new growth charter.”

The company is looking for diversification into different innovative areas such as solar panel powered tube wells, computer rental services, Microsoft cloud services and mobility.

Iris has got close to ` 1,000 crore orders since April 2017 and it has closed down its branches in northern regions and downsized the size of the team.

RNI Title code NO. MAHENG/14221