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Vol 2. No. 6 September, 2019
IBM IS A FORCE TO RECKON WITH
Chairman of the Board Viveck Goenka
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Sr. Vice President - BPD Neil Viegas Asst. Vice President - BPD Harit Mohanty Editor Srikanth RP* Sr. Associate Editor Sudipta Dev Sr. Assistant Editor Nivedan Prakash Delhi Sandhya Michu Mumbai Abhishek Raval Mohit Rathod Salvi Mittal
Nivedan Prakash nivedan.prakash@expressindia.com
Bengaluru Moumita Deb Choudhury DESIGN Asst. Art Director Pravin Temble Chief Designer Prasad Tate Senior Graphic Designer Rekha Bisht Layout Designer Vinayak Mestry Photo Editor Sandeep Patil DIGITALTEAM Head of Internet Viraj Mehta MARKETING Ravi Nair Prabhas Jha Durgaprasad Talithaya Debnarayan Dutta Ajanta Sengupta Deepak Patel Praveen Soman Vivek Thakur
oday, the world is progressing ahead on the digital transformation journey with new age technologies like artificial intelligence, cognitive, blockchain, IoT and more, being delivered on the cloud. The industry pandits believe that data-driven business strategy backed by cloud and AI will continue to bring in transfor-mational and cultural change. Sensing these changing market dynamics, the global leader, IBM, has left no stone unturned in helping businesses while they are embarking on their digital transformation journey. As the enterprises are entering into the next phase of their cloud journey, the company’s strategy is pivoted on key pillars of modern IT i.e. AI, cloud, data and security, and this includes products, services, and partnerships. The changing pace of digital transformation is being referred as Chapter 2 by IBM, which means moving from experimentation to true transformation, gaining speed and scale in digital transformation. In this endeavour, the company is betting big on hybrid cloud as it has been aggressively working to enable a true hybrid
multi-cloud environment where applications are portable across platforms. The company’s goal is to offer clients choice and flexibility in all ways cloud can be used – on-premise, private, public and multiple. The recent acquisition of Red Hat is a significant step in its bid to lead in this high-value segment of the IT industry. As rightly put by Karan Bajwa, the head of IBM India, “Along with Red Hat as an elastic platform, we will bring products and services to clients which will help this transformation with agility. We expect the transformation initiatives to pick up pace in 2020 and we are wellpositioned to address that market opportunity.” On the channel front, the tech giant is working very closely with its ecosystem of partners who can provide solutions, services, and value-based skills to enable their clients’ success. As the company continues to invest in next-generation skills, competencies and enablement to maximise the revenue growth of the partners, the primary focus is on encouraging partners to gain expertise around multi-cloud and hybrid cloud infrastructure, security, AI as well as emerging technologies like blockchain.
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Content
6 | Cover Story
16 | Special Focus
IBM: RIDING THE NEXT BIG WAVE OF DIGITALTRANSFORMATION IBM is all set to be at the forefront of digital transformation Chapter 2. The Chapter 1 saw cloud representing about 20 per cent of the workload opportunity for partners, moving new and customer-facing applications to the cloud. Chapter 2 is about scaling AI and creating hybrid clouds, bringing the cloud operating model to 80 per cent untapped mission-critical functions. IBM intends to be the leader in this trillion dollar opportunity
20 | How open source is benefitting SUSE, its channel partners and customers Rajarshi Bhattacharyya, Country Manager, SUSE India 22 | Veeam redefines flexibility by being a fit in both legacy and modern environment alike Shaun McLagan, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan, Veeam Software
Cisco is betting big on five core architectures – networking, datacentre, security, collaboration/WebEx and IoT; and is innovating and meeting needs concerning developing new solutions in these areas
Start-up Corner
Event
24 | IoT platform for automating logistics and transport Rohit Chaturvedi, CEO, Transport Hub
28 | Explore Bharat campaign kick-starts on a high note in Chandigarh CRN India kickstarted its flagship multi-city Explore Bharat campaign in Chandigarh, targeted at the SMB and IT channel community of the city
CXO Speak
Channel Chief
Power of alliances is key to Cisco’s success
26 | Migration of products to cloud is allowing us to deliver new tech with lighter footprint Derek Austin, Sales Director, Dragon Professional & Consumer – Asia Pacific & Japan, Nuance Communications 30 | Everything We Do Starts With The Customer Outcome Jim Jackson, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at HPE 36 | ‘Our goal is to create a high-end transformative experience’ Bart Kresa, Master Projection Designer
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Association News 33 | Smartiply announces Bluecom Infotech as distributor at ASIRT Techday 34 | ISODA appoints new managing committee
Photo by Amit Mehra
Cover Story
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IBM
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BM's CEO Ginni Rometty recently spoke about how businesses after having experimented with AI and moving their simple workloads to the cloud and committing to “random acts of digital,” are now ready to move to the next wave of digital transformation. Back home, IBM India has been on a transformational journey over the last couple of years. While the new focus is on cognitive computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), analytics and cloud, this multidimensional transformation offers significant opportunities to channel partners – both new and existing ones -who continue to be a part of the growing business. It has been 26 years since IBM reestablished its presence in India and played a huge role in the digital transformation of Indian industry. As of today, four of the largest telecom companies run on IBM Systems, nine out of 10 insurance companies and the top 10 banks of India are run powered by IBM, and every single interbank transaction is made with IBM. As the industry changes pace to Chapter 2 of digital transformation,
BUILDING NICHE CAPABILITIES Manoj Tharian, Founder & MD, MicroGenesis Techsoft Specialisation Area: Watson IoT
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ince our inception in 2000, we have come a long way in serving hundreds of clients across industries and geographies. Over the years, we have expanded our portfolio and developed core competencies in Application Lifecycle Management, DevOps, Software and Systems Engineering, Enterprise Information Management, Robotic Process Automation, Data Analytics and Managed Application Services which includes Software Development, QA and Testing services. With the advent of automation and digital transformation we see our portfolio
MEET THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION MASTERS
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n India, IBM's partner ecosystem constitutes 450 partners, in systems, software and hardware. Many large and mid sized partners have started building their niche positioning in the areas such as hybrid cloud intergration, analytic, secuirty, Watson IoT, cloud platform, Watson customer engagement and systems hardware. Let's take a look at some of the leading IBM partners in India and their core technology expertise in driving the digital transformation journey at their customers' end.
IBM India will continue to be at the forefront of new, high-value segments of IT the industry. The company is seeing an unprecedented convergence of technological, social and regulatory forces. As emerging technologies
of business,globally growing at 1520 per cent year on year. We have a close and long-standing partnership with IBM as a software reseller and a value-added service provider. As part of our growth plan we continue to enhance our solution and service capabilities in addressing the critical needs of specific industries such as automotive, aerospace and defence, electronics, IT/ ITeS, industrial engineering, transportation, etc. Our commitment to client success is at the core of our business and we are proud to count over 150 companies as trusted clients who rely on our breadth of knowledge, skilled consultants, proven experience and technology accelerators to develop and implement their products. Our customers come from a wide range of industries i.e. IT/ ITeS, aerospace, industrial engineering, automotive, electronics, transportation and defence, etc. We have ongoing training and development campaigns to deal with the short-shelf life of learning and development needs. We help our employees to learn and develop new skills, and facilitate them with internal transfers to help them build their portfolio with diversified skills set and knowledge. That helps the organisation to retain the top talent and keep them engaged. Apart from this, we get all our resources not only get trained but also certified on products / solutions that we provide to our clients.
such as AI, automation, IoT and blockchain become pervasive, their combined impact has started reshaping standard business/technology architectures. As random acts of digital of the past get replaced with real digital
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Cover Story
BANKING ON CLOUD INTEGRATION SERVICES Jignesh Patel,
and future business need using latest technology. We have very strong business partnership with IBM Since 1998 and we keep ourselves upgraded with the e provide end to end IT solution way IBM is serving to their customers using our various business Globally. We are one of the oldest arms includes system integration business partners of IBM and business consulting, e-Governance understands their cloud strategy and solution, mobility to across industry to approach. We educate our customers our vast client base across India and on the advantages of moving to cloud globally. In the changing scenario, we and encourage them to leverage and keep ourselves upgrading in latest utilise IBM robust technology and technology and deliver our solution IBM’s private and public cloud platform. We understand the customers’ pain points and the challenges which restrict their vision and future plans. Accordingly, we provide them IBM technology based solution which can help to the customers to run their business using secure data and robust IBM technology. Now a days with a rapid shift in technology, bottom line for customer is to secure their data. We convey to our customers the advantage of using IBM platform which is most secure and robust and that their data is always going to remain safe and secure. Having relationship Director, Silver Touch Technologies Specialisation Area: System hardware
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transformation, these emerging technologies will become pervasive and their combined impact will reshape the business as well as technology architectures. IBM calls this Chapter 2 – moving from experimentation to true transformation, gaining speed and scale in digital transformation.
Tapping into new digital pockets The head of IBM India, Karan Bajwa strongly believes that channel has to play a major role in the changing dynamics of the enterprise business. He says, “Companies today
are around 10-20 per cent into their cloud journey. Their initial forays in Chapter 1 have focused on renting compute power at scale, to drive cost and productivity efficiency. The next 80 per cent of the cloud opportunity focuses on shifting business applications to the cloud and optimising everything from supply chains to sales. As clients embark on their Chapter 2 journey our strategy is pivoted on key pillars of modern IT – AI, Cloud, Data and Security - and that includes products, services, and partnerships. Along with RedHat as an elastic platform – we will bring products and services to clients
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with IBM for more than two decades, we have very huge clientele across various industry verticals which includes the Government, education, healthcare, manufacturing and retail. Currently we are executing key projects on IBM Platform Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited- upgraded their eBusiness Suite Platform to latest IBM hardware and software technology, Gujarat Gas Limitedmigrated their SAP Business application to IBM Platform from Cross Platform hardware, Sabarmati Gas Limited- migrated their SAP Business application to IBM Platform from Cross Platform hardware, and Garden Silk Mills Limited – migrated their e-Business suite application from SUN Solaris to IBM Platform. We see challenges like highly competitive market, increased number of technology players, service providers, longer sales cycle and shrinking margins.To overcome this we keep trying and upgrading ourselves as market leader by reaching out to customers ahead than others using the digital marketing platforms, conducting technology seminars and extending our technical skills.
which will help this transformation with agility. We expect the transformation initiatives to pick up pace in 2020 and we are wellpositioned to address that market opportunity.” Holistically speaking the Chapter 1 of the digital transformation, was centered around cloud represented about 20 per cent of the workload opportunity. It was largely about moving a lot of new and customerfacing applications to the cloud. Now, Chapter 2 is about scaling AI and creating hybrid clouds. It’s about bringing the cloud operating model to all those 80 per cent untapped
IBM
FROM SERVICES TO SOLUTION SELLING CHAMPION Sairaman Mudaliar, MD & Co-Founder, Pentagon Systems (PSSPL) Specialisation Area: Systems Hardware
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ur partnership with IBM is older than two decades, and goes long way when we started to change our business from a service provider to a solution partner model. We are a premium tier partner with IBM and our engagement includes both infrastructure as well as solutions. PSSPL believes in better customer experience and faster delivery. We are intending to increase our skills, additional delivery centres globally. As the need of scalability, security and availability are the key parameters for a better customer experience, organisations are now looking for partners who will help them achieve the same which has led to growth of business in MSP and SI ecosystem. We as a
mission-critical apps, and enabling customers to manage data, workloads, and apps and move them between multiple clouds. This is a trillion dollar opportunity and IBM intends to be #1. Further, 2018 was a landmark year for the IBM partner ecosystem where it helped partners embrace new ways of doing business through third-party marketplaces, embedded solutions, and software-as-a-service models. With the channel ecosystems of IBM transforming and getting prepared for the next wave of digital, Enablement, Empower, and Profitability are three areas where the channel business is focusing at. Talking about the channel landscape focusing more on broadbased and specialised services in
managed service partner, support our customers in data lake solutions and integrating multiple services for a simpler IT operation. Cloud is the new normal now and the adaptation of cloud technology is growing in every verticals. We are supporting our customers in their cloud journey for more than 10 years. We have a dedicated cloud practice within our organisation which is responsible for a successful cloud journey of customers through our PSSPL Cloud Managed Services. We are working with customers from BFSI segment in building their data centres and migrate their workloads on cloud. As most of the customers are moving to SAP HANA for their business operations, we have helped organisations in successful implementation along with IBM and are working with many for the same as well. While adaptation of cloud and new technologies is growing exponentially, role of MSPs are also becoming more important for organisations who are looking at digital transformation as an accelerator for their business growth. We feel it’s the right time for partners like us with technical capabilities to engage more in terms of business growth.
WITH THE CHANNEL ECOSYSTEMS OF IBM TRANSFORMING AND GETTING PREPARED FOR THE NEXT WAVE OF DIGITAL, ENABLEMENT, EMPOWER, AND PROFITABILITY ARE THREE AREAS WHERE THE CHANNEL BUSINESS IS FOCUSING AT India, Lata Singh, Director, One Channel–IBM India/ South Asia, responsible for leading the complete ISVs, SIs, GICs, VARs and reseller
partner community with a specific focus to strategically increase IBM’s business across key focus areas in cloud, cognitive, security, etc., states, “Channel in India, is in a wellpositioned to take on the emerging technologies opportunities. We have been working closely with our channel and creating win-win situations for our partners. In recent times, however, the conversations with partners are no longer confined to industry expertise or the number of certifications they have. It is solely on the basis of the competencies and the value the partner could bring on board. Herein, we have articulated the three ‘E’s of IBM’s channel outlook: Engage, enable and execute.” She shared how this transition is gradually changing the
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Cover Story
PIONEERING IN BLOCKCHAIN, AI
Rajish Rajan, Chief Solutions Officer, Cateina Technologies Specialisation Area: Hybrid cloud integration
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s an organisation, we are around two and a half years old, focused on blockchain, hybrid integration and AI. We are having quite a lot of discussions on micro services, modernisation, API integration, etc., and organisations want to move away from the traditional way of integration. From an integration standpoint, I see a lot of shift towards open source and micro-services oriented approach. Organisations want to break away from the monolith approach that was being followed for quite some time and focus on new technologies. Cateina and IBM’s partnership is on the mission of emerging technologies – which is of course blockchain. Since the technology is fairly new, we need to educate the client on the basics before they even start thinking of the problems it can solve. IBM’s experts help in conducting workshops and contributing to the solutions. From a hybrid integration point of view, we have narrowed down to IIB and API connect. We are also looking forward to the shift to open source, being fuelled by
IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat. We already have a strong relationship with Red Hat and the sync-up of both companies can open up new opportunities. We’re expecting the AI stack to be a game changer in the coming years. We started with building a product on API mining, which is something that goes hand in hand with API gateways and the hybrid integration. Going forward Watson would be of interest for this, and so will everything on the AI platform. YES Bank is our marquee customer where we built a blockchain-based smart contract that also leveraged IBM Watson conversation for their platform. With IPDC Bangladesh, the largest NBFC in Bangladesh and another marquee customer we have gone live with the supply chain financing, dealer financing, merchant financing and work loader financing used cases. We work with our partner in Spain, Congo for at least five to six large foundations, NGOs and a bank for the donation tracking platform. We are also working on similar traceability solutions for pharma and agro industries. On hybrid integration we're working with a public sector bank to build a payment hub that facilitates international remittance. For Century Cements we did a hybridcloud based API Connect and onprem based IIB integration to facilitate an e-waybill solution that ensured a seamless transition to the new GST billing system. Being a startup, the acceptance among larger enterprises is difficult till the time you prove yourself. Particularly in technologies like blockchain, we have to first incur all costs, build the solution and deliver it before the client will give a purchase order.
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company’s channel strategy and elaborated on the renewed PartnerWorld Program that aims to provide channel partners with a roadmap for driving business growth and value. Today, 75 per cent of IBM India’s business in hardware and software domain and 100 per cent of its commercial segment, which constitutes SMEs and mid-market companies, are channel-led. “Our channel team is focused on encouraging partners to gain expertise around multi-cloud and hybrid cloud infrastructure, security, AI as well as emerging technologies like blockchain. We continue to invest in next-generation skills, competencies and enablement to maximise their revenue growth. Our approach is three pronged – building profitability for partners, taking them on a journey of emerging technology adoption and enabling them to add new clients,” says Singh, a veteran in IBM's channel operation.
Focus areas for channel As IBM is marching from experimentation to true transformation by leveraging AI, cloud, data, etc., IBM’s channel ecosystem strategy spins around creating high-value segments of the IT industry including multicloud, holistic AI, security and blockchain. “Our next-generation partner framework will make it easier and faster for partners to reach more clients with IBM and be rewarded for
AS OF TODAY, FOUR OF THE LARGEST TELECOM COMPANIES RUN ON IBM SYSTEMS, NINE OUT OF 10 INSURANCE COMPANIES AND THE TOP 10 BANKS OF INDIA ARE RUN POWERED BY IBM, AND EVERY SINGLE INTERBANK TRANSACTION IS MADE WITH IBM
IBM
SECURING MULTI CLOUD BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS Anand V,
Our journey with IBM started with Bigfix which was an endpoint lifecycle management solution. We were partner for Bigfix prior to IBM acquisition, and post IBM acquisition aksha is a pureplay cybersecurity in the year 2010, we were systems integration organisation approached by IBM to restart the focusing on various security products business for Bigfix in the year 2014. and services to help customers to keep We are currently a IBM Platinum their digital assets safe and secure. Business Partner, Expert – Security We are witnessing a Operations & Response, Specialist steady growth of 25 Information Risk & Protection and per cent average evolved ourselves to sell the YoY for the past entire security stack of IBM several years . Security products which This has include Qradar, Resilient , helped our Guardium, SKLM . organisation We are gearing ourselves to become a to get skilled on IDAM , 100 + I2 etc. members and Our experience is that once an impressive you prove to have a successful clientele across delivery capabilities on pre sales all the and post sales and ensuring client verticals. satisfaction, it will lead to more engagements. With compliance, privacy laws and increased awareness of cybersecurity is growing we Chief Executive Officer, Raksha Technologies Specialisation Area: Cybersecurity
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their investment. It helps them shift to a higher value, higher growth areas and deliver differentiated offerings aligned to AI, cloud, security, etc. This is part of IBM's objective to create mutual value and provide a better end-to-end experience when working with IBM,” Bajwa highlights. Another focus area is on newer monetisation models - of assets and operating models, unleashing the power of the ecosystem through learn/build/deploy for embedded solutions, and enabling the thirdparty marketplace and SaaS delivery models to be easy and lucrative, and focused on customer success over the customer lifecycle. All this ties back to IBM’s focus on simplification and experience, profitability and
incentives, skills and enablement and client success.
Partner focused initiatives for channel IBM has dramatically revamped how it works with partners through an extensive modernisation of its channel program. This blue-chip company is investing in nextgeneration skills, competencies and is developing new offerings to help partners innovate and leverage the high-value segment opportunities. Big Blue's product line is unique in that it encompasses hardware, software, and services. IBM has developed extensive tooling to help partners tap the potential of that portfolio. IBM Business Partner Connect focuses on helping partners
see lot of opportunities in cybersecurity offering. We are seeing shift in investing various security solutions. What is considered "good to have" is changing rapidly as "must to have" even among mid-size customers. Shadow IT also paves a way for both opportunities as well as threats. We are seeing individual departments taking business investment decisions in IT and Apps on their own paves new challenges to securing the data. These kind of approaches by the customers provides business opportunity to cyber security solution providers like us. In terms of challenges as the IT landscape changes rapidly , unlearning of the traditional security approach amongst our team members and the customer and learn the new way of defining security strategy to the changed landscape makes us to evolve continuously to adapt. In terms of customers allotting water tight budgets and at the same time asking us to address all the threats, is becoming a challenging task .
tap into the global ecosystem to collaborate on client opportunities, develop new business and bring new solutions to market. For building next-gen skills, a new Business Partner sales and technical journeys on the IBM Skills Gateway platform that provide partners with the same learning experience as IBM clients and sellers to develop their IBM portfolio expertise. The Watson Build Challenge 2.0 continues to help partners build AI skills and spark the development of innovative solutions. During the challenge, partners across the world produced 515 AI solutions and prototypes that run on the IBM Cloud. Another major refinement IBM has introduced is New Software Deal Registration, it gives partners
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Cover Story
ENABLING CUSTOMERS MODERNISE THEIR LEGACY APPLICATIONS manufacturing and retail. It is also jointly working with IBM to enable customers modernise their legacy applications. This is being done on various IBM platforms including Red Hat open source platform, making the applications future-ready. The company holds strong command in Trade Finance, that is a specialised stream in banking which is driven by international rules, regulations and compliances. Datamatics has implemented Trade Finance solution to automate the Bijon Mullick, entire trade lifecycle for a leading SVP - Sales, Indian bank. This solution Datamatics seamlessly integrates with the Specialisation Area: Hybrid cloud bank’s core banking application. The integration solution is powered by IBM Business Automation Workflow and provides a atamatics is a technology and fully automated, paperless, and business process management electronically driven workflow (BPM) company that builds environment. The solution can be intelligent solutions for data-driven hosted on-cloud as well as onenterprises. The company is premises. While implementing a witnessing steady growth in its specialised trade finance system is a traditional IT Services and BPM multi-year project, Datamatics Trade business, as well as expecting Finance solution can be implemented strong growth in digital technologies within months. The solution has such as RPA, mobility, analytics, helped the bank reduce processing cloud and AI. time by around 33 per cent and Datamatics has developed missing documents have reduced by multiple industry solutions including almost 65 per cent. paperless office for government We see good opportunities in the organisations, trade finance intelligent automation space and automation solution for banks, loan Datamatics with its experience in IT, application management solution for BPM and product business is wellbanks and NBFCs, as well as placed to capture the market. The solutions to automate contract biggest challenge for today’s management, dealer management, organisations is to continuously invoice processing and many other evolve and grow in a disruptive tech processes for industries like environment.
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priority access to special bid pricing and is designed to reduce conflict between partners while improving financial outcomes. “This is part of our ongoing transformation efforts to improve the partner experience and profitability, including projects around channel pricing, incentives
and streamlined resale authorisation. We are seeing huge response from our registered, silver and gold partners. My PartnerWorld allowing business partners to manage their PartnerWorld tools and shortcuts in one place, including My Sales Activity (MySA), the PartnerWorld
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SEISMIC@IBM WILL INCLUDE A LINK TO THIS CLOUD DIGITAL TECHNICAL ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM SO PARTNERS CAN EASILY ACCESS THIS IMPORTANT INFORMATION WHILE PREPARING FOR CLIENT ENGAGEMENTS Console, Co-Marketing Center and Business Partner Connect platform. The highly successful Value Package support bundle is being expanded to Value Package 2.0, which will include the ability to double your IBM Cloud credits, a development sandbox environment, discount vouchers for select education events and additional subscription discounts. To build on our momentum in systems, we are also doubling the number of systems channel technical sellers supporting partners in the field,” Singh highlights. The company is also transforming how partners engage with their clients in various sectors. “We launched a new Managed Services Security Provider Program (MSSP) to help partners build their security practices and deliver solutions in either an embedded or reseller model. To support growth in cloud, we're enabling partners to build IBM Cloud Paks, enterprise-grade container software packages with guidance and step-by-step instructions to quickly build with open standards that will enable hybrid and multicloud deployments,” she explains. There is an announcement of Seismic@IBM, a new sales enablement solution with sales kits, sales plays, presentations, use cases, and other assets from across the IBM portfolio for IBM sellers and partners to support the enablement needs of partners. Seismic@IBM will include a link to this Cloud Digital Technical Engagement program so partners
IBM
TAKING CLOUD SERVICES TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Tanmay Sharma, EVP - Sales, iMicron Specialisation Area: Cloud
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Micron is a global organisation specialising in cloud-based
can easily access this important information while preparing for client engagements.
Hybrid cloud- big bet for IBM Hybrid cloud is a trillion-dollar opportunity and IBM intends to be the leader in this space. IBM already has a US $19.5 billion cloud business, and the cloud is now a quarter of IBM's revenue, up from just 4 per cent in 2013. Last quarter it had a strong performance in offerings that help clients with their digital transformations and their journeys to hybrid cloud. Today, it is one of top cloud providers in the world. For decades IBM has managed the data for the world’s biggest, most complex businesses and governments. IBM has been aggressively working to enable a true hybrid multi-cloud environment where applications are portable across platforms. The aim is to offer clients choice and flexibility in all ways cloud can be used – onpremise, private, public and multiple. In the area of hybrid cloud, IBM has made a significant investment in
solution. We started with IBM software and then moved to IBM Cloud. In 2018, we were awarded the best of Excellence Award as a partner of IBM, for their cloud business. We are managing startups and enterprise customers in the IT, auto sector and are also moving to the finance sector. Organisations are now looking to move forward in their cloud journey. Companies have already started to adapt cloud environments with most having their 20 – 30 per cent of installed base on cloud. They’re already aware of cloud environments and the next level of challenge is in terms of managing it, getting more flexibility and moving to that next level of digital transformation. IBM has recently acquired Red Hat, which was a great move for them. We
Multi-Cloud Manager which provides an operations console for companies as they increasingly incorporate public and private cloud capabilities with existing on-prem business systems. IBM SecureConnect, cloud integration specialists, Kubernetes technologies and several other hybrid cloud acceleration tools that help clients unleash the business value of the cloud. The recent acquisition of Red Hat is the latest and most significant step in its endeavor to lead in this a high-value segment of the IT industry. From channel point of view, the Red Hat portfolio will be adding a bundle of new services for both the partners. Soon IBM partners will be getting access to Red Hat portfolio
HYBRID CLOUD IS A TRILLION-DOLLAR OPPORTUNITY AND IBM INTENDS TO BE THE LEADER IN THIS SPACE
also see the opportunities available on open shift Kubernetes which is going to become the next story where we can offer customers the next level of cloud services, with complete neutrality and independence in terms of managing the infrastructure. We intend to work alongside IBM and transform the next level of cloud environment by offering differentiated software and hardware service. We are managing cloud environments for clients across auto sector, startups and big IT enterprises. iMicron is helping a leading global IT services company to manage their order management and a payment gateway company whose production is running on the IBM environment. We are also running IBM Cloud for some key e-commerce companies also.
and make it a dominant player in the hybrid cloud. “One of the most significant challenges associated with hybrid multi-cloud deployments is achieving interoperability, portability and security compliance of applications across multiple cloud environments. The use of open-source cloud development platforms provide an effective way to overcome these challenges as well as manage workloads across multiple clouds. This is a game-changer for the cloud market as we are two best-in-class hybrid cloud providers that together will help companies move to the next chapter of the cloud while addressing the issues around portability, management consistency, security and remaining open to avoid vendor lock-in. This will enhance the growth of Red Hat’s and IBM’s business as we sell more of our data and AI software on containers across multiple platforms, and more of our services, from app modernisation to multi-cloud managed services,” mentions Bajwa.
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Advertorial
CRITICAL COMMUNICATION PLATFORM LAUNCH: THE NEXT STEP FORWARD FOR THE INDIAN COMMUNICATION MARKET Banking upon its end-to-end solutions and competitive edge, Unify is on a growth spree with its commitment to the Indian market. Narayanaswamy G, Business Head – Unify India and SAARC, shares more details Please provide a brief introduction of Unify as an Unified Communications company Unify is the Atos brand for communication and collaboration solutions. At the core of the Atos Digital Workplace portfolio, Unify's technology enables organisations of all sizes to transform the way they collaborate, creating a more connected and productive workforce which can dramatically improve team performance, individual engagement and business efficiency. Unify is not just a collaboration company. Collaboration has become an open market term and multiple companies are flooding the market nowadays. I would term Unify as a Critical Communications company. We offer solutions where communication saves lives. Unify products represent a strong heritage of technology innovation, reliability and flexibility. Our award-winning intuitive user experience can be delivered through almost any device and in any combination of cloud or onpremise deployment. Augmented by Atos’ secure digital platforms, vertical solutions and transformation services, we set the global standard for a rich and reliable collaboration experience that empowers teams to deliver extraordinary results.
Having gone through several mergers and de-mergers, what is the present status of the company? We are Atos. Unify is now a 100 per cent owned Atos company and respective trademarks like HiPath / OpenScape, etc, are now part of Atos. What has not changed is the strong German engineering of the product and our commitment to the market and channels. We have a strong channel team driving the market in India and our commitment to channels stay put.
What are the solution stacks available from Unify; and what UC and collaboration products is the company currently promoting? Unify is a pure UC and collaboration company with extensive portfolio, right from traditional telephony to industry based vertical solutions giving extensive flavour of UC features and seamless customer experiences. With the current geo political issues, there is a lot of security investments all around. So, you need command control centres, either micro, medium, or large. These could be at the mall level, building level, city level, etc. With Unify OpenScape Xpert solution for command and control, we can build emergency services like NG 911, all the way to enable an integrated deployment of a
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command centre with CCTV installations of customers' multiple sites with a video wall. We connect BMS and other systems for alerting and conferencing and have done deployments for several customers. We offer solutions from telephony to safer cities with emergency alarm response solution, 360-degree guest experience to smart healthcare with our Hi-Med patient infotainment solution and wrap all of these with our digital transformation services from Atos. Looking at customers across verticals, we have SMB to enterprise sized customers including hospitality, where we target customers of all sizes from twostar hotels to five-star hotels. We are also looking at making a more concerted push into the medium enterprise segment with promotions and making our solutions more price competitive to these customers.
How does the company differentiate itself from others in the competition? While competition is still talking about products, we strongly believe in our Platform Ideology. When a customer procures a Unify product, they acquire a platform, which will grow with their requirement and scale accordingly over multiple years. This still keeps us ahead of competition in providing a strong
Unify
TCO over multiple years. The products are still engineered out of Europe and come with the same level of quality as it has always been. Our competitive edge is that we offer end-to-end solutions with rich features incorporated in UC space as well as cloud / collaboration services. The focus is more on value proposition rather than offering a portfolio on a broader level. Our competitive edge is real value for money; vertical solution incorporated on our UC platform, collaboration solutions and much elaborated end-to-end voice solutions. The customer has a wide range to select from our industry grade products and solutions across all verticals.
ties of Mumbai, offering an opportunity to explore how the fast-developing field of digital communication can support the region’s business needs of New Age Trading floor. We aim to continue the same spirit across the country in later half of the year.
Unify is an integral part of Atos now. What is the future roadmap?
How is Unify committed to the Indian market? Unify is a strong channel-focused company that reiterates its commitment to the Indian market. Unify Extensive Channel Partner Programs, Enablement and Partner Education are the pillars to our commitment in the Indian market. Partner audit is key to our business; we target selective partners and then take them through a full journey of skill building and enhancement to serve our customers with full confidence. Our extensive portfolio adds lots of value on top of our core UC strategy. Based on partners' strengths and business focus, we complement them with the right set of portfolios and position our products accordingly. We have a strong channel sales team based out of all the major metros and a strong distribution support arm. Through our distribution model in India, we provide strong logistics, complete solution demonstration capability, right from consultative to implementation support.
Please elaborate on some of your vertical specific activities We have recently concluded a vertical based event to showcase our offerings around Unify smart trading solution – OpenScape Xpert. The event brought together several renowned market leaders, C-suite executives, IT managers and communication specialists from banking and trading communi-
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UNIFY PRODUCTS REPRESENT A STRONG HERITAGE OF TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION, RELIABILITYAND FLEXIBILITY. OUR AWARD- WINNING INTUITIVE USER EXPERIENCE CAN BE DELIVERED THROUGH ALMOSTANY DEVICE AND IN ANY COMBINATION OF CLOUD OR ON-PREMISE DEPLOYMENT NARAYANASWAMY G, BUSINESS HEAD – UNIFY INDIAAND SAARC
The future is all about bringing in the latest innovations in terms of migrating client communications infrastructure flexibly and cost-effectively, overlaying and integrating next-generation team collaboration on any existing infrastructure, reducing the cost and simplifying the operation of their communications infrastructure, while improving user adoption and satisfaction and lastly, creating a more agile, collaborative and productive workforce. Unify, under the Atos umbrella, shall continue to achieve this in tandem with perfecting other new-gen technologies such as Internet of Things ( IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, chat bots, etc., and achieving business communication solution delivery that is secure and updated today and will be, in the future. Critical launch is the next step forward for the Indian market. More than just a collaboration solution, the Circuit application provides workplace orchestration and collaboration tools combined in a flexible space. For instance, although Unify offers cloud collaboration and endpoint solutions, they also want to make sure that companies don’t have to rip and replace their old legacy systems to tap into new technology. We wanted to be able to interact with the legacy options that customers have, so that companies can take advantage of future technology, while still getting the most out of their existing investments. We have already launched the complete Critical Communication Stack in India (Xpert and Oscar) Also, the integration of Unify into the broader Atos Group has driven significant benefits to our large enterprise communication and collaboration customers, who can now benefit from the world-class Unify portfolio.
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Special Focus
POWER OF U ALLIANCES IS KEY TO CISCO’S SUCCESS Cisco is betting big on five core architectures – networking, datacentre, security, collaboration/WebEx and IoT; and is innovating and meeting needs concerning developing new solutions in these areas By Moumita Deb Choudhury 16 I COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I SEPTEMBER, 2019 I crn.in
S tech giant, Cisco, is all wired to take partnerships to a new level. In the recently concluded flagship event Cisco India Summit 2019, the networking mogul emphasised on the significance of alliances to further crusade into a connected digital ecosystem. A large proportion of the company’s business comes from the core verticals of BFSI, IT/ITeS, telecom and the Government. However, over the last 1415 months, it has started to focus on manufacturing, pharma, retail and healthcare, warehousing and logistics. Not surprisingly, with a plethora of products and solutions, and with the new world’s huge appetite for networking, the horizon of opportunities for the company is endless. Cisco is betting big on five core architectures – networking, datacentre, security, collaboration/WebEx and IoT;
Cisco
and is innovating and meeting needs concerning developing new solutions in these areas.
Marked growth “We have had two consecutive years of healthy double-digit growth. Three years ago, Cisco decided to reinvent the core through massive innovation, which is when we launched our SoftwareDefined Access Networks solution and our Catalyst 9K switches. Considering that half of our business is networking, this innovation has resonated significantly with our customers. In 2017, we got around a great deal of customers for our new solution. While this was a small figure, however, they proved to be the most significant drivers for growth as those customers grew ten times in the second year,” informs Sameer Garde, President, Cisco India and SAARC. “The second area of immense growth for us has been collaboration. In the first year, we signed contracts with some large enterprises, post which in the second year we again made it more secular. Now, we have had more customers taking on better video meetings. The third significant area of growth has been security, which has also seen two years of phenomenal double-digit growth,” adds Garde. “We initially identified Smart Cities as one of the critical pillars of digital initiatives. Later, we figured that India has other key initiatives like Digital India, digitisation of the manufacturing sector, education up-skilling, etc., which are very relevant in the form of infrastructure. We showcased our technological interventions and capabilities with both private and public entities, and this is how the formation of the digital transformation team happened,” says Daisy Chittilapilly, Managing Director, Digital Transformation Office (DTO), Cisco India and SAARC.
Power of alliances Cisco is engaging into partnerships for newer opportunity pockets, “Today, our go-to market strategy is to build a partnership critical digital ecosystem. Our partnerships with Google and TCS
Daisy Chittilapilly, Managing Director,DTO,Cisco India and SAARC are non-traditional. They are not taking a solution from us to the market; instead, we have a collaboration with them where we all work together. The Google relationship is an example of a joint strategic alignment as access is core to our proposition of connectivity and Wi-Fi is a central part of this,” claims Garde. “Concerning the TCS partnership, automation on the datacentre side is a key focus area for us. TCS was already providing a full-stack automated solution for their customers, so we collaborated with them to build a joint engineering solution. While channel partners are significant to us, we also need such nontraditional partners,” he adds.
Reitering the theme of this year’s company summit, Chittilapilly puts forth, “The reason why we chose the Power of Alliances as a central theme is that the market is rapidly evolving. If you look at our organisation's communication channel - it is very traditional, in a way that we talk to one customer and one partner. However, to increase engagement, one needs to involve different people at different stages. Our aim to initiate conversations and provide consultations to every stakeholder has led to the evolution of our communication channel. This journey can be traced from having very simplistic hardware reset conversation to a discussion about multiple parties collaborating to bring an outcome. Our alliance with Velocis and TCS showcases how our partnerships with our customers have enabled us to transform verticals. Hence the reason for our focus on partnerships.”
A LARGE PROPORTION OF THE COMPANY’S BUSINESS COMES FROM THE CORE VERTICALS OF BFSI, IT/ITES, TELECOM AND THE GOVERNMENT. HOWEVER, Focus on artificial intelligence “We do have a lot of AI in our OVER THE LAST 14-15 MONTHS, technology at Cisco. For example, IT HAS STARTED TO FOCUS Webex teams - our team collaboration platform. The platform is used ON MANUFACTURING, internally as well as by some of our PHARMA, RETAIL AND largest customers in the country. When HEALTHCARE, WAREHOUSING you get into a meeting on Webex teams, AND LOGISTICS you can attend the meeting from COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I SEPTEMBER, 2019 I crn.in I 17
Special Focus
anywhere, share content as well as collaborate on that content, in real-time. The platform does not have any device restrictions. While you may use it on your phone, someone else could be accessing it on a high definition video system. Through repeated meetings, it will be able to determine which colleague you are trying to dial-in, based on recency, frequency and other parameters. Also, you can ask the platform to set up a meeting for you. And, when you walk into that meeting, it will not only identify and recognise you, but also identify your colleagues,” explains Chittilapilly. AI is used in Cisco’s datacentre technology as well. The company has datacentre platforms which has been specifically built to handle machine learning processing as this is a critical component where AI is concerned. “We use our technology to build AI platforms for our customers across locations. While these are some of the examples, it will not just end here with AI in collaboration and datacenter,” points out Chittilapilly.
Sameer Garde, President,Cisco India & SAARC
The significance of channel Cisco believes in scaling up its partners and helping them transform their business. “We are not only focused on driving differentiation, which is relevant to our customers but also on continuing our own business growth. We help our partners manage by placing their recruits into the new hire program held at the Cisco campus. We started this program a year ago, we conduct a three-day workshop for the new hires and acquaint them to the latest technologies coming up in their sectors,” informs B Raghavendran, Managing Director, Partner Organisation, Cisco India and SAARC. The second platform, which the company has recently announced is the ‘cross-sell program’ referred to as ‘Xsell’ program and is directed towards its partners in the SMB space. Under this program, it has onboarded their employees to work in Cisco for a year and allow them to manage a set of clients associated with a partner. During this period, they learn about the various dynamics of Cisco’s partner’s
B Raghavendran, Managing Director,Partner Organisation,Cisco India and SAARC
business. By the end, the employee usually joins the partner organisation. The program enables the individual to gather knowledge about Cisco's tools and processes while selling at a marketplace. “We build such a trustworthy relationship with our partners. As part of the program, we identify myriad roles and skillsets that our partners will require across their business architectures and assist them in building them. By the end, recruits pass an examination and get certified
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by our company,” says Raghavendran. When asked that doesn’t it bring competition between their employees and the partner’s employees, Raghavendran said, “No. It is our way of creating a difference and building expertise through such evolving programs. Through such programs, we ensure our partners transform their business, and is rewarded and recognised for their efforts. Additionally, we also conduct "practice development" with the next set of our partners, who
Cisco
are mature and have unique capabilities and skillsets. We believe we can build practices and offerings customised to the marketplace. We will commence a program with self-paid learning tools, wherein partners who want to transform can do so at their own pace. We want to make sure our partners are capable of harnessing several opportunities that result in transformations.” He adds, “How can one move from selling to IT to selling to line of businesses? That kind of differentiation and relevance you can build only when you drive programmability. Our efforts will be around helping our partners differentiate themselves from the rest and also deliver value to the customer. We design our programs to address our partner's every need from an organisation and consultancy standpoint. We are continuing to invest in our distributors as we want them to drive our SMB business opportunity in the marketplace. Today, we have over 30 digital system engineers based on the distributor side who help us build capabilities that will support our partners in the long run.” As Cisco, the company primarily addresses around 200 partners. From the 201st to the 2500th partner, Cisco, reaches them through its distribution network, so that they can go to various places and take Cisco solutions to multiple customers. “When you look at our enterprise/commercial segment, most of their business happens through our partners. So, we want to ensure that our partners are skilled and capable enough to be able to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and drive profitability,” informs Raghavendran.
Go-to-market strategy Cisco’s go-to-market strategy is through its partners. “In different segments, we have a different go-tomarket strategy in place. For example, in the enterprise space, we look at solution providers who are in the commercial sector at the higher end of the commercial space, we have more system-integrated clicks, while at the lower end we have more re-sellers who
are addressing that particular marketplace. For the SMB space, we want to ensure our channel and distributors are driving business for us in that space. When we look at large infrastructure projects in the government space that are spread over multiple years, there are large master system integrators like L&T, who are EPC players. They understand how to monetise a project over a while,” says Raghavendran. Also, high magnitude partners need assistance from Cisco. “The big ticket partners understand their domain and
AS CISCO, THE COMPANY PRIMARILY ADDRESSES AROUND 200 PARTNERS. FROM THE 201ST TO THE 2500TH PARTNER, CISCO, REACHES THEM THROUGH ITS DISTRIBUTION NETWORK, SO THAT THEY CAN GO TO VARIOUS PLACES AND TAKE CISCO SOLUTIONS TO MULTIPLE CUSTOMERS
have an offering that is much bigger than what we can offer. In such a scenario, it is not about them choosing our technology. But us figuring out a way to embed our technology in their overall offering, before they take it to the market. For such large projects, the IT component could range anywhere between 15-20 per cent. Also, they work with multiple system integrators and partners to go ahead and deliver the project to the customer. When you consider a small city project, more than two or three partners will come together and provide our solution stack, like the CKC (Cisco Kinetic for Cities) solutions to the customer,” comments Raghavendran. Time and again data is asserting its importance in the digital landscape for businesses and even in everyone’s day to day lives. And to this Garde sums up, “Everything starts with the data. The proliferation of data in recent times has led to there being more data due to which we require more security. You need more data-centred power as there is so much more data. You need more pipes from networking to manage that flow for you. Data today is at the heart of everything, of all the architectures and therefore, we continue to innovate, we keep bringing new technologies.”
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Channel Chief
HOW OPEN SOURCE IS BENEFITTING SUSE, ITS CHANNEL PARTNERS AND CUSTOMERS SUSE, a native open source software company, is completely channel partner led and has a strong partner ecosystem in India. The company is investing heavily in India and is banking on the push from the government under the Digital India and Make in India programs By Moumita Deb Choudhury
O
pen source technology is being talked about even more rampantly today. As Phillip Cockrell, Vice President of Global Channels, SUSE articulates, “More than anything, open source is the core of innovation. It is by all and for all and propelling all aspects of technology development today.” SUSE, a native open source software company, which provides reliable, software-defined infrastructure and application delivery solutions that give organisations greater control and flexibility, is a seasoned 25-year-old player in the domain. India is one of the primary business grounds for SUSE. “We are investing at a rapid pace in India and also we are looking at a fantastic push from the government under the Digital India and Make in India programs, which is fostering Linux and other aspects of open source,” says Rajarshi Bhattacharyya, Country Manager, SUSE India. “Also, open source is no more restricted to Linux. The government policy, the overall political situation, the industry situation, all these factors are resulting in a massive progress in the way we look at India as a country. We are the second largest entity in this domain in the APJ region,” he adds.
turnover that they bring. “The interpartner program is built on the skillsets that the partner acquires over his journey from a registered to an accredited to a solution partner. The more you get accustomed to a technology, the more you master a technology and business automatically follows,” Cockrell adds.
Product potential
Rajarshi Bhattacharyya
Driven by channel Phillip attributes the growth of SUSE in India to its partner ecosystem. The company is completely channel partner led. There are three levels in its partner program and has more than 400 registered partners. The top tier constitutes the solution partners, the second tier is accredited partners and third tier is the registered partner. “There is over 50 per cent growth in the number of partners over a span of a year,” informs Cockrell. SUSE looks more at the skillsets that the partner builds up rather than the
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SUSE puts in efforts to develop solutions that make sense for their customers, so that they can grow their existing business with their customers and go after new customers in the area they are specialised in. “Our solutions are varied. For some of our strategic partners, we have solutions that are based around SAP. The other areas where we have seen traction are around our software defined storage. SUSE Enterprise Storage is a product which has been around for years. An area of our business is application delivery, wherein we have got two important products that come together to form a solution – SUSE Container as a Service Platform. It's a Kubernetes based product that does container orchestration. We allow our customers to containerise their applications and
SUSE India
do rapid delivery and then we have build a Cloud Foundry product – SUSE Cloud Application Platform,” informs Cockrell. “We have developed an interesting product with the help of Amazon Web Services, whereby we are partnering with Wipro to build cloud application platform on top of Amazon’s Enterprise Kubernetes deployment and that will quickly enable customers to launch our cloud application platform,” adds Bhattacharyya. “From an Indian perspective, there is a humongous storage requirement that drives a lot of traction for portable storage. Also, since according to government policy, certain data has to stay in India, private cloud initiatives are a big area. In OpenStack, there is a huge demand for Data Lake projects coming from BFSI, e-commerce, etc. We are well poised to take on that market and today, right from application delivery solution to orchestration areas, there is hardly anything better than Open Source. Thus, it is the default choice for the customer to go ahead
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WE ARE INVESTING ATA RAPID PACE IN INDIAAND ALSO WE ARE LOOKING ATA FANTASTIC PUSH FROM THE GOVERNMENT UNDER THE DIGITAL INDIAAND MAKE IN INDIA PROGRAMS,WHICH IS FOSTERING LINUXAND OTHER ASPECTS OF OPEN SOURCE RAJARSHI BHATTACHARYYA, COUNTRY MANAGER,SUSE INDIA
with large projects,”says Cockrell.
SUSE GSI Summit Recently, the company hosted the SUSE GSI Summit. Commenting on the initiative, Cockrell says, “The reason
we are committed to this is because SI partners are important for us globally as an organisation and they are doing a fantastic job in India. We have made substantial investment to focus on building new solutions with new GSI partners, helping GSI partners close deals. One of the most important things to me is building skillsets among those GSI partners. We have trainers who are specifically focused on enabling the employees of our GSI partners on SUSE technologies,” mentions Cockrell. “India is a well connected market, so it is important for us to build skillsets within the partners because those people are then going to work for another partner at some point and it’s important that we build transferable skillsets, so that we can leverage that to help grow the awareness of SUSE across India and globally. One of the significant things that we have done in India was to set up a local support centre. This was important because we needed to support not only our customer but also partner ecosystem,” adds Cockrell.
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Channel Chief
VEEAM REDEFINES FLEXIBILITY BY BEING A FIT IN BOTH LEGACY AND MODERN ENVIRONMENT ALIKE For cloud data management company Veeam, it is all about data backup, security and data retrieval swiftly with a dash of cloud to top it up By Moumita Deb Choudhury
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eeam claims itself to be unique, because it crosses all bounds to be flexible enough to fit in any legacy or modern environment. The Veeam Availability Platform is the company’s backup solution for helping customers on the journey to achieving success in the five stages of cloud data management comprising Backup, Cloud Mobility, Visibility, Orchestration and Automation. According to the 2019 Veeam Cloud Data Management report, 73 per cent of organisations are failing to meet users’ demands for uninterrupted access to applications and data; many companies are now looking to embrace cloud data management to better meet protection needs and leverage the power of their data. Veeam has over 350,000 customers worldwide, including 82 per cent of the Fortune 500 and 67 per cent of the Global 2,000 companies, with customer satisfaction scores 3.5 times more than the industry average. Establishments today are becoming more and more virtualisation-savvy as this gives them the ease of being hosted from anywhere. And in this tune, cloud has come into the IT
VEEAM HAS OVER 350,000 CUSTOMERS WORLDWIDE, INCLUDING 82 PER CENT OF THE FORTUNE 500 AND 67 PER CENT OF THE GLOBAL 2,000 COMPANIES, WITH CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SCORES 3.5 TIMES MORE THAN THE INDUSTRY AVERAGE landscape as a part of key strategies. Thus, the market for Veeam exists largely in terms of protecting the virtual environment – this is what the company has been pursuing for a long time.
Growth in India market Veeam works closely with partners including HPE, NetApp, Cisco, Microsoft, and AWS, among others. The data management company does not build a hardware by itself. Instead, the focus is on delivering good software and partner with platform and hardware providers who can take care of the other aspects. This is how Veeam
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offers more value to customers. Sandeep Bhambure, Vice President and Managing Director, India and SAARC, Veeam Software, says, “Unlike legacy companies whose solutions are more compatible to its own fortified environment. Veeam’s software is flexible enough to be a fit in any environment. That is why it makes me feel that hardware infrastructure companies cannot continue to be backup companies, since they will not be allowed to get their arms around the data sprawl. And this makes Veeam unique in this space as a software provider.” Veeam, which made its entry in India in 2016, started making strategic investments in 2017 sensing the potential of the country. “India was clearly part of the bigger picture, driving more towards enterprise was part of that. Earlier, India was managed by our European division, but soon we realised that this is not the way to go about. So we said, let’s really refocus on pumping additional resources, in the entire theatre of Asia Pacific and put India into that context. From then on we hired additional resources including dedicated inside sales capability. The chief of sales then hired her five woman
Veeam Software
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VEEAM’S JOB IS TO ALLOW ORGANISATIONS TO WORK WITH ALL OFTHE INFRASTRUCTURE PROVIDERS.AND EVEN IF THE ORGANISATION HAS TO GO THROUGH A INFRASTRUCTURE STRATEGY CHANGES MIDWAY, THAT’S OKAYWITH US BECAUSE WE SUPPORTALL OF IT SHAUN MCLAGAN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, ASIA PACIFIC AND JAPAN, VEEAM SOFTWARE
team before she started the first day. So she built out an entire organisation. And on the very first day, they had a half a dozen people ready to go. And I think that’s the edge we bring in,” informs, Dave Russell, Vice President, Enterprise Strategy, Veeam Software. Emphasising on the importance of back-up, Shaun McLagan, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan, Veeam Software says, “We probably over rotated in 2018, talking about cloud data management. And we left behind the core of what we are, which is backup. So this year, we see our marketing, our messaging has a lot more backup content, and our tag-line is ‘backup for what’s next’. We would like to say we are unapologetically a backup company.” “Veeam’s job is to allow organisations to work with all of the infrastructure providers. And even if the
organisation has to go through a infrastructure strategy changes midway, that’s okay with us because we support all of it,” McLagan adds.
Veeam’s GTM approach The company has adopted a threepronged GTM approach which it terms as the ‘three Cs’. “The first C of our GTM is Coverage. India is a vast market which includes around four million businesses- big and small. So its important that that we have a proper understanding of the coverage that we have to make. The second C is Champion, which means, we got to find one person in every large organisation, who is enthusiastic and ready to transform and modernise their legacy platform. And the third C is Community, whereby we look to engage the community by creating awareness. Veeam’s motive is to be simple, flexible,
and reliable. And once we have started generating that interest in these lines, it just kept going. So we will continue to foster learning opportunities, learning events, giving away free software, because I think its part of our responsibility to make sure that organisations are able to take advantage of the new opportunities. And they can do it if they are aware of the means and ways they can reduce risk and deal with compliance problems,” points out Bhambure. Reiterating on being a comprehensive data management provider, Russell says “So, when we say data management, it’s about continuous availability, ensuring compliance and security against all kinds of cyber threats. While others may take literally 24-36 hours to update the copies. For us its a matter of minutes. And this is the method behind the magic.”
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Transport Hub
Startup Corner
IOT PLATFORM FOR AUTOMATING LOGISTICS AND TRANSPORT How an IoT powered digital logistics assistant by Indian startup, Transport Hub, is helping everyone at the supply chain take decisions to achieve long term business goals By Sudipta Dev
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ransport Hub is a digital logistics assistant which uses IoT (Internet of Things) for logistics and transport. The bootstrapped startup was setup in 2016, with an initial investment of US$ one million. The company offers integrated solutions like Vehicle Optimisation & Profitability Solutions (VOPS), Improvement in Cold Chain Efficiency (ICE), Warehousing and Transportation Turnaround Solutions (WATTS), Technology enabled Real-Time Inventory Management (TRIM) for industries ranging from transportation, to retail, e-commerce to banking, pharmaceuticals to BPO, FMCG to automobile, and others. “TransportHub.com is a SaaS based first technology platform for surface transport. It is powered by intelligent algorithms, analytics and IoT. The platform automates the entire transportation chain from dispatch, planning to delivery,” says Rohit Chaturvedi, CEO, Transport Hub. A few key customers of the company include Adani Wilmar Limited, Shree Renuka Sugars, Kanchan Pharma, Vadilal, Sakata Seeds, etc. Chaturvedi informs that his company provides them seamlessly integrated tech enabled IoT solutions to help them minimise their overall costs and scale up their businesses. Reminding that the most crucial benefit for businesses by using the IoT based platform is that one saves upto 18 per cent on their overall logistics
costs, he states, “Our service also helps them collect real-time data from across the supply chain, these datas are then converted into insights which are easily actionable. This empowers everyone at the supply chain to take decisions to achieve the long term business goals.” Speaking about the channel marketing strategy, Chaturvedi shares that his company is currently focussing on the B2B segment through thought leadership and proactive problem solving. “Our primary channel is consultative direct selling and we are open to new channels and strategies in the future. However, we have also started looking for channel partners with software and IoT product selling experience in India who can deliver what we want to create a widespread awareness about,” he states. Chaturvedi believes that channels partners come in as handy resource for tech startups and can help them scale
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their business in less time. For the products which are easy to understand and don’t require much customisation, for them the channel partners are an excellent way to scale fast. “However, there has to be adequate initial traction to showcase tangible benefits to the channel partners and systematically grow in scale with regards to production or procurement or sales,” he adds. Future plans include focus on brand building and geographical expansion plan. The company is also in talks with few system integrators to create value for their clients. Chaturvedi believes that the knowledge of tech-integrated automation of logistics and transport industry is a much needed at this hour but its articulation is slow but gradual. There is a need to reach out to customers and explain why they need to automate their systems and their work to get optimal outputs from their business models. Transport Hub plans to reach out to as many businesses as possible. “We also wish to spread awareness about how our products will help them maximise business outputs and this certainly cannot be realised with our network of dealers, retailers and affiliates who make work easy for us even in remote corners we would not have access to,” mentions Chaturvedi. The startup is looking for sales partners for two of its products viz- Vehicle Identification and Tracking productTOP, and IoT based cold chain automation tool- ICE.
CXO Speak
MIGRATION OF PRODUCTS TO CLOUD IS ALLOWING US TO DELIVER NEW TECH WITH LIGHTER FOOTPRINT Nuance has a long history in India as the enterprise division has worked extensively over the years with telecom and financial services companies. In an exclusive interaction with CRN India, Derek Austin, Sales Director, Dragon Professional & Consumer – Asia Pacific & Japan, Nuance Communications, Inc shares the company’s roadmap for Dragon’s speech recognition solution in India By Sandhya Michu Please share with us Nuance’s journey in India so far? I have been working with Nuance since 2004 and the company has evolved rapidly over time – from our beginning as a document imaging company, to our transformation into a leader in speech technologies, and now a focus on AI and conversational experiences. Nuance has a long history in India. We have always had strong partners here and our enterprise division has worked extensively over the years with telecom and financial services companies. In the area of Dragon speech recognition, we’ve had local representation for over 12 years. ICONS remains our original partner and focuses on the legal and healthcare markets.
Nuance has recently appointed Redington for its products. Could you share more about the partnership? Redington was appointed a
AS A COMPANY, WE ARE WORKING ON INTEGRATING OUR SPEECH TECHNOLOGIES WITH COGNITIVE FEATURES SUCH AS CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS. THIS IS BEING SPEARHEADED IN HEALTHCARE WITH OUR AMBIENT CLINICAL INTELLIGENCE WORK distributor for our products so that companies can easily source and sell Dragon software in India. We want to provide easier ways for Indian VARs and resellers to obtain Dragon for their customers. Redington provides Dragon Home, Dragon Professional Individual, and Dragon Professional Group. Group is our enterprise software and is available through volume licensing with maintenance and support options.
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Redington can supply physical products and software downloads, allowing for both personal and online sales by partners. They can also supply the Nuance PowerMic III noisecancelling microphone, originally developed for hospital emergency rooms, but useful everywhere. We have specialist channels in addition to Redington for the legal and healthcare markets.
Could you talk about the product roadmap and what sort of business opportunities you see? The trend is for products to move to the cloud. Outside India, our Dragon Anywhere software is available for smartphones and tablets with speech recognition being done on the cloud. We are rolling out enterprise software based on new architecture that can provide ‘lite’ speech recognition services based on cloud, or onpremise. As a company, we are working on integrating our speech
Nuance Communications
technologies with cognitive features such as conversational analysis. This is being spearheaded in healthcare with our Ambient Clinical Intelligence work. Our goal always is to reduce mundane work that takes time away from more important things like talking to clients, solving problems, and being creative.
In terms of your channel engagements and expansion, what is your plan for the India market? With Dragon, our focus is on English language applications in India. Frankly, we do not have language coverage for our Dragon products across the country. This restriction means our focus has been on law, medicine and international business. The migration of products to cloud is allowing us to deliver new technology with a lighter footprint that is useful for call centre wrap-ups (making notes after a customer call) and other backoffice functions.
How important is the India market as compared to other global markets? As with everything else in India, the Dragon market is growing. Speech recognition is useful for two reasons. Firstly, it saves time. An argument here has been that human resource is cheap, so it’s more affordable to employ another person rather than buying a Dragon solution. However, this argument is fading because human resources are getting more expensive. Even if labour is more affordable, Dragon still provides an excellent return on investment. If it takes one month of productivity gains to pay for Dragon instead of two weeks, that’s still a pretty good deal. The second main use of speech recognition is to provide accessibility for those who find it difficult to use a keyboard and mouse. This has applied to physical disability in particular, but in recent years providing a way for children and adults to overcome dyslexic challenges has become more important. I believe this is becoming more relevant in India as well.
“
WE HAVE ALWAYS HAD STRONG PARTNERS HERE AND OUR ENTERPRISE DIVISION HAS WORKED EXTENSIVELY OVER THE YEARS WITH TELECOM AND FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPANIES. IN THE AREA OF DRAGON SPEECH RECOGNITION,WE’VE HAD LOCAL REPRESENTATION FOR OVER 12 YEARS
What are the key priorities for Nuance India in 2019-20? In India, we already have offices in Bengaluru, Gurugram, Pune, Lucknow, and Noida. These are involved with other aspects of Nuance’s business, but
we are well-positioned to expand as needed. I am eager to talk with companies that can understand the Dragon business case and are interested in delivering some of the backend solutions.
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Event Report
EXPLORE BHARAT CAMPAIGN KICK-STARTS ON A HIGH NOTE IN CHANDIGARH CRN India kickstarted its flagship multi-city Explore Bharat campaign in Chandigarh, targeted at the SMB and IT channel community of the city By Sandhya Michu
Atif Shakir, General Manager, Head of North and East region, Samsung Enterprise Mobility
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he first edition of the campaign saw an overwhelming start, whereby close to 60 SMB companies as well as channel partners attended the event. CRN India, in association with Samsung, ESDS and NetMagic and with the support of Chandigarh Computer Association (CCA), had organised its flagship event on July 26 in Chandigarh.
SMB Track The first leg of the event was focused on the SMB segment. Ramandeep Dhiman, Managing Director, Satellite Mapping Consultant, a Chandigarh based SMB company, was among the first speaker who showcased use cases of various latest technologies in gaining a competitive edge. He shared how latest technologies such as satellite data
Panel discussion: How technology is becoming a centre stage for business growth
and its applications, remote sensing, and GIS have helped in overcoming the depleting water resources problem. Dhiman has been working in this field for the last 16 years, having being trained and certified by organisations such as ISRO, NASA USA and German government. Atif Shakir, General Manager, Head of North and East region, Samsung Enterprise Mobility, in a descriptive way, informed about the spread and reach of Samsung's mobility solutions and offerings for SMBs and how these products are improving the overall productivity and driving excellent results in the SMB space. He spoke about the power of Samsung Knox mobile security platform, making Samsung smartphones, tablets and wearables among the most reliable
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mobile devices. ESDS, a leading provider of managed data centre service and auto-scalable cloud solutions, in a joint presentation by Mahavir Goel, Regional Manager – Sales (North) and Achyut Sharma, Sales Manager, ESDS Software Solution, explained how the company's cloud solutions are transforming and modernising network operations and accelerating data centre innovation with simplified, high-capacity network fabrics. A panel discussion was also conducted, wherein leading Chandigarh based SMB companies shared their experiences of how technology is becoming a centre stage for business growth. Ramandeep Dhiman; GagganPal Singh Sidhu, Director, Milagro Interactive Technologies and
Explore Bharat Chandigarh
Vishranth, General Manager & Head – Channel Sales, Samsung Enterprise Mobility
Audience engaged in the conference
Achyut Sharma, Sales Manager, ESDS Software Solution
Arun Sharma, CEO, Webnet Asia and Technical Advisor of CCA
Panel discussion by the stalwarts of the local IT market
Atif Shakir were among the panelists. The panelists were of the collective view that digital transformation is a reality and SMBs are looking for ways to transform their offline business into online. Sidhu emphasised on the need to realign business and process through technologies for faster decision making and customer services. The session was moderated by Nivedan Prakash, Senior Assistant Editor, CRN India.
Channel Track
Ramandeep Dhiman, Managing Director, Satellite Mapping Consultant
Shantaram Shinde, VP and National Head – Channel Business, Netmagic
In the evening, the channel track began with a joint presentation made by the President of CCA, Sulalait Gupta, Director, Global Systems and Arun Sharma, CEO, Webnet Asia and Technical Advisor of CCA. Gupta and Sharma educated the audience about the prevailing business conditions in Chandigarh and challenges such us predatory online pricing, service and support issues and vendor policies. Through a presentation, Sharma talked about the changing customer needs and how emerging technologies like cloud and analytics are transforming the channel business. Following CCA's session, D Vishranth, General Manager & Head – Channel
Sales, Samsung Enterprise Mobility shared more about the mobility solutions for the channel community and how it can leverage the enterprise mobility solutions as a new business avenue. Shantaram Shinde, VP and National Head – Channel Business, Netmagic, explained the emerging opportunities for the channel in the cloud computing space. He also addressed the channels issues narrated by CCA. Shinde highlighted the skilling and re-skilling of channel to get prepared for nextgeneration technologies and solutions. He said, "It is said that one can defer, delay, but cannot deny the progress of technology. It is time to give them a
solution, especially for those who are risk-averse to newer and smarter technologies." Another panel discussion included Sanjiv Walia, Director, Jetage & Chairman and Past President CCA; Manu Mehta, MD, Fore Solutions; Surinder Chugh, SIMITComputers; JB Singh, MD, Access Solutions. These stalwarts of the local IT market discussed subjects like threats from online trade portals, margins and profitability, business sustainability and emerging opportunities. The interactive discussion was moderated by Sandhya Michu, Principal Correspondent, CRN India.
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CXO Speak
EVERYTHING WE DO STARTS WITH THE CUSTOMER OUTCOME As the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at HPE, Jim Jackson and his team – in close collaboration with Sales and Product Development – are focussed on establishing new growth opportunities for HPE in Hybrid IT, software-defined infrastructure, the intelligent edge, services and pay-per-consumption services; and on solidifying HPE’s role in compute innovation in emerging markets such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and blockchain By Srikanth RP How do you see the role of marketing at HPE? I am the Chief Marketing Officer for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). I’ve been at the company for 21 years. So I have had a chance to do a lot of different things at the company. And I think, you know, that’s been fun. I’ve been in services. I’ve been in public sector. I started out on the software side. I’ve been in communication. So I’ve had a chance to do a lot of different things in the company. There’s really incredible energy at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. We are really excited about where the company’s at right now. Antonio Neri, our CEO, when he came into the role, he had three priorities: innovation, partners and customers and culture. So we’re really focused on those three areas as a company. And if you had a chance to go to our Discover event recently, which was held in Las Vegas, we announced more innovation than we have ever announced at a previous Discover. We have made some bold statements, for example, pivoting the company to an as a service model, you know, by 2022. This means that we are going to make our whole portfolio available as a service. So we have made some bold statements with a lot of clarity. We also made some big announcements with
respect to India. We announced that we are going to invest $500 million over the next five years in India. So it’s a huge market for us. In fact, it’s our second biggest market, we like to say it’s our second home, and our CEO recently said that. We expect to grow our workforce by up to 20% over the next five years. Recently, we did a groundbreaking ceremony actually, on a new site that we’re going to be building, it’s going to enable us to host 10,000 employees. So we’re really excited about that. We are going to be actually also starting manufacturing in India, for some of our Aruba products by the end of the year. So there is a lot of activity happening in India. We have been running some
WE HAVE HAD REALLY THE BULK OF OUR MARKETING ANALYTICS CAPABILITIES HERE IN INDIA. WITH MARKETING BECOMING MORE AND MORE ABOUT DATA AND ANALYTICS, WE LOOKING TO SCALE. WE WILL BE LOOKING AT MAKING MORE INVESTMENTS IN DATA SCIENTISTS
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pretty aggressive marketing campaigns, for the past couple of quarters, in India, just because we see the opportunity, and we wanted to be loud and get the message out and start to talk to the market about the capabilities that we can bring. We have really stabilized our story to the marketplace over the last 18 months. We believe that the world is going to be edge centric, cloud enabled and data driven.
You always believed in the power of marketing to build brands and sales. Can you sight some examples from your own experience at HPE, which has helped the company build greater awareness and greater impact? First of all, when you think of our brand, it’s really the experience that customers have with us every single day. So it’s how we engage with them. One of the things that we’re trying to do is engage our 60,000 plus employees to be brand ambassadors, every engagement is an opportunity for us to reinforce the unique value that we bring. I think I talked about our purpose to advance the way people live and work, and when you think of stories, some of the stories will be, for example,
HPE
consider DZNE. It is a company out of Germany, and they’re trying to cure Alzheimers. We came up with a story talking using our memory driven technology, to really enable them to quickly run processes and programs to potentially find a cure. Purdue University, is looking at using an edge to cloud solution in terms of how can we be more efficient in crop production, so that we can feed more people efficiently. There are a lot of other stories as well, that we’re building out and, you know, that showcase the power of technology to have a real impact on the world. First of all, I think you have to be bold with a message. You have to be bold, so that you can break through the clutter out there in the marketplace. I like to tell my team that there can be the sea of sameness — everybody is saying the same thing. I think what really matters is consistency and discipline, when we come out with a new message, like for example, our ‘Fear No Cloud’ story, we tested it extensively, to make sure that it will resonate. And then once you have that you have to be disciplined in terms of driving that message, our customer our partner, they have to hear this message multiple times before it really starts to resonate. The final point, I think that’s important about storytelling, is that you have to start with the customer outcome. It’s about solving customer problems. So for us everything we do, it starts with what outcome are we solving for the customer? How are we going to help them accelerate their business? And when you start there, then you can really have the premise of a very powerful message that’s going to resonate with them.
In a market where the perception is that almost every technology vendor has the same technology, how do you make sure that you differentiate? First of all marketing is both a science and an art right? So, it’s moving to digital today. I mean, when you think of marketing, it’s about digital, it’s about analytics, it’s about targeting, it’s about really understanding your
Jim Jackson, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), HPE
customer. So that’s kind of the science side, but you still have to have the message and the creative, right? So let me talk about that. And then I’ll come back to kind of the digital element when we think of campaigns we really start with, what is the customer outcome and the problem we’re trying to solve? And how do we do something that is truly going to be unique and breakthrough. So for example, on ‘Fear No Cloud’, there’s a lot of Cloud Messaging out in the marketplace. But when we tested this concept, the feedback we got from people is this is one, I would stop and listen. And I would take an action because it was really, really bold. And sometimes you have to be provocative. Another example is what we did with the ‘IT Monster’ campaign — a totally different way of thinking about marketing in the IT space and I wanted to be creative, I wanted to be breakthrough, I wanted to have a little swagger and show some fun, in terms of who the company was. But what
that campaign has done is caused a lot of people say that was really different, I want to follow up and engage and then when they follow up and engage with us, then we can go have the right follow on discussions and the capability. So I think one of the first things with marketing is, is understanding that, to your point, there is a lot of clutter out there. But we have to break through the clutter, either through creativity, or really being bold and unique. The second part of it is then really using sophisticated analytics and data. And over the past couple years we’ve been on a journey to pivot to a modern digital marketing organization, one that is built on data and analytics. So we’ve got a complete Martech stack, ad tech, so we can now really, as we’re running campaigns, we’re understanding customers, we’re understanding their preferences, we are understanding where they’re getting information, how long they’re staying on content, that enables us to serve up the right content
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CXO Speak
to them, and to really be again, much more targeted to them. We can then get into things like propensity to buy and leverage that data. For example, in marketing, actually, in India here we have built a data analytics team, we have data scientists that we’ve invested in and they are supporting our marketing programs around the world from India. And I think it’s one of our biggest advantages, because the talent here is just incredible. And we’re leveraging that to enable our campaigns everywhere to be much more efficient. When we think of campaigns, three or four years ago, a campaign would be a set of deliverables that we would pass to a geo, and they would run it for a period of time, and then give us feedback. By the way, we probably had 40 campaigns three or four years ago, today, we have three. So we’ve really consolidated the messages that we want to drive. So you have to focus on what you want to have breakthrough. And then, you know, a campaign today for us is an 18 month digital conversation happening in the marketplace. So when we roll this campaign out, we scale it, and then we’ve got messages following on that we can continue the dialogue, because really what’s happening digitally is we want to have a two way discussion with our customers, we want to engage them. And as we’re engaging them, and we’re learning more about them, we can get them more and more content, more and more information. So it’s radically different but it’s fun. It’s interesting, and we’re having a good time, you know, as we’re continuing to learn, and we’re experimenting, I mean, a lot of this is to, you know, learn fast, and to some degree fail fast, right? I am trying to use marketing to obviously shift the perception of the company, but also to deliver a better experience for our customers in their engagement with us.
In terms of emerging technologies such as AI, how do you position your firm? With respect to AI, we are doing a
HPE
WE HAVE SOME BIG GOALS FOR INDIA, AND WE BELIEVE THAT THERE ARE HUGE OPPORTUNITIES. WE ARE ALSO HEAVILY INVESTED IN MANY OF THE PROGRAMS LIKE THE E-EDUCATION, E-DIGITAL, E-HEALTH AND DIGITAL VILLAGE PROGRAMS. WHEN YOU LOOK AT INDIA, I THINK IT’S ALMOST PERFECT FOR OUR BRAND VALUES. WE HAVE THREE KIND OF CORE BRAND VALUES AT THE COMPANY: PARTNER, INNOVATE AND ACT lot of things across the company. For example, we have AI capabilities in Nimble, Aruba and Pointnext. With our InfoSight technology, we can proactively identify 86 per cent of problems before they occur. And we’re getting more and more information. So from a pure marketing standpoint, one of the things that I look for is, how do we bring that altogether, so that as a company, we can have one unified AI message to the marketplace. So at Discover, we announced a new brand around AI, which unified our complete story. And that enables us to then come out to the marketplace and say, here’s what we can help you from an outcome perspective in multiple different areas. And then we can go have follow on discussions around the specific technology. So from a marketing perspective, I think one of the things that’s important for me and how I think about things is, marketing actually sits in a very unique position. We sit kind of at the intersection of sales, and the BU, but we also have the connection to the marketplace and to the end customers. So what we can do is we understand what products are coming, what’s happening. But we also understand the customer conversations that are happening in the marketplace. And then we can
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kind of leverage that engagement, to position the company. And in some cases, we might be talking about where we think the market is going. But that’s important, because many customers want to lean into that. So you know, we’re able to play that role. You know, the key for us is that we have an extremely tight alignment at HPE between sales and marketing. This enables us to kind of get that right balance of having solutions that we can position today. Take the example of GreenLake. Since last year, we have seen a lot of good feedback. Today, that’s a $2.5 billion business for us and we have over 600 customers.
From a marketing analytics point of view, how do you see India? We have had really the bulk of our marketing analytics capabilities here in India. With marketing becoming more and more about data and analytics, we looking to scale. We will be looking at making more investments in data scientists. I’m making investments in marketing, you know, for example, to help people continue to build their skill sets or accreditation programs. These kinds of things are really really important to me. I want HPE marketing to be a destination place, I wanted it to be a location where people say, I want to go there, because they are advanced in what they are doing, and represent, best in class marketing, and I can gain great skill sets there and be part of something that is cutting edge. That’s definitely an area that we’re continuing to invest.
How do you see the role of India in HPE’s global plans? We have some big goals for India, and we believe that there are huge opportunities. We are also heavily invested in many of the programs like the E-education, E-digital, E-health and digital village programs. When you look at India, I think it’s almost perfect for our brand values. We have three kind of core brand values at the company: partner, innovate and act. From a partner perspective, many of our big partners are here in India.
ASIRT
Association News
SMARTIPLY ANNOUNCES BLUECOM INFOTECH AS DISTRIBUTOR AT ASIRT TECHDAY
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he Association of System Integrators and Retailers in Technology (ASIRT) hosted Smartiply – a US based start-up working towards innovative IoT Gateway solutions, as key sponsor for their July Techday. The event also had a special Evolve session focussed on business opportunities in the Government sector for SME and MSEs, covered by three eminent speakers from the domain. The evening began on a high note with key sponsor, Smartiply formally announcing the official launch of distribution of their product portfolio through Bluecom Infotech, at the Techday. Smartiply specialises in routers and edge gateways with multichannel aggregation and edge computing capabilities for large scale deployments for remote office connectivity, e-surveillance, smart cities, and applications requiring robust and boosted connectivity and processing on the edge. At the event, Smartiply announced Bluecom Infotech as a national distributor for Smartiply’s range of routers and edge gateways, exclusively for the Western region. Post the announcement, Vishal Nagpal, Business Development Head, Smartiply India, shared an informative presentation with the members, showcasing their innovative product portfolio and various use case scenarios and success stories. He also shared special member discounts and offers for channel partners. Nagpal said, “We are a three year old company and so far most of our customer outreach has been through the SI community. They have
also been instrumental in our product development process and now that our product portfolio is ready, we felt this to be a good time to engage with the partner community. ASIRT, being a premium association of SI’s and IT retailers in Mumbai, was our first choice, mainly also because we get an opportunity to connect with key decision makers and business owners. We understand that this is also a crucial time for the trade community as most are looking to move from hardware based products to software based solutions. Our new range of offerings is aptly designed to meet this requirement and together, we look forward to a long and professionally beneficial association.” Speaking on the occasion Ravi Shankar Pooli, Managing Director,
Smartiply India said “The company is founded on key patents in the fog computing area and our products provide robust and boosted connectivity and also have support for sensor connectivity. We are delighted to announce Bluecom Infotech as our distribution partner, to make available Smartiply’s innovative suite of products and solutions to enterprise customers across multiple verticals in India.” “Smartiply’s products having combination of custom-built software and patented software with its modular design has made it possible to integrate different technologies in a single box and presents a great opportunity to meet requirements of customers for all industry verticals” said Biren Yadav, Managing Director, Bluecom Infotech.
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Association News
ISODA APPOINTS NEW MANAGING COMMITTEE
Sandhya Michu sandhya.michu@expressindia.com
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he Infotech Software Dealers Association (ISODA) organised its AGM recently in Kolkata. A unique innovation that the ISODA team came up with this time was to precede the AGM with Biz Summit, where newer vendors got to network with ISODA members for a complete day and ISODA members got an opportunity to pitch their solutions to their peers. The theme of the Biz Summit was 10X, signifying efforts of the community as a whole to achieve 10 times the business from the current scenario. At the AGM, after the financials and the last years’ minutes were passed, the elections took place for the positions of Vice Chairman, Vice
President and Secretary. In the elections, Rajeev Mamidanna, erstwhile President of ISODA and Cofounder & CEO of technosprout systems won the Vice Chairman’s position. Dnyanesh Kulkarni, founder ISODA, erstwhile Secretary of ISODA and Director – Deltakraft got the Vice President’s position. The position for Secretary was retained by Vimesh Avlani, Director – Graftronics. Amarnath Shetty, Managing Director LDS Infotech, who was the Vice Chairman in the last term, got promoted as Chairman of ISODA. Manasi Saha, Founder & Owner of Macaws Infotech, who was the Vice President in the last term, got promoted as President of ISODA. ISODA is a platform where all members are be benefitted, with ISODA acting as a catalyst and contributing by
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becoming a part of their business growth. Manasi Saha, President, ISODA, said, “Business collaboration is bound to increase in ISODA events as after the success of BIZ summit and Tech Summit members have already started collaborating with tech summit members, helping them penetrate the Qatar market. Through Biz Summit, our members like NK Mehta, Amol Majumder, Vipul Dutta, Shantanu Shom,Minal Bhagat, Devesh Agarwal, Zakir Hussan and Dhiraj Vijayvargaria have already started collaborating. I am sure, with these efforts, businees can grow manifold; which is exactly what ISODA strives to achieve.” Recently, ISODA has added Rajasthan, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and North East as additional regions to
ISODA
ISODA'S NEW MANAGING COMMITTEE: • Chair Person – Amarnath Shetty, LDS Infotech • Vice Chairperson – Rajeev Mamidanna, Technosprout Systems • President – Manasi Saha, Macaws Infotech • Vice President – Dnyanesh Kulkarni, Deltakraft Solutions • Secretary – Vimesh Avlani, Graftronics • Treasurer – Ravi Jalan, Shakti Enterprises • Regional Secretary (West) – Ajay Bhayani, Ambisure • Regional Secretary (South) – Pradeep Daga, Suntronix
Manasi Saha, President, ISODA
• Regional Secretary (North) – Atul Modi, Modi Infosol
focus on. The software association will focus on increasing membership and visibility of ISODA in this region. With its recently held first Business Summit in Kolkata the association plans to continue this further. Talking about the HOT pitch, Saha said, “It was one such endeavor for upscaling the skills of individuals which was a part of the Biz Summit. This idea of Hot Pitch came from our founder member Hemant Chabria. We had nine participants - ISODA members - from different parts of India, pitching about their products, services and training.”Apart from the Regional Secretaries, now there are as many additional Regional Secretaries to ensure propagation of ISODA in the new regions. Another important announcement was that of the TechSummit 10 Chairman. Jiten Mehta of Magnamious was selected as Chairman of TS 10. All present members appreciated the team of TS 9. Some of the subject matter experts from ISODA who shared their business experiences were Sudhir Kothari (his idea of 10x growth), Sandeep Sengupta (cyber security hygiene and ethical hacking) and Hemant Chabria(Hot Pitch). At the Hot Pitch, there were eight ISODA members from different parts of India, pitching about their products, services or training. The speciality speaker for the occasion was Soustav Chakraborty from Capital Quotient Bangalore and he spoke on “How to become financially 10x in a 5-7 year horizon.”
• Regional Secretary (East) – Rajesh Gupta, Kiosk Technologies • Regional Secretary (Karnataka) – N Murthy, JS Infotech • Regional Secretary (Gujarat) – Jitesh Chauhan, Rubik Infotech • Regional Secretary (Hyderabad) – Krishna Kalagra, Playmax Interactive • Regional Secretary (Rajasthan) – Dhiraj Vijayvargia, Priyam Infosystems • Regional Secretary (North East) – Bhaskar Kalita, BMG Informatics
THE TOP PRIORITIES FOR ISODA MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE THIS YEAR WILL BE: • Implement ISODA ASAP (As Skilled As Possible) • Increase members across India and creating new business opportunities for existing members • Take collaboration within members to next level • Upscale CSR activities • Improve communication with vendors and distributors • ISODA marketplace to showcase products and services • A unique identifier for all ISODA members • Ensuring addition of new members and retention of old members • Soft skill development for ISODA members and their employees to enhance knowledge • Focus to be increased in non-metro cities • Member Grievances Cell to be set up to address and solve business or transaction related issues • Inter country collaboration with neighbouring countries and their trade associations • Focus on P2P (partner relations) • Digital marketing to be taken to next level by increasing visibility of ISODA socially • Organising flagship Tech Summit 10 • Creating ISODA marketplace by enhancing the digital presence for the members
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CXO Speak
‘OUR GOAL IS TO CREATE A HIGH-END TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE’ In an interaction with Express Computer, Master Projection Designer Bart Kresa shares his journey in the projection artwork / mapping space, some of his biggest projects and much more Tell us more about how you started off in this industry (Projection Artwork / Mapping) and how has it evolved over the years? I was born in Warsaw, and grew up studying classical music. When I was 21, I moved to Los Angeles, and was attending a school of photography. When I was in school, I met a teacher who was creating installations with multiple slide projectors. So, I was already familiar with projections as art in galleries. I started to develop an interest in photography, and this eventually led me back to projections. In the basement of my first house in LA, I built a small studio with four slide projectors and electronic instruments. Then, I started experimenting. My first architectural projection piece was in 1995. I was invited to work on a project with artists from San Francisco and Italy for Arte Multi Visione in Italy. Over the next 10 years, my personal art passion developed into bigger and bigger projects. In 2006, I started my company, BARTKRESA studio, and worked on my first really big project, “Gift of Angels,” at Universal Studios Japan. Since then, I have travelled the world, worked on many different and inspiring projects. In December, I took a team of more than twenty people to India to create a show that had 90 projectors for a two-night-only event.
new things, and explore new ideas. For the last few years, we have been exploring 360-degree projectionmapped sculpture. Our newest piece, Sviatovid, is a 15-foot-tall sculpture that is designed and built with a library of amazing, musically driven animation.
What were the key challenges you faced when setting up these shows, in particular how did you solve outdoor venue problems vs indoors?
That was exciting. In February, I started an academy for projection design in Poland. We have four students from three countries, and I love getting to pass along the knowledge and experience that I have gained. I truly love this medium.
What is the key foundation in the curation process with your clients? How do you piece it with your inspiration and creativity? Our goal is to create a high-end transformative experience, and we never want to settle for anything less. As a philosophy, we challenge ourselves to make every project original. We never want to do the same thing twice. I also challenge myself and my studio to stay on the edge, learn
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We have certain power, internet, and time requirements for our installations that do not always match the resources present, or the schedule that the client has in mind. As a result, I have developed two production trailers that we take on site with us. We still need power and internet on site, but we try to bring everything else that we need to install and adjust the projections in as efficient and minimally invasive a way as possible. This allows us to work with the constraints of the location, and to be as flexible as possible.
What was the craziest project you have done? Also, which was your favourite project?The craziest projects are the ones that have compressed timelines. Most of our projects include at least two months for design and animation, and at least three days for installation – if
Infocomm
not weeks or months in the case of large, permanent installations. Last year, we did a 90-projector show on a week’s notice. We have some wonderful clients, and we go to great lengths to make special shows, even in extreme circumstances. My favourite project is the projections that we created for Optimus Prime in the Universal Spectacle Night Parade, at Universal Studios Japan. Optimus Prime is one of the floats in the parade, and he transforms from a truck, into a twentyfoot-tall robot in front of the audience. We animated all of the gears and surface treatments that bring Optimus Prime to life. The projections track with the robot as he transforms. This is truly unlike anything else that has been done with projections, and I am so proud to have been a part of figuring out this amazing challenge.
◗ Catch Bart’s keynote address on “The Future of Immersive Experiences” happening on 18th September 2019.
For more info, view the latest program at http://www.infocomm-india.com/ program.php As this is a by-invite only event, kindly RSVP with us at shaziaa@falcon-mail.com
Tell us why have you chosen to speak at InfoComm India 2019, and where do you see major opportunities for projection mapping in this region (South Asia/ Mid-East)? I appreciate Avixa’s dedication to bringing awareness to all of the facets within the AV industry. Even though projection mapping has existed for a long time, this medium is still unfamiliar to many people. I appreciate the opportunity to share the artform that I love with my peers. Both in this region, and around the globe, we are entering into the experience economy. I see projections are the perfect tool for creating unique, immersive experiences. My outlook on our
industry is that we are beginning a golden age of projection.
What will be the key takeaway by the audience attending your keynote address? The presentation will give an
overview of our studio’s approach to design. I will use some of our projects as case studies, showing the application of the history of projection mapping, and principles of design thinking in our development and design process.
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Advertorial
Infocomm
TECHNOLOGIES THAT TAKE OFFICES FROM IMPRESSIVE TO INTUITIVE
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specialist in the field of healthcare delivery, the Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) in Bengaluru has an office fitted with video conferencing, room booking, simplified AV and lighting solutions. When it saw a need to upgrade as well as streamline the management of its meeting room resources, it turned to Crestron to achieve complete control over its video, audio, room booking and lighting systems. Crestron Fusion is the solution that this goal. With it, employees can book a meeting room in advance, show up with their presentation device of choice, press a simple button and kickstart an on-screen presentation. In addition, videoconferencing is the fulcrum of the MEMG’s business operations across its educational and medical institutions. Ensuring this critical function run smoothly is a fully-integrated Crestron system that manages DigitalMedia switching, which distributes multiple high-definition AV sources to up to six rooms. The scalability of MEMG’s technological infrastructure is also enhanced by integrating CP3, an enterprise-class control system application that affords high-speed, real-time multi-tasking and running of multiple programs simultaneously. Because of the reliable partnership, MEMG has implemented Crestron’s technologies in its boardrooms, auditoriums, amphitheatres as well as virtual classrooms at TAPMI School of Business, Manipal University Jaipur and Manipal Global Education Services. This is just one example of how Professional AudioVisual and Information Communications Technology are changing offices around the world. This September, visit InfoComm India 2019 to learn from over 200 technology innovators to see how their solutions can help you architect smart offices of the future. See these and many more technologies relevant to the IT Professional.
tor is the Computer Society of India, Mumbai Chapter. This 2part instalment comprises panel discussions themed “Critical Infrastructures: Mapping Critical Risk Associated in Modern Infrastructure and Complying with Nodal Authorities”; and “Case Studies of IOT Smart Cities: IOT Smart Cities Integration with Enhanced AI/ML Driven Solutions”. Full Summit program and updates are available at www.infocomm-india.com
OPENING HOURS 18 September 2019 (Wednesday) 10am – 6pm 19 September 2019 (Thursday) 10am – 6pm 20 September 2019 (Friday) 10am – 4pm Registration desk opens 9:30am to half hour before closing time.
ADMISSION Admission into both Exhibition and Summit is free. Visitors need to register and secure a visitor badge for admission. For security purpose, visitor badges are non-transferable. The show is strictly open to professional trade and business visitors above the age of 18. General public and minors below the age of 18 will not be admitted. Visitors need to be in proper business attire. Those in shorts, bermudas, singlets, flip-flops and sports sandals will not be admitted. The Organizer reserves the right to refuse admission to any visitor at its sole discretion. University students must be accompanied by faculty members and will be permitted entry on 20th September 2019.
ENQUIRIES
INFOCOMM INDIA 2019 SHOW PREVIEW ◗ Enterprise automation ◗ Room scheduling ◗ Interactive digital boards ◗ Projection & display
Exhibition: Summit: General:
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◗ Collaborative conferencing solutions ◗ Presentation room controls
InfoComm India 2019 Summit: The Knowhow to Build Smart Offices The show’s learning platform, InfoComm India 2019 Summit offers free-to-attend educational sessions across AVIXA Seminars, Industry and Technology Forums, AVIXA FlashTracks, and Platinum Partners’ Presentations. Experts will be here to share their hard-earned insights. Poised to host a session benefitting the Enterprise IT sec-
38 I COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS I SEPTEMBER, 2019 I crn.in
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REGD.NO.MCS/220/2018-20, PUBLISHED ON 7TH OF EVERY MONTH & POSTED AT MUMBAI PATRIKA CHANNEL SORTING OFFICE, DUE DATE 8TH, 9TH & 10TH OF EVERY MONTH, REGD. WITH RNI UNDER NO. MAHENG/75607/2018.