Sme Channels July 2013 by SME Channels

PLUS

McAfee Rakshak Partners Rewarded /10

india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 04 | ISSUE 05 | PAGES 52 | JULY 2013 | RS. 20/-

SME TREND

SECURITY CORNER

SME CHAT

Ricoh: Accelerating India Plans /34

Symantec: SMBs Most Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks /31

Dell: “Dell Invests in Priority Clusters”

/36

ARE SMEs READY FOR

SaaS

The software market is undergoing a transformation and the foremost emerging trend and disruptive technology SaaS today features in software vendors overall business strategy, and needs to be seen if SMES too are ready.. /24

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Lenovo® recommends Windows 8 Pro.

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To know more about ThinkPad Ultrabook™ Convertibles and Tablets, visit

http://www.lenovo.com/enterprise/in/en/thinkpad_overview.html Advts.indd 1

Lenovo reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time, without notice. Lenovo is not responsible for photographic or typographic errors. Trademarks: The following are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo: Lenovo, the Lenovo logo, For Those Who Do and ThinkPad. Ultrabook is a trademark of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. ©2013 Lenovo. All rights reserved.

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PLUS

Dell Targets Emerging Markets for Growth /16 www.smechannels.com

india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 04 | ISSUE 05 | PAGES 52 | JULY 2013 | RS. 20/-

SME TREND

SME SOLUTION

/46

Konica Minolta: Out of the Box Solutions for SMEs

/32

SapphireIMS: Transforming SME Sector

LEADER’S CORNER

/38

Panasonic: Targeting a Larger Business Pie

MY EXPERIENCE EDITORIAL

TIER-2 CITIES GAINING PROMINENCE SANJAY MOHAPATRA editor@smechannels.com

ANOTHER MONTH of market slowdown and there is no sign of abatement of US dollar price against INR. Prices of all the IT products have gone up now. The buying in the market has slowed down. Even the consumer footfalls in the LFRs are not so high. There are reports from various markets that vendors have started offering heavy discounts. But still the takers are not so high. In order to keep the dollar price under control, the RBI has made 200 bps hike in the Marginal Standing Facility besides imposing an overall cap of Rs.750 bn for LAF borrowing. The RBI has also announced absorption of market liquidity through open market sale of government securities through open market operations. So the government and RBI have started working on this but it all depends upon the recovering of global market. It is a chain effect in the market. We are now in a global economy. No country is immune from the spell worldwide economic performance. Although Indian and China economy is not so dependent on the global market because of its large pool of consumers and growing businesses but there are still huge export and import market, which is done through Dollar. However the good news is that the US market has started showing signs of improvement – at least at the stock exchange level. Even the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 stock indexes have touched intraday records. It means there are socio and economic reforms happening in the US. The market slowdown has another reason to it also. Neither it is a month of institutional buyers nor is it the month of festivals. Every year, these months see slow performance in buying and selling. Secondly, even though some of the government buying are happening but it is clear that till 2014 general election, the major government buying will not happen. Now, whatever momentum is happening in the market, it is because of the SMEs. One more trend is seen in the market is that the buying has shifted from Tier-1 cities to Tier-2 cities. Since the principals have slashed their pricing, it is becoming an affordable proposition for the customers in smaller cities. And the gainers are not the large vendors again; it is the Tier-2 vendors. In the outsourcing market also same pattern is quite visible. The Tier-2 service providers and solutions providers are making more revenue than the Tier-1s.

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TP-LINK 3G/Wi-Fi SIM Card Router THIS TP-LINK 3G Mobile Wi-Fi M5350 SIM card router provides high-speed Internet access anywhere one goes. With its “pebblelike” design and OLED status display, the M5350 features 2000mAh battery, operates for a 7-10 hours at full capacity and can be flexibly recharged via a micro USB cable connected to a laptop, portable charger or included adapter to provide endless hours of 3G sharing. It also comes with an internal Micro SD Card slot.

SPECIFICATIONS SIM slot supporting HSPA+ 3G broadband connections. FINAL WORDING Priced at is Rs. 5,500, this product can help increase the usage of 3G. OVERALL RATING CORRIGENDUM In SME Channels’ June 2013 issue, in a story with the headline – ‘Ricoh to Launch Inkjet Printers in India’, the photograph of Mr. Tetsuya Takano, MD & CEO, Ricoh India Ltd. was inadvertently swapped with the photograph of Mr. Tadahiko Sumitani, MD, Konica Minolta Business Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. We regret the inconvenience caused to the concerned persons or organizations. Since it is accidental in nature, we have reprinted the news with correct photographs. Pls. refer to page no. 8 and 12 for both the corrected news.

SME CHANNELS JULY 2013

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contents

JUL VOLUME 04 ISSUE 05

2013

ER COV RY STO

india’s first IT magazine for sme business

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra Assistant Editor: Karma Negi Reporter: Aparajita Choudhury Executive Editor: Smruti Chaudhury Copy Editor: Neil D’Souza Web Designer: Vijay Bakshi Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan Satya Sagar Sinha Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Senior Manager: M Raj Marketing Executive: Rajat Kumar Circulation and Printing: Panchanan Bhoi SALES CONTACTS Delhi 6/102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016 Phone: 91-11-41055458 / 9313891660 E-mail: raj@smechannels.com Bangalore #28/1, 3rd Floor, Sri Lakshmi Krupa, Near Shamanna Park, Model House Street, Basavanagudi, Bangalore - 560004 Ph. No. +91 88618 21044 Mumbai Tahmeed Ansari 2, Ground Floor, Park Paradise, Kay-Bees CHS. Ltd.,Opp. Green Park, Oshiwara, Andheri (west), Mumbai - 400 053. Ph. +91 22 26338546, Fax +91 22 26395581 Mobile: +91 9967 232424 E-mail: Info@smechannels.com Kolkata S Subhendu BC-286, Laxmi Apartment, Kestopur Kolkata-700101 Phone: 9674804389 EDITORIAL OFFICE

Are SMEs Ready for SaaS /24 The software market is undergoing a transformation and the foremost emerging trend and disruptive technology SaaS today features in software vendors overall business strategy.

Delhi: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, New Delhi-110016, Phone: 91-11-41657670 / 46151993 editor@smechannels.com Bangalore Bindiya Jadhav #28/1, 3rd Floor, Sri Lakshmi Krupa, Near Shamanna Park, Model House Street, Basavanagudi, Bangalore - 560004

SME CHAT Dell /36

“Dell Invests in Priority Clusters”

more inside Editorial~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 04

SME TREND Ricoh /34

Accelerating India Plans

Netapp /44

Data ONTAP 8.2 to Redefine Storage Applications

Konica Minolta /46

Out of the Box Solutions for SMEs

Snippets~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 08 Security Corner~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 31

Ph. No. +91 88618 21044 E-Mail bindiya@ accentinfomedia.com Skype ID: b1diyajadhav

Printed, Published and Owned by Sanjib Mohapatra Place of Publication: 6/101-102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas

SME Solutions~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 32, 50

New Delhi-110016

Leaders Corner~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 38

Phone: 91-11-46151993 / 41055458

Guest Talk~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 43 Products~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 48

FEATURE SOFTWARE BUSINESS /40

tion can be reproduced without the prior written permission from the publisher. Subscription: Rs.200 (12 issues) All payments favouring: Accent Info Media Pvt. Ltd.

SME CHANNELS JULY 2013

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SNIPPETS PRODUCT | CHANNEL | CONSULTING | SERVICES

for more log on to smechannels.com

Konica Minolta Unveils Digital Imaging Square Konica Minolta Business Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. launched Digital Imaging Square (DIS) with an investment of USD one million. The Digital Imaging Square is a technology demonstration centre where all the solutions of Konica

Minolta has been displayed under one roof which encompasses the latest Multi-Function Printers (MFP) and Production Printers (PP) for corporate and commercial sectors respectively. This technology demonstration

is open for both customers and partners where they can come and play with the company’s technology and understand the value they get from Konica Minolta which the company claimed is their commitment towards Indian market and

customers. Konica Minolta started its operation in India in September 2010. Now, it has become the market leader in colour A3 printing for office space with 25% of the market share. It is at No. 2 position with 17% market share in monochrome A3 printing. The company has a turnover of approximately 230 cr INR in India. The company informed that creating new value is the management philosophy of Konica Minolta. Moreover, with sites in 40 countries and business operations in 144 countries, Konica Minolta is grabbing the market rapidly. It has over 4,000 machines in field all over India with offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore. Tadahiko Sumitani, MD, Konica Minolta Business Solutions India Pvt. Ltd., said, “India is one of the important markets for Konica Minolta and our objective is to continue our top positioning in the Production Printing segment and notch up at least 25% of market share in the office environment in coming to years’ time. We intend to increase our revenue from 230 crores to 300 plus crores.” As per the company, Konica Minolta caters to the true needs of the customer and follows a partnercentric approach.

Palo Alto Offers Private Cloud Deployment Choice Palo Alto has unveiled the Palo Alto Networks WF-500 appliance, a platform designed to deliver a private cloud solution for timely and thorough detection, analysis and prevention of advanced persistent threats (APTs). Designed to meet the needs of customers with restrictions that preclude them from accessing a public cloud option, the Palo Alto Networks WF-500 appliance delivers the comprehensive sandbox detection and analysis capabilities of the Palo Alto Networks public cloud based WildFire subscription offering on a customer-owned platform announced the press release. The release says only Palo Alto Networks offers this kind of “closed loop” prevention solution that includes private or public cloud deployment options.

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SNIPPETS

Dell Enhances Cloud Client Computing Dell has made another addition to its Cloud Client Computing portfolio, Dell Wyse ThinOS 8 firmware and the Dell Wyse D10D thin client. The go-to source for secure virtual desktop solutions, Dell Wyse designed ThinOS 8 firmware as well as the D10D thin client to respond right out of the box to the increasing enterprise security threats. Virus-immune ThinOS 8 eliminates the need for security patches or expensive local software to safeguard against evolving security threats announced the press release. Dell Wyse ThinOS 8 is enterprise-ready with capabilities to support common security needs, including smartcard, proximity card, single sign-on, 802.1X, and extensive EAP security. The company further says that because of its native security and manageability advantages, ThinOS 8 lowers the total cost of ownership of endpoint devices helping organizations optimize their IT investments.

Quick Heal Banks on Social Media Quick Heal Technologies has initiated a social media campaign titled ‘101 Uses of Gadgets without Quick Heal’ which aims to create awareness that without anti-virus all gadgets, devices and Smartphone’s are ‘useless’. Through this campaign, Quick Heal looks to reinforce the idea that IT security is not optional, but a necessity in today’s connected age. The focus of this campaign is to build awareness across gadget users that security solutions are a must to protect the device as well as the data inside the device. This campaign is targeted to individual users across age group 10 years to 45 years, as smart phone devices and high end devices usage penetration is high across this age group.

McAfee Rakshak Partners Rewarded McAfee rewarded its Rakshak Reseller partners who accumulated reward points under the company’s Rakshak Loyalty Program in 2012. This loyalty program is a specially designed partner initiative; aimed at enhancing partner revenues and incentivising them with exciting prizes for McAfee consumer products namely McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2013, McAfee Internet Security 2013 and McAfee Total Protection 2013. Delhi based Genius Software Solutions took home the bumper prize –a Tata Indica V2 Xeta. As the proud winner of the grand prize, Kapil Piplani, Proprietor of Genius Software, said, “I have been focusing on McAfee products since April 2012. We are proud to have won the bumper prize and are grateful to the McAfee team for appreciating our efforts. This is truly motivating for our team and we hope to continue with the winning spree next year as well.” Similarly, Bajaj Pulsar 150 CC bikes, was bagged by Mumbai based Bios Technologies and Mehta Infosys. Lubna Markar, Sr. Marketing Manager (India & South Asia), McAfee, said, “Our aim is to support all our resellers who promote McAfee which is testified by the fact that we issued more than 600 rewards for this initiative in 2013.”

MY POINT

NetApp to Expand Reach in Tier-II Cities NetApp plans to strengthen its base and accelerate growth in the Ahmedabad market. The decision is a strategic move to capture market share in the growing Tier-II cities across India. NetApp is focused on extending its leadership in the information infrastructure market in India with a strong go-to-market plan underlined by robust relationships with key service provider partners, value-added reseller (VAR) partners, and enabling them to work together to more effectively address the customer base in Ahmedabad, the press release announced. Over the past few months, NetApp has launched and undertaken multiple channel enablement programs that underline its commitment towards its partners. The NetApp Accredited Sales Professional (NASP) and Sales Engineering (SE) technology programs apart from the various NetApp conducted programs around FlexPod, HPC and Big Data enable partners to build skills internally and provide professional consulting services to their clients. Krithiwas Neelakantan, Director (Channel & Alliances, India & Saarc), NetApp, said, “Our ‘install base’ today across India has increased and we believe this momentum will continue, we are extremely aggressive at this front now.”

Vintron Ventures into Surveillance Segment “Social collaboration technologies represent a growing opportunity for both large companies and SMBs to fully realize the benefits of cloud computing through and all-inclusive approach to productivity.” RAMKUMAR PICHAI GM (MICROSOFT OFFICE DIVISION), MICROSOFT

Manufacturer of electronic security and surveillance products Vintron Informatics Ltd. has forayed into the security and surveillance segment with its set of CCTV cameras, video door phones and standalone DVR’s in India. Delivering to the emerging needs of next generation security, the company is set to align itself with key verticals such as government, banking, education, retail and manufacturing and position its surveillance related product offering in India announced the press release. “We are very proud to announce our foray into this exciting space. Over the past many years, Vintron brand is known for its quality and performance and we are sure to replicate similar success in the space of security and surveillance. We will be pushing our CCTV range of products with the help of our channel partner and distribution network in India,” explained Varun Gupta, Director, Vintron Informatics Limited.

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SNIPPETS

Eaton Named among Best Companies to Work For Eaton has declared that it has been named among India’s Best Companies to Work For in 2013. This is the second consecutive year that Eaton has secured a position in the nationwide study, which had over 500 participating companies announced the release. Nitin Chalke, MD (India), Eaton, said, “This is a prestigious recognition and is testimony of our endeavor to successfully implement and uphold Eaton’s globally acknowledged people policies across our operations in India as a leader in power management and sustainable business practices.” A global technology leader, Eaton acquired Cooper Industries plc in November 2012. The 2012 revenue of the combined companies was $21.8 billion on a pro forma basis.

RICOH MULLS LAUNCHING INKJET PRINTERS IN INDIA

Buoyed by the increasing popularity of the inkjet market in India Ricoh India is planning to launch its inkjet printers in India revealed Manoj Kumar, Senior VP and CFO, Ricoh India. “We have been studying India’s inkjet printer market and have plans to come out with our inkjets printers here. But how soon, that I can’t reveal,” he added. This news was revealed on the sidelines of the launch of its six new models of Laser printers and A4 MFPs: the SP 200 series, which it plans to drive aggressively through IT dealer and reseller channel. The firm clocked a turnover of Rs. 623 crore last fiscal, and plans to increase this to Rs. 1000 crore in FY13 with its aggressive expansion plans. “This product is said to benefit the SME sector with its competitive price and low cost of operation, as low as 30% versus competitive models in the category,” informed Tetsuya Takano, MD and CEO, Ricoh India. Ricoh plans to expand its channel presence from the present 60-70 cities to 200 cities.

Arise India Unveils Energy Efficient UPS Arise India has introduced its ‘Sine Wave’ range of Home UPS Solutions to address the need of the Home UPS consumers in the country. Available in ratings capacity of 700VA-12V, 900VA-12V and 1500VA-24V, the Sine wave Range of Home UPS is a value-for-money device provides rugged, reliable, customer friendly and feature full solution to the consumers. The Sine Wave range delivers complete battery charging solution which helps in saving energy while charging which the company says an industry first feature, unmatched by any other competitive UPS in the market. The Sine Wave range of Home UPS solutions not only has an innovative charging solution but also comprises of many revolutionary features which makes the system efficiently reliable and customer friendly announced the press release.

Mega Networks Unveils Server Solutions Mega Networks has launched new compact high-density server solutions from Supermicro that will support Intel’s highly anticipated future Xeon Processor E3-1200 V3 product family. Supermicro uni-processor (UP) server solutions will bring to market higher performance with increased energy efficiency through improved system, cooling and power architectures and integration of Intel’s latest processor micro-architecture based on 22nm 3-D Tri-Gate technology. MicroCloud, one of Supermicro’s most innovative, high-density UP server solutions will feature support for the future Intel Xeon processor E3-1200 V3 family in 12 node (SYS-5038ML-H12TRF) and 8 node (SYS5038ML-H8TRF) configurations at launch with a 24 node solution around the corner.

MS Dynamics CRM 2013 to Offer Better Customer Experience Microsoft has planned to make the next version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM available in the fall of 2013. Designed to redefine how businesses engage with their customers, the new version represents the approach Microsoft Dynamics is taking to developing and delivering business solutions that put people at the center announced the release. Available both online as Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Fall ‘13 and on-premises as Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013, this major release will deliver more personal experiences to sales, marketing and customer care professionals.

Digilite Partners Go to Thailand Digilite took its channel partners to Phuket, Thailand to celebrate another successful year of business. This trip was part of annual “Digilite Channel Yatra” that was organized from 16th June to 18th June 2013 and had over 40 partners joining from across India informed the release. Rajan Sharma, VP (Sales), Digilite, said, “Our channel partners and distributors are an imperative force behind the celebrated success of Digilite and we consider them as an integral part of our team. In appreciation of our partner’s stupendous support in making Digilite a huge success in India, this year we took them to Phuket.”

RDP’s XL-500 Get “Citrix Ready” RDP Thin Client XL 500, optimized for VMware View, has been approved for “Citrix Ready”. Citrix Ready is an end-to-end partner program that showcases and recommends third party products, solutions and services demonstrating compatibility with Citrix Application Delivery Infrastructure. It allows users to quickly and easily find solutions recommended by Citrix that are trusted to enhance Citrix offerings. Very soon XL-500 will get “Citrix Ready” logo. By this RDP and its products can gain exposure to over 230,000 Citrix customers and 8,000 Citrix resellers.

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SNIPPETS

NETGEAR Inaugurates its first R&D Centre in India

DIGISOL LAUNCHES NAS BOXES

After opening its first SMB solution centre in Bangalore, NETGEAR has opened its first Global Engineering Centre in India. Located in Bangalore, this Centre will take care of the customization and local needs of the region. Subhodeep Bhattacharya, Regional Director (India & SAARC), NETGEAR, said, “NETGEAR is focussed on SMB infrastructure products mainly pitching to Switching, Wireless, Storage and Wi-Fi/Controllers segments. The addition of Global R&D centre will also help NETGEAR include Indian customer requirements and feedback in the product design phase. We are committed to provide the best technological experience to the SMB/SME segment.” NETGEAR has a vibrant presence in all metropolitan cities in India and have atleast 40 to 50 partners in each of these metro locations. It is continually taking initiatives to provide the latest technology and most advanced solutions to its customers and resellers in India. After opening its first SMB solution centre at Bangalore recently, the opening up of this R&D centre is another step from NETGEAR in this regard.

Digisol has entered Network Attached Storage Market with the launch of its 4 bay NAS. The new Digisol DG-NS5004 “Cloud Vault” comes with 1GHz RISC Processor, Gigabit Ethernet LAN and USB port support for Printer and data backup. The Cloud Vault, support up to 16TB HDD with 4TB at each bay. Bimal Raj, CEO, Smartlink Network Systems Ltd., said, “Today’s businesses face challenge of data Bimal Raj, CEO, Smartlink Network management and storage owing to the rapid growth Systems Ltd. of data requirements. Our new Digisol Cloud Vault will cater to the need of reliable, affordable and expandable centralized storage to securely store, share, and back up data. Seeing the growing demand of tablets and smart phones users, we have packed our Cloud Vault with lots of apps which makes data easily available on the go.” Cloud Vault features Diginas search utility which detects the NAS in the LAN. The user friendly Web interface and setup wizard configures the NAS with minimal effort and saves time of the network administrator. The company informed that with Digisol NAS Cloud Vault private cloud feature, users can access their data from any computer or hand-held device. It’s easy to host and configure private cloud on DG-NS5004 NAS. Cloud Vault supports hardware accelerated RAID (redundant array of independent disks) levels 0, 1, 5 ensuring complete data redundancy with protection against hardware failure. If one drive fails, then data volumes can still be rebuilt with the remaining drives maintaining the Data Integrity said the release.

EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT

PRINTER, COPIER AND MFP SHIPMENTS DECLINE 8.9% IN Q1

Maveric Systems has appointed B Sriram as the company’s senior vice president for sales support. He joins from HCL Technologies.

THE COMBINED SERIAL INKJET AND PAGE PRINTER, COPIER AND MFP MARKET IN INDIA TOTALED 690,344 UNITS IN THE Q1 OF 2013, A 8.9% DECREASE FROM THE Q1 OF 2012 INDIA PRINTER, COPIER AND MFP UNIT SHIPMENT ESTIMATES, 1Q13 (THOUSANDS OF UNITS) 2013

Canon

Epson

Samsung

Source: Gartner (June 2013)

690.3

70.9

70.5

57.8

63.4

67.1

137.4

150.7

360.8

408.4

757.7

2012

Others

Total

LifeSize Communications has named Andreas Wienold as International Vice President. He has 18 years of professional experience in the IT and networking industry SanDisk has appointed Ganesh Guruswamy as Vice President and Head of Design Operations for SanDisk India Design Center located in Bangalore, India. Riverbed’s Steve Dixon has assumed the role of senior vice president, Asia Pacific and Japan Sales. He has been with Riverbed for more than seven years now in various senior management roles.

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SNIPPETS

Dell Targets Emerging Markets for Growth

DIGEST

Dell India has revealed the Emerging Markets Program to upkeep its long term focus on serving the growth markets of India. The company has identified 11 underserved cities in India namely- Nasik, Lucknow, Coimbatore, Kochi, Chandigarh, Baroda, Nagpur, Vishakhapatnam, Jaipur, Mysore and Indore where they have devised a strategy for hyper growth. The Emerging Markets Program is aimed at bringing Dell Solutions through partnerships with preferred partners to SMB’s customers in emerging markets enabling them to access Dell’s end-to-end solution portfolio announced the press release. Channel partners will have a dedicated Dell account manager in these territories to get dedicated support for an effective engagement with the customer. It will also ensure that the partners receive an on-going training on latest technologies, enabling them as technology advisors rather than just product suppliers & an option to carry stock, for quick turnarounds to the IT needs of these customers. Having a complete range of IT solutions for all businesses, with a strong distribution system the company aims to take a big leap in the hyper growth segment of India and contribute to the overall growth of the nation.

ANTEC TO PENETRATE B, C AND D CITIES MARKETS

RAMCO LAUNCHES HCM ON CLOUD

Ramco Systems has launched its comprehensive HR & Talent Management solution, Ramco HCM on Cloud (Human Capital Management), with Ramco Minnal an In-memory engine. Virender Aggarwal, CEO, Ramco Systems, said, “The Enterprise Cloud market is growing rapidly with adoption across organizations of all sizes. Our investments in technology and our focus towards bringing Mobility, Gen-Y User interface, role-based WorkSpaces and In-memory engine into a Cloud-based offering has helped us carve a niche position, globally.” As the company is focused on delivering ERP on Cloud, Tablets & Smart Phones and ERP and Aviation solutions on Cloud, now Ramco takes the comprehensive HR solution on Cloud. Ramco has been offering its on-premise HCM software globally to 300+organizations, including customers with employee size of 100,000+. Moving to the next level from on–premise HCM software on the basis of the experience and knowledge gained over the years has been invested in re-architecting the product to bring in a Gen-Y interface, accessible on Smart phones, User Interface, integrated with Social channels, etc.

Transcend Brings Half-Slim SATA III 6Gb/s SSD Transcend has released the HSD740 half-slim SATA III 6Gb/s solid state drive (SSD). Featuring the latest SATA specification, Transcend’s HSD740 SATA III half-slim SSD delivers peak performance in industrial grade standards, yet offers significantly smaller dimensions and superior long-term reliability than 2.5” form factor hard disk drives announced the press release. Transcend’s HSD740 half-slim SATA SSDs are comprised of high-quality toggle-mode MLC NAND Flash chips, providing excellent solid-state performance in a lightweight compact package that measures just 54mm x 39mm x 4mm. In addition to their convenient compact size, the HSD740 SSD modules feature a high-bandwidth SATA III 6Gb/s interface that helps deliver fast transfer speeds reaching 510MB/s read and 185MB/s write.

National Cyber Security Policy 2013 Released With the vision to build a secure and resilient cyberspace for citizens, businesses and government the Indian government has released the National Cyber Security Policy 2013. The need for the policy arose in the wake of the vulnerability of the cyberspace and its exploitation for nefarious purposes by both nation sates and non-state actors. The notification announced the policy plans to establish National nodal agency to coordinate all matters related to cyber security in the country, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Further a workforce of 500,000 professionals skilled in cyber security will be created in the next five years. It also plans to operate a 24x7 National Level Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to function as a nodal agency for coordination of all efforts for cyber security emergency response and crisis management.

Antec has appointed Abacus Peripherals as its authorized distributor. Abacus will distribute Antec’s range of cabinets, PSUs and accessories. Antec plans to expand the business in India and penetrate the markets of B, C and D cities through Abacus’ well spread distribution network in almost 250 cities across 26 states and Union Territories and service to 3500 channel partners.

ADVANCE TO DISTRIBUTE EDIMAX’S IP CAMERAS Edimax Technology has appointed Advance Infotech as its Authorized Distributor. Advance Infotech will distribute the complete range of Edimax Security and Surveillance range of products. With this appointment, Edimax now has a distributor to cater the IP based video surveillance products to SMB - Security and Surveillance and support the re-sellers and value added re-sellers across the regions.

RAPOO UNCOVERS 5GHZ WIRELESS COMBO 8900P Rapoo has launched wireless combo 8900P with 5GHz wireless connectivity. This wireless combo features 5.8GHz super antiinterference wireless connection, ultra-thin suspended chocolate keyboard, multi-media intelligent sensing technology, 4D scroll wheel, adjustable 800/1600 DPI high precision laser engine technology and forward/ back/ zoom in/zoom out buttons. Rapoo 8900P wireless combo is available at a price of Rs 6,999 and it comes with two-years replacement warranty.

DOMO LAUNCHES BLUETOOTH ENABLED SLATE X2G TABLET DOMO has released its Bluetooth enabled DOMO Slate X2G tablet with 3D gaming and dual stereo mic. The tablet boasts of internal SIM card slot for calling and browsing the internet. One can browse the internet or place calls directly from the tablet. DOMO Slate X2G consumes less power. It also supports Adobe flash player 11. The X2G is equipped with 512MB of RAM and runs on a 1.2GHz Cortex A8 processor.

PNY UNVEILS USB3.0 FLASH DRIVEPNY Technologies has launched its newest high speed USB3.0 flash drive. The drive supports high speed USB 3.0 standard which is several times faster than USB 2.0 claimed the company. The press release said that this is very useful with the high capacity drives because one will not have to wait for too long for the data to transfer. In case if the PC doesn’t have a USB 3.0 port, this drive can still work with USB 2.0 as it is backward compatible.

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SNIPPETS

Unistal Launches ‘Protegent Monsoon Dhamaal’ Unistal Systems has launched Protegent Monsoon Dhamaal in which partner gets more than 60% value back on his purchase in the form of travel coupon. In this scheme, partner has to buy Protegent valued Rs. 12,500 for the confirmation of 2N or 3D holiday stay for a couple at any of the 51 destinations worth more than Rs. 7,000. These destinations not only includes Indian destination but also International locations. Rajib Banerjee, VP (Sales), Unistal Systems Pvt. Ltd., said, “No one dares to offer a scheme in which partner earns on the product and also gets back more than 60% of his investment. Presently, we are looking forward to educate and empower our channel partners which will help them increase their profits. We are looking forward to enroll 500 more partners for the scheme which is currently on.”

FUSIONSTOR DELIVERS INVENTO SERVER SERIES FOR SMBS FusionStor has added Invento server series to its product line with a focus on SMBs. The series brings 1U/2U general purpose servers, multi-node high density servers (Compacto & Quadra Series), and 4-way high end business critical servers for applications such as HPC, virtualization, distributed computing, various cloud services, etc. announced the press release. The Invento Series family covers latest 1P/2P/4P Amod Phadke, CEO, FusionStor Intel Xeon Platforms with high scalability, ultradense design along with remarkable energy/cooling efficiency and infrastructure investment savings. Commenting on the Invento server range, Amod Phadke, CEO, FusionStor, said, “With the launch of the Invento Series Servers we will have a major benefit of faster penetration in all major verticals, as our products are designed to cater to the customer requirements and are engineered for future scalability. This also gives the customers the benefit of space saving, high density, and better power efficiency at an affordable price. At the same time we serve quality and make sure that our partners make better margins.”

Only 6% Cos Recongise The True Scale of Threat

Rashi to Distribute AOC Monitors & Tabs

Kaspersky Lab and analytical authority B2B International have conducted ‘2013 Global Corporate IT Security Risks survey’ which reveals that most companies greatly underestimate the number of new malicious programs appearing daily, and only 6% recognize the true scale of the threat. According to Kaspersky Lab, nearly 200,000 new malware samples appear around the world each day. The company said that 90% of global participants in the survey named a lower figure, 4% guessed too high and only 6% gave an accurate estimate. The highest levels of malware awareness were found among respondents in the Middle East, where 24% of companies gave accurate estimates. At 4%, the lowest levels of malware literacy were found in Russia. In other regions, including North and South America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific, the percentage of companies with accurate estimates ranged from 5% - 7%. Remarkably, the results of this same survey revealed that an average 66% of companies had experienced at least one attack.

AOC has roped in Rashi Peripherals as its regional distributor for Kerala. Through this association Rashi Peripherals will be responsible for the distribution of entire range of AOC Monitors and latest AOC Breeze tablets in the Kerala region. AOC recently introduced 7 inch & 9.7 inch Android tablets in Indian Market and will be soon bringing in Android based monitors in their product portfolio. This entire range of products will be distributed by Rashi in Kerala.

Iris to Hit New High

Matrix to Attend IFSEC South Africa

Iris has declared that they plan to touch Rs. 2,000 crore revenue this fiscal with an ambitious plan to set Iris as the “distributor of choice”. Companies like Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, Acer have helped Iris Computers Ltd to elevate its growth from Rs. 823 Crore in 2010-11 to targeting Rs. 2,000 crore in the year 2013-14 announced the press release. Sanjiv Krishen , Chairman, Iris Computers, said, “We want to position ourselves as the ‘Distributor of Choice’ for IT companies and we have been successful in acquiring that status with some of the top firms. Today, we have more than 50% of Lenonvo’s commercial computer distribution business, 56% of Samsung’s Enterprise IT business, apart from being the number one distributor for Dell Commercial business.” As per the release, Iris successfully compete and bag distribution orders in the niche area of commercial computers compared to other large distributing firms like Ingram and Redington who dealt with several other product lines too.

Matrix Comsec will participate in IFSEC South Africa-2013 for the second time. Matrix will showcase its complete portfolio of security products encompassing range of Access Control and Time-Attendance Solution, Video Surveillance Solution and Fire Alarm Panel. At this event, Matrix will launch three new door controllers COSEC DOOR PVR, COSEC NGT FCX and COSEC PATH. Besides the company will launch Satatya NVR400, an the IP based surveillance solution.

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Simple yet Powerful NAS Turbo NAS TS-421 Easier operations on QTS 4.0 OS Multi-window, quick start menu, graphic dashboard, drag-and-drop icons, and many more in QTS 4.0 make system management much easier.

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TS-221

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20/07/13 10:55 AM

SNIPPETS

Supertron to Distribute Philips Display MMD, the exclusive license for Philips Commercial Signage and Philips Displays, has appointed Supertron Electronics Pvt Limited as an exclusive national distributor for Philips large format displays in India in order to further strengthen its presence in the Indian market. Seema T Bhatnagar, Director, Philips Signage Business India & SAARC, said, “With the introduction of new Philip displays, our aim was to meet the demand of the consumers at more economical prices. Supertron Electronics has a nationwide presence with 29 branch offices and warehouses and nine satellite offices across 29 states and Union Territories. The partnership will allow the people to have a choice and experience of what they are looking for.”

HP MAKES NEW ADDITION TO PUBLIC CLOUD PORTFOLIO HP Cloud Services functionality and services built on OpenStack technology has been unveiled that makes it easy for enterprises to run enterprisegrade applications in the public cloud. As a part of the HP Converged Cloud portfolio, new HP Cloud Services capabilities include larger compute instances, virtual private cloud enhancements, improved image management and faster bulk data import. V Ramachandran, Country Manager (ConThese enhancements are designed to simplify verged Infrastructure & Cloud Solutions, the development and deployment of applications Cloud Systems), HP India in the cloud. V Ramachandran, Country Manager (Converged Infrastructure & Cloud Solutions, Cloud Systems), HP India, said, “With the explosion of big data, organizations are looking for ways to capitalize on the cloud to manage their information-heavy workloads. Today’s additions to the HP public cloud portfolio make it easier for users to build applications with massive data requirements and streamlines running them in the public cloud.”

eScan Rolls Out Series of Resellers Meet With an objective to enhance its strength, eScan has rolled out a series of reseller meets and road shows to attract and educate end-customers for the benefit of its channel partners pan India. During the reseller meet, eScan educates the partners about evolving cyber threats targeted towards various verticals amongst all segments such as SMBs, Corporate, and Enterprise as well as Home users. During the event, eScan showcases and educates the attendees about its latest products with Cloud Security as well as beneficial channel schemes that will benefit eScan’s privileged channel partners with good value proposition and profits. The reseller meets covering majorly all B and C- Class cities pan India focuses to enhance the brands reach amongst T3 and T4 partners.

Ingram Micro is Asus’ National Disty Asus has appointed Ingram Micro as a national distributor for its Component Business. Ingram Micro will now handle distribution for Asus desktops, all-in-one PCs, LCD monitors and projectors across the country along with Asus’ existing distributor Rashi Peripherals. The motive of this appointment is to create customer demand, channel expansion and strategic plans of the company. Asus now aims to tap a newer market base, verticals and channel base with this appointment. With 42 branches across the country, Ingram Micro would help extend the reach of Asus’ component products to Indian IT customers, businesses and consumers.

Foxconn to Spin-off More Business Units Foxconn has plans to spin off more of its business units in the next few years after the separation of its connector manufacturing units, the Network Interconnection Business Group (NWInG). The NWInG will be named Foxconn Interconnect Technology (FIT) and is likely to be listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) at the end of 2013. Foxconn is also planning to list two more subsidiaries within next two years, including the Tainjinbased CNTouch, which manufacture carbon Nano-tubes for touch applications, sensors, cables and LED lighting products along with a subsidiary which manufacture glues and tapes.

Toshiba Storage Partner International Tour Concludes Toshiba Storage Partner International tour was successfully concluded. Partners from all over the country gathered together to enjoy themselves with Toshiba and Rashi Peripherals Team in Hong Kong and Macau. The trip also organized a gala dinner night with a few fun performances and the partners were gifted souvenirs/token of appreciation from Toshiba. This trip is considered to be the best as well as the most organized trip in a very long time and created a great friendly atmosphere for the partners who compete for sales on a regular basis.

Logitech Unveils G-Series for Gamers Logitech India has launched the gaming series for gaming enthusiasts which includes keyboards, mice and headsets. Logitech unveiled six new products (four keyboards, three mice, two headsets and one mousekeyboard combo). G19s Gaming Keyboard, G13 Advanced Gameboard, G105 Gaming Keyboard, G510s Gaming Keyboard, G500s Laser Gaming Mouse, G400s Optical Gaming Mouse, G100s Optical Gaming Mouse, G430 Surround Sound Gaming Headset, G230 Stereo Gaming Headset and G100s Combo, etc.

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SNIPPETS

Brother Eyes 15% Market-share in Mono Laser

HP DELIVERS PROLIANT MICROSERVER GEN 8 FOR SMBS

In a move to further expand Brother’s penetration in Indian market and establish deeper connect with the Indian consumers, the company announced addition of three new Mono Laser products to its existing wide portfolio of Mono Laser, Colour and Inkjet multifunction centers and printers. As per the press release, these new models are global strategic models which are specifically targeted at emerging countries. With this initiative, the company aims to achieve over 15% market share in the mono laser category by 2015. Yoshiji Matsui, MD, Brother International India Pvt. Ltd., said, “We envisage a significant demand for Mono Laser category in Indian market and aim to double our business in this category this year by achieving greater satisfaction and support from Indian customers with reliable, affordable and efficient products.”

HP has announced new and enhanced HP ProLiant servers that help small and midsized businesses (SMBs) accelerate business results by simplifying the deployment, management and maintenance of their IT infrastructure. The new HP ProLiant MicroServer Generation 8 (Gen8) is an ideal first server that provides simplified setup, management and maintenance with innovative HP Smart Technologies announced the Vikram K, Director, ISS, HP India press release. The HP MicroServer offers centralized, anywhere, anytime data access to employees to boost productivity and collaboration through data sharing—and it is small enough to sit on a desk. HP also announced cost-optimized solutions for micro and SMB clients that provide the reliability, flexibility and scalability needed to accommodate current and future business needs. “Small and midsized businesses require innovative server solutions that meet their specific business needs and price pointsto remain competitive,” said Vikram K, Director, ISS, HP India.“These new HP ProLiant servers are easy to use, highly reliable and cost-effective to maintain, enabling our SMB customers to boost business performance, save time and cut costs.”

Seagate Brings Cloud-Based Enterprise-class HDD

Seagate Technology has unveiled two new enterprise-class hard disk drives (HDD) optimized for emerging cloud infrastructures and large scale data centers, the Seagate Terascale HDD and the Seagate Enterprise Performance 10K HDD v7. Scott Horn, VP (Marketing), Seagate, said, “Over the next eight years, the capacity shipped into the cloud will double and by 2020 personal and enterprise clouds will account for greater than 60 percent of the total storage capacity shipped. With this huge shift of capacity to the cloud, storage providers will need to deploy more storage quickly all while increasing capacity and lowering energy costs. Engineered with this mind, these new drives deliver on all fronts providing high capacity-to-power ratios and ensuring consistent performance at an affordable cost making them an ideal solution for the cloud.”

Kingston offers Microserver Memory Modules

Panduit Launches Data Center Solution

Kingston is shipping server memory solutions for microservers, a new and growing segment of the server market. Kingston has both 1.35v low-voltage ECC SO-DIMMs and unregistered DIMMs in 1600MHz and 1333MHz frequencies to support both x86 or ARM-based processors and system-on -chip (SoC) designs. The company informed that micro servers are quickly gaining in popularity as companies seek powerful, yet more energy- and physical-space efficient solutions that serve specific data center needs or cloud applications. Examples include web and cloud hosting, and big data where terabytes or petabytes of information sets are analyzed per second. Kingston’s low-voltage, high-performing microserver memory modules are the perfect match to help accomplish these tasks said the Company.

Panduit has released a new Energy Efficient Data Center Cabinet System. This cabinet system eliminates bypass air and the mixing of cold air and exhaust air within the cabinet and the data center, optimizing cooling capacity and reducing cooling energy consumption by over 40% announced the press release. This cabinet system can be deployed into raised or slab floor environments and can be integrated with any cooling method to provide data center design flexibility. A full range of sizes, depths and colors provide a solution for every application, and streamlined shipping and delivery methods help support sustainability goals and increase supply chain efficiency. Net-Access N-Type and S-Type Cabinet Systems incorporate “Total Air Seal” features that ensure a complete seal, closing all gaps and empty rack spaces.

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COVER STORY

ENTERPRISE SOLUTION

ARE SMES READY FOR

SaaS

karma@smechannels.com

he changing business ecosystem in recent times is compelling the CIOs to rethink about the software development strategy for their customers. The increasing IT adoption, need to strengthen customer services, increase efficiency and limit costs are all driving the market towards the adoption of enterprise software. Even disruptive trends like the cloud, mobility and social media are increasingly being adopted and fuelling the enterprise software market.

The enterprise software market in India is projected to reach $3.92 billion in 2013, a 13.9 per cent growth over 2012 revenue of $3.45 billion, finds the latest Gartner survey. The reason for this is the combination of both demand and supply in the enterprise software market space. India has a very mature enterprise software market, and is said to be the fourth largest in the Asia-Pacific region. The market is dominated by both big and small players; and both global vendors along with small vendors like Microsoft, SAP, IBM, Oracle, HP,

QlikTech, Ramco, Sage, Tally, Busy etc. are reshaping the market. Businesses today are looking at safe and easy to deploy solutions, which are scalable as well as flexible to meet the demands of today’s highly mobile workforce. Some of the leading enterprise software includes CRM, ERP, SCM, Security, BI etc. According to AMI the key drivers for the Enterprise Software market in India is still the ERP and CRM markets. “SCM or Supply-ChainManagement is mostly available as a part and parcel of ERP suites. In fact – nowadays most

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ENTERPRISE SOLUTION

COVER STORY

THE ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE MARKET IN INDIA IS PROJECTED TO REACH $3.92 BILLION IN 2013, A 13.9 PER CENT GROWTH OVER 2012 REVENUE OF $3.45 BILLION.

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COVER STORY

ENTERPRISE SOLUTION

“AS CLOUD BUSINESS IS ALL ABOUT SUBSCRIPTION MODEL AND VERY LITTLE UPFRONT INVESTMENTS, IN TERM OF NUMBERS IT WILL TAKE MORE TIME FOR SEEING THE RESULTS IN A SIGNIFICANT.” HARSH VARDHAN G, EXECUTIVE VP (GLOBAL MARKETING AND CHANNELS), RAMCO

of the ERP suites also contain an inbuilt CRM suite,” says Dev Chakravarty, Manager (Research), AMI-Partners. The emergence of Cloud is also driving this market and software-as-a-service (SaaS) based ERP is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.93% over the period of 2012-2016, as per TechNavio; and further adds that SMEs will be one of the key factors driving this growth. The increasing number of small and mid-range enterprise software vendors, has also allowed SMEs access to cost effective enterprise services, providing customized ERP services and IT system development with dedicated focus on business growth. “Highly dynamic and volatile business environment has led organizations across India to re-think about the implementation & the need of complex and costly upgrade projects. Parallely, the ability to implement platform and infrastructure services in the cloud quickly and cost-effectively has led to a profusion of scalable pay-as-you-go SaaS applications,” says Mohammad Salman, Senior VP & Head (EAS Business), HCL Infosystems Ltd. The key verticals driving markets for enterprise software include Government, Banking and financial services, IT & ITeS, Telecom, Retail and Manufacturing, Healthcare & LifeSciences.

With an increasing focus on the infrastructure development, the enterprise market is seeing investments from the government too. “Today, Government and the public sector are the largest verticals for Indian IT. With the move towards digitisation of most governance related processes, there has been a focus on developing infrastructure that simplifies governance,” replies Amit Singh, Country Manager, Dell SonicWall. Security is another vertical driving the enterprise software market. “Various Indian start-ups have created products and services for the Indian security market. Customized products are being created by the global software majors for the Indian markets with enhanced security specifications to control against piracy as well as protecting enterprise data,” informs H Sethumadhavan Srinivasan, Director (Corporate Affairs), Huawei. For Symantec the biggest transformation in enterprise software is the impact of strategic IT trends - cloud and virtualization, mobility and information explosion. “These trends are spurring the evolution of IT from a business enabler to a value driver,” says Tarun Kaura, Director (Technologies, Sales, India and SAARC), Symantec. With regards to the adoption of cloud technology, Symantec’s ‘Avoiding the Hidden Costs of Cloud 2013 Survey’, shows that Indian organiza-

“ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE VENDORS WOULD ALSO HAVE TO CHANGE THEIR CURRENT BUSINESS MODELS AND MOVE TO PAY-PER-USE CLOUD COMPUTING MODEL.” AMIT SINGH, COUNTRY MANAGER, DELL SONICWALL.

“THE ABILITY TO IMPLEMENT PLATFORM AND INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES IN THE CLOUD QUICKLY AND COST-EFFECTIVELY HAS LED TO A PROFUSION OF SCALABLE PAYAS-YOU-GO SAAS APPLICATIONS.” MOHAMMAD SALMAN, SENIOR VP & HEAD (EAS BUSINESS), HCL INFOSYSTEMS LTD.

tions are widely migrating to the cloud to gain competitive advantages around speed, agility and flexibility. In fact, nearly all the surveyed large and small businesses in the country are at least discussing cloud. “Large companies are shifting to the Cloud. While most large companies today are still generally vary of moving to the cloud, they have warmed up to it to the extent that they are moving their non-core apps to the cloud while keeping their core apps out of it,” says Singh. He further adds that BI is becoming critical to business. The rise of enterprise mobility is further giving rise to the trend of mobile BI and enterprise software vendors are building their expertise in this space as well. “BI & Analytics is playing a key role in enabling decision makers across an organisation the ability to harness data to draw insights and come to meaningful conclusions. Enterprises today want a user-driven BI approach that helps all its employees make decisions based on multiple

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ENTERPRISE SOLUTION

COVER STORY

“COMPANIES MUST FIGURE OUT HOW TO CREATE HOLISTIC POLICIES WHILE ACCOMMODATING BOTH VIRTUAL AND PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURES TO AVOID OVERWHELMING THEIR IT DEPARTMENTS WITH SPECIALIZED SOLUTIONS.” TARUN KAURA, DIRECTOR (TECHNOLOGIES, SALES, INDIA AND SAARC), SYMANTEC

sources of insight. There is a need to create and share knowledge and analysis in groups as well as across the company,” says Philip Beniac, Regional VP (APAC), QlikTech. Even SMEs are warming up to Cloud technology, as they realize the importance of investing in technology to market themselves and to compete in the global and domestic markets.

Transition from Traditional to Cloud No doubt, traditional enterprise software suffers from its own disadvantages like inflexibility and agility, high licensing and support costs, but as large enterprises have already made significant investments in on-premise software it is unlikely they will shift to cloud says AMI. “There has been relatively less uptake of SaaS,” adds Chakravarty. While legacy enterprise software can simply be installed and run on instances on the cloud using cloud based infrastructure services, maximum benefits are realized by end users when these applications itself are provided as a service in the form of a platform or software says Singh. He

further adds, “Enterprise software vendors would also have to change their current business models where large license revenues, high maintenance cost of antiquated versions and heavily invested customers are the standard and move to pay-peruse cloud computing model.” Varun Yadav, Senior Manager (Marketing & International Business), Busy, pitches in, “Enterprises still have concerns related to data security with cloud applications. Moreover, most of the organizations have already done investment in legacy solutions. The growth of cloud applications would largely depend on how the ecosystem matures to address these concerns.” All will not adopt cloud model and for all applications, says Deepak Jadhav, Director, VDA Infosolutions, enterprise customer won’t go to public cloud so easily but going for private clouds, certain CRM and productivity applications etc. will see good growth in cloud model. Manish Manocha, Director (Technology), F1 Infotech Pvt. Ltd., opines, “The traditional software is needed to be installed on local infrastructure. In this case it is really unjustifiable to

“CRM AND ERP ARE EXPECTED TO BE PRIORITY AREAS OF SOFTWARE SPENDING IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS AS INDIAN ENTERPRISES ARE LOOKING AT COST EFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS.” VISHAL KANAL, COUNTRY MANAGER, SAGE SOFTWARE

“THE ASSOCIATION OF ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE WITH COMPLEXITY AND EXPERT MANAGEMENT HAS BEEN TRUMPED.” H SETHUMADHAVAN SRINIVASAN, DIRECTOR (CORPORATE AFFAIRS), HUAWEI.

get data on cloud for backup. OEMs need to have an interlocking solution on cloud for the same. Data integrity is the largest concern here because customer would be storing very business sensitive data on cloud.” On the face of shift from traditional enterprise software model will entail challenges of its own for the Vendors. Security and integration remain prerequisites for organisations. The onus of deployment, training and maintenance will remain on the vendors says the industry. Chakravarty says, “Clearly the challenge will be immense since in the cloud model the onus is on the vendor for almost all aspects right from deployment, training and maintenance; it is usually “hassle-free” for the end-users to a great extent. Hence the vendor as well as his Serviceprovider partner must ensure quality 24x7 services to the end-user in the ERP cloud model. There are also issues like ensuring transparency in payment since the amount is to be decided on the pay-per-use model usually.” Senior programmer of ERPnext’s Anand Doshi says, “Vendors will face increased competition especially due to pricing. However, this will also lead to more innovation. Vendors may need to maintain compatibility with different browsers and make sure that their application is easy to use.” Cloud is still catching-up vis-a-vis on-premise. With the present ratio of 80% versus 20% of on-

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COVER STORY

ENTERPRISE SOLUTION

“CRM APPLICATIONS SMB SPENDING ON SAAS HAS INCREASED BY OVER 80%. “WE BELIEVE SMBS ARE ALREADY OPEN FOR CLOUD APPLICATIONS AND EMBRACE THE BENEFITS THEY OFFER” SUSHIL TYAGI, DIRECTOR (GLOBAL SALES AND MARKETING), CRMNEXT

premise and cloud offerings as per Huawei, it says the trend will completely reverse by 2015. With all its investments towards the Cloud offering, and witnessing robust growth in order book every quarter says Harsh Vardhan G, Executive VP (Global Marketing and Channels), Ramco says, “As Cloud business is all about subscription model and very little upfront investments, in term of numbers it will take more time for seeing the results in a significant. It is a safe assumption that year-on-year we are seeing at least a 100% growth in our order book for Cloud.” While the Cloud-based CRM has performed better, the Cloud-ERP’s share is not more than 10-15% of the overall market but AMI predicts a gradual rise vis-à-vis its on-premise version since the former enjoys an annual growth rate of more than double its on-premise counterpart. As businesses diversify in various geographies, and organisations look at optimizing the IT objectives with limited investments, SaaS is enabling them in reducing the capex for organizations bringing in flexibility in organizational IT budgets. Businesses are re-thinking the need to implement and the need of complex and costly upgrade projects are hence are turning towards SaaS as a quick and cost effective solution. It also gives them the flexibility to integrate and customize as per their business needs. And businesses both big and small are turning towards SaaS as a business model. As Srinivasan explains, “Subscription based services allow for quick movement between providers, and thus there is a constant need for up-gradation of enterprise software services, in accordance with demands from the users. The second thing that SaaS does is make way for simplicity. The association of enterprise software with complexity and expert management has been trumped.” PwC’s Global 100 Software Leaders report found that SaaS now accounts for at least 40%

of the software revenue for 10 major companies listed Global 100. It also adds that with the popularity of the SaaS mode software companies are now evaluating their business models, including delivery methods, pricing strategies and sales compensation options. Organizations are demanding solutions with different deployment needs such as On-premise and Cloud based applications informs Vijayant Rai, Director (India & SAARC), Nimsoft & Data Management, CA Technologies. “Additionally, functional practices such as HR, marketing, finance and SCM are becoming integral part of business strategies. On the other hand, vertical

specific enterprise software is further changing the enterprise software adoption scenario,” he adds. “Some questions that enterprises need to address before adopting cloud computing are: Who’s responsible for security, compliance and governance? What kind of effect does cloud computing, which is virtual rather than physical, have on these aspects? Companies must figure out how to create holistic policies while accommodating both virtual and physical infrastructures to avoid overwhelming their IT departments with specialized solutions,” says Kaura. “Large enterprises have a good adoption rate for private cloud especially for mission-critical applications like ERP, while for less mission-critical workloads such as collaboration and content management platforms, web apps and CRM/ marketing automation there is an increasing trend towards public cloud model. The SME segment is also showing good traction and adoption towards public cloud solutions for mission critical applications like ERP solutions,” says Salman. “In the mid and large enterprise space the major trend is ‘Commutable cloud’ which gives them the flexibility to own a solution on ‘public cloud’ or ‘private cloud’ depending on economies of scale and their readiness to manage these solutions at their own data centers,” says Sushil Tyagi, Director (Global Sales and Marketing), CRMnext

Are SMEs Open to Cloud

“VENDORS WILL FACE INCREASED COMPETITION ESPECIALLY DUE TO PRICING. HOWEVER, THIS WILL ALSO LEAD TO MORE INNOVATION.” ANAND DOSHI, SENIOR PROGRAMMER, ERPNEXT

SMEs today are seen as the growth drivers of the future. They are looking for speed, ease of deployment and an amazing user experience, and are waking up to the benefits of the enterprise software in their business growth. Vendors are leaving no stone unturned in developing software that caters to specific business functions. A NASSCOM study on SMBs current state of Software Adoption and Outreach states that SMBs are looking at adopting enterprise software solutions. The transformation of SMBs from traditional IT infrastructure to cloud and to SaaSbased solutions will help them access content more effectively and affordably. It is said that the next demand for IT solutions will be mainly driven by SMEs. In a recently conducted survey by Nielson-NASSCOM also, more than 50% SMBs have shown positive intent towards the usage of business software. ‘They form an important part of the Cloud market and are at the heart of the SaaS growth’ Parallels says. Apart from bringing in more affordable solutions along with flexibility in overall software adoption strategy, SaaS also helps SMEs to reduce overall IT investment as solutions are on demand

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ENTERPRISE SOLUTION

COVER STORY

“ENTERPRISES TODAY WANT A USER-DRIVEN BI APPROACH THAT HELPS ALL ITS EMPLOYEES MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON MULTIPLE SOURCES OF INSIGHT.” PHILIP BENIAC, REGIONAL VP (APAC), QLIKTECH

which in turn addresses the key issue of investments in IT infrastructures in more affordable manner. Rai of CA Technologies says, “SMBs are fast embracing SaaS solutions in order to reduce overall capex and bring in more agility in business. Today, there has been peculiar shift in demand for vertical based customized enterprise software which will cater to unique requirements of various business verticals.” “The emergence of cloud computing has changed the way enterprise applications were delivered traditionally — business applications are now available on a SaaS model where customers have to pay as per their usage of the applications. Additionally, SMBs today can gain the benefits of enterprise software without having to upgrade, maintain and support enterprise software as vendors make such updates and fixes immediately available to the customer,” says Singh. Harsh Vardhan G says Cloud-based enterprise software offerings are found to be the forerunners in driving the enterprise software market, and 2013 is likely to see a significant increase in the number of SMEs adopting these offerings.

However, as per Yadav the penetration in SMEs is still slow but believes 2015 could be a tipping point (for the adoption of cloud and mobile applications) owing to the fact that SMEs generally wait for a technology to stabilize. The SME sector was considered to be a significant focused segment for Cloud-based ERP; yet the uptake has been relatively less therein. The main obstacle has been a lack of awareness of the benefits of cloud-ERP among SMBs followed by a somewhat lack of a proper ecosystem. “Benefits like better manageability, any-time access, etc. are still not disseminated among SMBs. Another barrier for SMBs have been the vagaries of Internet access; many SMBs are still not convinced that their ISPs would offer them minimum downtime and thus are loath to accept any service purely dependent on connectivity,” says Chakravarty. Echoing almost the same sentiments Doshi of ERPnext feels that SMEs may show resistance to change from desktop based accounting solutions like Tally or Spreadsheets to cloud based systems. “But this perception is changing as they realize their need for data consolidation and efficiency,” he adds.

“PENETRATION IN SMES IS STILL SLOW BUT 2015 COULD BE A TIPPING POINT (FOR THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD AND MOBILE APPLICATIONS) OWING TO THE FACT THAT SMES GENERALLY WAIT FOR A TECHNOLOGY TO STABILIZE.” VARUN YADAV, SR MANAGER (MARKETING & INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS), BUSY

“ADDITIONALLY, FUNCTIONAL PRACTICES ARE BECOMING INTEGRAL PART OF BUSINESS STRATEGIES. ON THE OTHER HAND, VERTICAL SPECIFIC ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE ARE FURTHER CHANGING THE ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE ADOPTION SCENARIO.” VIJAYANT RAI, DIRECTOR (INDIA & SAARC), NIMSOFT & DATA MANAGEMENT, CA TECHNOLOGIES

Futuresoft Solutions’ COO Harish Menon informs, “SME’s are considering enterprise software but one which is not hosted ‘on their premise.” Even the spending on SaaS in volume terms is miniscule says Chakravarty. However, on the whole it estimates that over the next five years SaaS spending within this sector will show a significantly high growth vis-a-vis the on-premise software components; “SaaS spending is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of around 30-35% range over the next two years approximately.” Seconding him is IDC report which predicts that IT market would exhibit strong growth through 2015, and that SME spending on SaaS and security appliances will grow at double-digit rates in the coming years, offering new opportunities for technology suppliers. However, Tyagi gives a robust number and informs that for CRM applications SMB spending

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COVER STORY

ENTERPRISE SOLUTION

“BENEFITS LIKE BETTER MANAGEABILITY, ANY-TIME ACCESS, ETC. ARE STILL NOT DISSEMINATED AMONG SMBS. ANOTHER BARRIER FOR SMBS HAVE BEEN THE VAGARIES OF INTERNET ACCESS.” DEV CHAKRAVARTY, MANAGER (RESEARCH), AMI-PARTNERS

on SaaS has increased by over 80%. “We believe SMBs are already open for cloud applications and embrace the benefits they offer.”

Challenges Without the risk of over-generalising the enterprise software market suffers from certain challenges. Finding the right talent pool is considered the biggest challenge facing this market. Consumerisation of IT, BYOD, Cloud and Virtualisation are shaping the way business is done with flexible working patterns. However, this is further creating complexities in the IT environment. Adoption and up-gradation of enterprise software solutions viz-a-viz global standards, adapting the software market to meet the needs of SMEs and adequately trained professionals who have business knowledge and understanding of this sector are some of the other disadvantages faced by the market. Sage Software’s country manager Vishal Kanal adds that a majority of the Indian SMEs still perceive IT adoption as a time consuming, complex and expensive process. The frequent fluctuation in the exchange rate and the economic condition further accentuate this creating extreme price sensitivity in the Enterprise Software Market. “Therefore, giving face time to the customer and educating customer on adoption and benefits of technology is very important,” he emphasises. Kaura rates Investments as another constraint in this market. “IT requires significant investment from companies and in a budget constraint scenario it is imperative to show value for every penny spent on it. In this case a cloud based delivery model works best wherein there is no capital expenditure but only operating expenses,” he adds. Widespread homogenization and fierce competition among solutions providers, who promote quality of service as their core competitiveness, Srinivasan says is a recurring challenge faced in

the market. “And yet while the business operation side sees continuous changes and improvements, it has not been matched by growth in revenue from customers,” he comments. For the VDA Infosolutions’ Jadhav implementation cost and the non-clarity on customer part when it comes to his requirements are the biggest challenges. “As a result of this he does re-installation, hence fail to see the value of the software or outcome,” he remarks.

“ALL MODELS WILL CO-EXIST, AND HOPEFULLY IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS 30-40% APPLICATIONS WILL MOVE TO CLOUD, WITH THE POSSIBILITY THAT IT WILL BE MORE THAN THIS.” DEEPAK JADHAV, DIRECTOR, VDA INFOSOLUTIONS

Future Perfect According to a recent Gartner report, Cloud and CRM will drive the Enterprise software market. To make up for the economic pressures leading to world wide resource and skill shortages, and reduce costs at the same time organizations are showing an interest in cloud computing and other options that externalize IT. The same report also reveals that CRM is being considered more important than ERP as the top application software investment priority. “CRM and ERP are expected to be priority areas of software spending in the next five years as Indian enterprises are looking at cost effective technology solutions. This could result in an aggressive growth of the enterprise software market,” predicts Kanal. In AMI’s view both the markets will continue to grow – of course the likely growth in Cloudbased ERP is likely to be higher since it is rising from a low base. “The traditional large enterprises are more or less saturated in terms of adopting onpremise ERP and we usually do not see a possibility of their shifting en-masse to the cloud; they may be going for some upgrades. Cloud concept is going to be appreciated more by the start-ups or SMBs,” responds Chakravarty. “With the increase in demand for applications such as web conferencing, enterprise content management, CRM and security solutions, India will continue to see growth in the enterprise software market and with the widespread presence of global software and hardware vendors, system integrators, service providers and business partners, the enterprise software will continue to be on a growth trajectory,” predicts Salman. Jadhav opines that all models will co-exist, and hopefully in the next five years 30-40% applications will move to cloud, with the possibility that it will be more than this. Harish Menon, COO, Futuresoft Solutions says clients will be demanding technology ‘on the fly’, pushing OEM’s and Partners alike to come out with more innovative delivery models. “Future will belong to two distinct players; one who will build and offer capacity ‘on-demand’ and second to ‘service providers’.”

Finally No doubt, SaaS delivery model is more efficient and cost effective than an on-premise solution. Having said that, businesses who have already invested in legacy software, may find it difficult transition from a traditional license to a subscription based model. Unless its scale and profitability are proven the reluctance to adopt it with full gusto will remain.

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SECURITY CORNER

SMBS MOST VULNERABLE TO CYBER ATTACKS Cyber attackers are increasingly using the vulnerabilities of SMBs to reach out to larger enterprises. When it comes to protection the needs of SMBs is no different than that of large organisations but with their rudimentary protection policies they are increasingly at risks.

BY KARMA NEGI

karma@smechannels.com

n the ever changing threat landscape SMBs are increasingly becoming the target of cyber criminal attacks, in fact they are being increasingly targeted compared to the large enterprises. And India being the home of the second largest SMBs it’s obviously something to be concerned about. According to Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report, Volume 18, the number of targeted attacks of overall cyber criminal activity has picked up very dramatically. SMBs have become easy targets as they have become the entry points through which cyber criminals can reach out to larger organisation as their level of sophistication around protection is lower than that of enterprises. The report further states that organisations with fewer than 250 employees are the most targeted segment; 31 percent of all attacks targeted them, compared with 18 percent in 2011. “In general 50% plus attacks have been happening in organisations with fewer than 2,500 employees to begin with. Even within that we now have a sub-sector which is sub-250 employees seems to be picking up much faster,” informs Amitabh Jacob, Director (channel and alliances), India and SAARC, Symantec. In India phishing and virus attacks have increased, spam rates are up 66% which is higher against all businesses except for maybe 2500 employees. Web based attacks have gone up 30% worldwide and this is relevant for SMBs because it’s likely that these attacks have originated from compromised websites of small organisations. “When it comes to SMBs and their adoption of technology from the perspective of protection, is a notch or two lower than enterprises because of factor such as cost, awareness, skills and implementation. They are easier to attack not just because attackers are going to find larger organisation through them but also because they

“When it comes to SMBs and their adoption of technology from the perspective of protection, is a notch or two lower than enterprises because of factor such as cost, awareness, skills and implementation.” AMITABH JACOB, DIRECTOR (CHANNEL AND ALLIANCES), INDIA AND SAARC, SYMANTEC.

are definitely more vulnerable. Their policies for protection are in a rudimentary stage which is where organisations like Symantec would come into the picture because while definitely we will view it as opportunity but I think more importantly it’s definitely a pain area that we want solved and be ready for their own future,” says Jacob. The base through which attackers can reach out to these larger organisations by compromising these smaller SMBs is very large, and this can be substantiated with these simple facts. 82% of Indian SMBs happen to reside in about 10 states in India today. Two-thirds of India mobile and internet subscribers are in these 10 states. The SMB population that is making products which are going outside India is about 1.5 million. “Cost is the biggest consideration for SMBs and is also one of the inhibitors when it comes to starting investing in technologies tool to protect themselves. The lack of awareness and skills is the second one and the complexity around implementation is the third. To address the issue we have radically simplified our products portfolio keeping these factors in mind. We are now making it easier for SMBs to not just buy the products and solutions but to set it up, manage it and support it through our partners,” he informs. Technologies like Mobility have also become a cause of concern as mobile malware has picked up 58% from last year, from a global statistics. And as SMBs adopt mobility, this has opened up a whole new dimension of threats which are mobile malware and intrusion through mobile devices. The rate of increased attacks has gone up by 58% and 32% of all mobile threats are successful. Though the number of attacks will not wane any time soon but as Jacob says, “Definitely attacks will not come down, they will probably increase but our ability to protect ourselves will definitely get better.”

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SME SOLUTION

TRANSFORMING SME SECTOR The Sales CRM solution enables management of the sales life cycle. Contacts, accounts, leads, opportunities and contracts are some key elements of the life cycle which can be managed.

he SMB sector is one of the fastest growing in India—and change brings with it a certain amount of chaos, which can be effectively managed with IT. While an SMB has some things in common with large enterprises—like the need for efficiency in operations, ensuring better customer experience and improving RoI—this sector is very sensitive to cost of ownership. The choice of tools has been between low cost open source tools or generic tools (like spreadsheets) that have been customized and high end specialized tools, which prove to be very expensive. Unfortunately, there are few tools in the mid range category. Another potential inhibitor to adoption is lack of flexibility to adapt the organization’s process, customization effort, and lack of packaged workflows specific to industry verticals, among others. There are also some business concerns that are common across Indian SMBs. Getting timely access to information for effective decision making is a common problem across all organizations, large or small. It is also very crucial to identify the right business opportunities for business. Another problem which plagues companies is

operational efficiency and productivity. One way of managing this is by improving your own internal processes and automating as many processes as possible. Another subset of this could be to identify and control runaway costs. Getting timely alerts at the right time about different situations is also critical in today’s times. This is possible if you have processes in place, and IT can certainly help you here. While these are the serious concerns for SMBs, effective planning and execution of projects is also a serious concern across verticals. IT comes to the rescue by helping in better planning and execution of projects. Enterprises these days are looking to adapt ITIL 3.0 based practices in service operations and management. The awareness and benefits of such adoption have been well recognized by the business and ITIL certified tools have become essential component in IMS opportunities. Enterprises are moving towards SLA based outsourcing for total IMS rather than separate vendors for each sub-function like AMC, desktop management, etc. Stringent SLA norms—including penalties—have become a standard practice in IMS outsourcing.

SHAFI AHAMED, CEO & CO-FOUNDER, SAPPHIREIMS

“GETTING TIMELY ACCESS TO INFORMATION FOR EFFECTIVE DECISION MAKING IS A COMMON PROBLEM ACROSS ALL ORGANIZATIONS, LARGE OR SMALL. IT IS ALSO VERY CRUCIAL TO IDENTIFY THE RIGHT BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESS.”

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SME SOLUTION

SMBs have become conscious of RoI on assets as they look to increase the utilization of the same. Distributed operations are posing challenges in the way assets are maintained and managed. Average asset utilization statistics are less than 80 per cent globally and enterprises are looking to improve this to achieve better RoI and save on future procurements. Increasing governance related threats including license violation have become a focal point. Enterprises are increasing governance focus and also expecting outsourced service providers to become accountable for compliance aspects apart from the standard break-fix preventive management tasks. The SMB market is one of the fastest growing segments and presents a huge opportunity. As companies are maturing in terms if IT adoption, they are looking beyond areas like ERP. We find that there is interest in automation of business processes and in enabling a mobile workplace in order to improve efficiency and enhance customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience. SapphireIMS provides an answer to the above and is fast emerging as the solution of choice for SMB enterprises.

SapphireIMS enables monitoring and managing the services and operations in the organization. At the core of SapphireIMS is the ability to define the services which are delivered or consumed across the organization both internally and externally. Services can be modelled with corresponding workflows, SLAs, access controls and approval mechanisms at various points in the workflow. Services can use various types of resources including assets which can be tracked and managed in the system. SapphireIMS has solutions to manage key business functions within the organization like Sales CRM, Fulfilment, Support, Stores and IT services, and operations. These are all fully integrated end-to-end. The Sales CRM solution enables management of the sales life cycle. Contacts, accounts, leads, opportunities and contracts are some key elements of the life cycle which can be managed. The system can also capture status and monitor the progress of opportunities and provide reminders for follow ups. There are various dashboards and reports which provide information for both the sales personnel and management.

The Fulfilment solution integrates into the sales system. Upon winning an order, the fulfilment of the order can be tracked and managed. This includes fulfilment of both product delivery as well as services. In the case of services, the system provides for a delivery plan to be created and tracked. The system can report status of delivery, overdue deliveries and receivables including overdue payments. The Support module has a helpdesk function where incidents and service requests can be raised based on a pre-defined service catalogue. There are workflows for managing the closure of calls. SLAs can be defined and the system can report SLA as well as alert management on potential breaches so that proactive action can be taken. SapphireIMS can be used by Stores to manage the asset lifecycle within the organization both for IT and non IT assets. Starting from procurement of assets to their disposal, SapphireIMS has the capability to track the asset and its utilization. The system can manage both owned and rented assets. There are dashboards and reports for asset data, financial information including depreciation, service contract renewals, vendor analysis, etc.

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SME TREND

RICOH

ACCELERATING INDIA PLANS With an overall revenue target of Rs 1,000 crore, Ricoh India is on an expansion spree while going aggressive with its laser printers BY KARMA NEGI

karma@smechannels.com

o increase its footprint in the country, Ricoh India is aggressively accelerating its business with a focus on being the top printer vendor in terms of both market share and quality of product. The firm clocked a turnover of Rs. 623 crore in FY’12 and targets to achieve Rs.1, 000 crore by the end of this fiscal with its aggressive expansion plans. An emerging player in the laser printer market, the Japanese vendor has outlined three-pronged strategies - to strengthen its product line-up, develop printing workflow solutions, and come out with quality as well as affordable products in low end market of the emerging countries. To strengthen its presence in the fast emerging laser printer market in India, the company recently launched its SP 200 series of laser printers

TETSUYA TAKANO, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, RICOH INDIA

“OUR MARKET RESEARCH LAST YEAR REVEALED THAT CUSTOMERS WERE USING NON-STANDARD CONSUMABLES TO ACHIEVE LOWER COST OF OWNERSHIP.”

and A4 MFPs in the country. These New SP 200 series range are set to take the printing solutions offering in Indian market to a new dimension, as these are not only high quality products but also come equipped with ‘Genuine Toner Refill program’. The SME/SMB segment is set to benefit from this product line, as they are competitively priced and offers low cost of operation. “In the laser printer market, we have done a business worth Rs.25 crore till date. We have sold about 70,000 laser printers through our channel partners. In this product segment, we are not dealing directly unless it’s an SI. And the results have been encouraging which has what made us launch our next series models in the Indian market,” says Manoj Kumar, Senior VP and CFO, Ricoh India. He further adds, “In addition to our existing 1,600 channel partners, we now plan to expand our channel presence in over 200 top cities by appointing over 3,000 printer partners and system integrators this fiscal year. Currently, the company has a presence in about 60-70 cities but going forward it intends to target tier 2 and 3 cities.” Last year, Ricoh sold 70,000 laser printers and expects to touch 100,000 which will include both SP 100 and 200 series. COO of laser printer business unit, Ricoh India, Kiran Pai says, “For the multi-function product, 70% of the business is driven through our dealer channel and rest is direct channel. For laser printers, we are going entirely indirect. With the recent programs what we are trying to tell the SMEs is that cost effectiveness can be achieved with genuine refill without compromising on the

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RICOH

MANOJ KUMAR, SENIOR VP AND CFO, RICOH INDIA

“IN ADDITION TO OUR EXISTING 1600 CHANNEL PARTNERS, WE NOW PLAN TO EXPAND OUR CHANNEL PRESENCE TO OVER 200 TOP CITIES BY APPOINTING OVER 3,000 PRINTER PARTNERS AND SYSTEM INTEGRATORS THIS FISCAL YEAR.” quality. The whole business of printer is targeted at SMBs, making it more cost effective and affordable proposition.” “With Ricoh’s wide range of product lines and launch of new series of laser printers at the entry level segment with revolutionary genuine refill program, we are confident that our channel part-

ners will be able to rapidly expand their business opportunities and increase their customer base,” asserts Pai. He further adds that they are trying to double the sales from last year when it did 60,000 and had 8% market share in India. In addition, he claims, they did pretty well in single function last year and this market is much better than multi function printers. Currently, the company commands a market share of around 7.5% in laser printer, 5-6% in multi-function segment, and 13% in single function (especially 21-30 ppm category). For its Genuine Toner Refill program, the focus is more on tier 2 and 3 cities. In order to spread the message in every nook and corner of the country, the company has apparently developed the communication in both English and Hindi for the better user understanding. Tetsuya Takano, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ricoh India, points out, “Our market research last year revealed that customers were using non standard consumables to achieve lower cost of ownership. This was adversely impacting the printer performance. With the introduction of Ricoh’s Genuine Refill Programs through SP 100 series launched last years, Indian customers were benefited with consistent printer performance and low cost of ownership. The launch of SP 200 series in addition to SP 100 is demonstrative of Ricoh’s policy of ‘harmonize with the environment’ through products that reduced environmental impact and yet add value to the customer.” For Ricoh, the laser business falls under the NSP category and it follows a distribution channel model to take products into the Indian market. The sales of laser printer were kick started four years back in India and the distribution channel was established two years later. Ricoh initially started with traditional range of enterprise products and later forayed into entry level segment. It was last year that Ricoh truly entered into mass distribution with the launch of SP100. While 30 ppm contributes around 4% it’s the 1 to 20 ppm printers which contribute the highest. The entry level segment constitutes 80% of the total laser printer market in India. Ricoh entry level has fleet of 11 models of SP 100 and 200 series with Genuine Toner Refill program that would redefine the printing solution offers to the users and fuel the company’s major expansion plans. Ricoh will continue to invest in channel friendly support programs to compliment this expansion.

SME TREND

KIRAN PAI, COO, RICOH INDIA

“WITH THE RECENT PROGRAMS WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO TELL THE SMES IS THAT COST EFFECTIVENESS CAN BE ACHIEVED WITH GENUINE REFILL WITHOUT COMPROMISING ON THE QUALITY. THE WHOLE BUSINESS OF PRINTER IS TARGETED AT SMBS, MAKING IT MORE COST EFFECTIVE AND AFFORDABLE PROPOSITION.”

Under its printer partners program, there are two sets of partners - Premier Printer Partner and Printer Partner. And out of 1600 partners, close to 150 are Premier Printer Partners. Besides, out of the total revenue of Rs.623crore, channel contribution was 4-5%. But this year, the company is looking at further establishing and doubling these numbers. Meanwhile, buoyed by the increasing popularity of the inkjet market here in India, the company also pointed towards its intention to launch inkjet printers in the country very soon. Without revealing much, Kumar states, “It’s too early to say when we will launch in India. We have been studying India’s inkjet printer market and have plans to come out with our inkjets printers here. But first, we want to test the market and the product before we launch it officially.”

Finally In addition, Ricoh is also coming out with its own eStores for online business shortly; and four to five Ricoh brand stores are also in the offing in the coming months.

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SME CHAT

P KRISHNAKUMAR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND GM (CONSUMER & SB), DELL INDIA

“DELL INVESTS IN PRIORITY CLUSTERS” To have an in-depth understanding of the prominent SB clusters Dell recently tied-up with AMIPartners. In a chat with Bindiya Jadhav of Accent Info Media in Bangalore P Krishnakumar, Executive Director and GM (Consumer & SB), Dell India, talks in detail about this partnership.

What is the potential of consumer and SB business in India? Though the general sentiment remains that the overall PC market is stagnant and not growing, the fact remains that our penetration of PCs in households remains just 8%, while most of the emerging markets are now clipping at around 20–25%, and in most developed markets household are at above 95% penetration. If we even reach just 15% of the household then the potential is huge, you can double the market. Hence I think in the next decade there is a huge opportunity for our PC fraternity. What is your view on the vast transformation in the PC trade? Let me handle this in two ways: customer behavior and from channel point of view. From a consumer point of view with the smart phones coming in there is a lot of adoption of internet, content consumption is going on. People are now looking at creating content, and will start looking at wide display screens which is where the tablets, notebooks, desktops, all-in-ones will come into play. Hence as I said earlier, in the next 8-10 years we see good potential, because as people move from consumption to creation there is a good opportunity for consumers to buy devices. On the business side people are looking at dif-

ferent solutions, and not traditional service solutions. Companies are getting comfortable with keeping data on the cloud. Desktop virtualization is happening in the larger companies; employees are encouraging BYOD, which also brings forth the issues of security. If I look at the channel from a consumer segment point of view, these are consumers who are looking at good quality retail experience. So whether it’s a single store owner or multiple store retail chain or a large format retailer, today it’s all about retail, where consumers can touch and feel the product. Now from the business point of view earlier companies were looking at buying individual products and trying to put the solutions through themselves or through a channel partner. But now they are looking at either a brand or a channel partner to give them end-to-end solutions. What is Dell’s strategy in face of the plummeting market share? Last year we lost shares because we did not have products to address those consumers looking for products at lower price point. This year we have introduced Value Series that has helped us to cater to those customers. As a result of this we are seeing huge growth in our consumer business. With the walk-in-store featuring new range has helped us in terms of the small business adoption.

Secondly, we started focusing on the channel side because we noticed that customers wanted good retail ambience, and hence we increased our presence in LFRs like Croma, Vijay Sales, multiple-multi stores outlets. We also increased our exclusive store footprint to 50 last year and by the end of this quarter we will double the numbers. We have also put in place a separate sales team to address the small businesses; this have helped us have a tier 2 focused SB partners. We also have a separate distribution mechanism for our small business products. Thirdly, on the Consumers side we have launched a personal achievement campaign – ‘I can do – Kuch Bi’ in April 2013; and then on the SB side we are doing a series of road shows with AMI Partners. Connecting with the SB customers directly through the channel partners, we are able to engage them and talk to them about solutions. That’s how we are leveraging the transformation. How do you plan to leverage on this tie-up with AMI Partners? The country has 7 million small businesses and only 1 million are IT addressable. We know we have to address the SB customers; understand their problems and pain points which not everybody does. We understand a lot of it because we have a direct engine; we talk to SB customers directly. But even then the number of customers

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SME CHAT

“WHETHER IT’S A SINGLE STORE OWNER OR MULTIPLE STORE RETAIL CHAIN OR A LARGE FORMAT RETAILER, TODAY IT’S ALL ABOUT RETAIL, WHERE CONSUMERS CAN TOUCH AND FEEL THE PRODUCT.”

and educate them about our products. The biggest differentiator of ours has been our services; we always keep one step ahead of our competition on services. We were first to introduce onsite training and now everybody have copied us. We also have 24/7 on support – phone support for customers. We are also talking of software focus for customers. Does Dell vision futuristic need from small businesses in India? We have always believed in small businesses, while our competitors are focusing on large customers or consumers. While we have served the consumers and the large enterprise, we started off with small businesses. We understand the DNA of a small business; we understand their pain points. They don’t have a dedicated IT managereven if they have some person who can manage it the churn of people is very high. We just want to ensure that we understand that pain and are able to address that and have customized our solutions depending on the country. that we address out of this 1 million directly form a very small percentage. So we decided to partner with someone who understood this market and hence commissioned a study with them to understand SBs pain points from business perspective and not IT, so as to address them better through technology. We have put together a solution package and reaching out to the SB clusters through AMI to tell them on how technology can help them in their business. What are your strategies and set programs to enhance your distribution strategy? To enhance distribution, four months back we set up a separate channel team -sales team for small businesses Dell internally.

Secondly, we have appointed separate partners from Tier 2, and thirdly, we are going and addressing the end-customers through partners because we realise that if you have to build-up scale with the small business it can be only be done by leveraging the channel partners. And channel partners can benefit because they are getting a good brand, and are known for good products and good after sales service. In our direct stores strategy consumers can come and experience a good quality product, have a demo. The purpose of these stores is to do two things: deliver a good customer experience from a product perspective and whether the consumer wants to buy it from us or from other brand stores, we are okay with it. We do regular training for the channel partners

What is your product road map? I can’t share the road map but can say that there is a healthy line-up. As I said we have a walkin-store dedicated to and catering to the needs of small business; we have exclusive Latitude which is for large institutions, and Value Series range for consumers. Are there any upcoming events in the pipeline? We are starting road shows for the small business customers which I think is a good way to connect and more beneficial than going mass media and trying to spread message. We believe that through each of these road shows we can connect to 60–100 customers.

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LEADERS’CORNER

PANASONIC

TARGETING A LARGER BUSINESS PIE The Japanese giant is going aggressive with its renewed focus on B2B business and is not only refreshing its product range but also expanding its product portfolio. BY: KARMA NEGI

karma@smechannels.com

Panasonic Panasonic India has started looking seriously at its B2B business almost three years back. Although much before that, Panasonic products were available in India but were not customized for India but with a renewed focus on this market all the products from Panasonic are now available for India requirements. In last three years, Panasonic’s growth has been pretty impressive also. While the industry grew at 5-6% Panasonic has grown by a healthy 56%, and going forward its B2B arm is expected to contribute heavily. “While currently 7% to 8% of the of Panasonic India’ revenue is coming from the B2B segment, our plan is to increase this contribution by 100% YoY by way of introducing new range of products in this segment. Going forward our prime focus will be in areas of healthcare, security and education vertical.” Says Rizhkant Zha, Director, System Sales Division, Panasonic India. Telephone as a product category has witnessed a tremendously growth of over 32% last year. Projectors and professional cameras have the maximum contribution to our revenue. Last year it tied-up with United Film Organisation (UFO), and is also in the process of tying-up with regional people for cinema projector. Apart from LCD projectors, it is also trying to capture market for DLP projectors for larger auditoriums. And third area it has captured is the cinema projector. And all these three areas are contributing to the growth.

Despite Telephone becoming a saturated market and even de-grown by industry standards Zha informs they still grew by 32%. Panasonic is betting on high growth in the Projectors, Broadcasting equipment and Broadcasting cameras. As compared to last year, this year the categories moving very high in terms of growth are Projectors, Broadcasting, Security and IPPBX. With 65% market in cordless telephones, last year, it made a conscious move towards integrated telephone system (ITS) and increased the model range from the earlier two models. Despite the increasing prevalence of mobiles the demand for cordless phones in metros is still growing continuously. While the demand is more towards cordless, but small commercial offices and upcountry are still demanding ITS phones. Panasonic’s commands a 45% market share in telephone and 29% in ITS. In the growing Security market Panasonic has a line-up of video surveillance and security solutions. Last year it launched a camera for Rs. 5,000 first time for security and is still working on the recording device. “Camera needs two things: one is viewing camera and second is recording device. While we have brought the cost of cameras to 1/4th of the price still on the recording device we are still very high steep,” informs Zha. As far as larger surveillance is concerned, it has a wide range of cameras. Delhi metro is on Panasonic. Apart from this it has also bagged the

project for Bombay city surveillance, which is starting in September this year, and is also bidding for Pune city surveillance. “Apart from security camera and recording device we are also looking at integration of large projects in terms of providing all other accessories too. Hence our other plan for 2014 -15 is to make an in-house team which can integrate everything and make project itself,” Zha announces. The total project of Bombay city surveillance is worth Rs 1000 crore and Panasonic will be only providing the cameras and its SI, Sai Infotech will do all the integration. From security and surveillance point of view, the company is expecting 150% growth based on the kinds of projects it has now or the ones are in the pipeline. “Last year we grew by 48%. This was because a lot of projects got delayed. But this year I feel because of the 2014 elections, most governments will start getting into the projects faster and give the go ahead,” explains Zha. In this Security segment Panasonic is hoping to increase the number of SIs from the present 28 to at least 40 and from 400 dealers to 600. This year Panasonic is directing its focus on areas it missed in terms of doing good business and sees growth happening. It is looking at very high growth in professional areas which includes broadcasting equipment, semi-broadcasting equipment and high-end professional wedding cameras. Earlier, it was only selling broadcasting

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PANASONIC

LEADERS’ CORNER

RIZHKANT ZHA, DIRECTOR, SYSTEM SALES DIVISION, PANASONIC INDIA

“Apart from security camera and recording device we are also looking at integration of large projects in terms of providing all other accessories too.”

equipment but this year there is high focus on cameras too, which is a growing market. Apart from Security, Panasonic is also going aggressive on the Commercial Panels. HDVC system was launched for the first time in India last year and here too panel is required. And the vertical it is looking seriously are Banks, BFSI, and real estate sectors. With big players already dominating the HDVC market for late entrants like Panasonic it will pose serious challenges. Though Zha agrees he optimistically says that being new entrants their growth will be immense though they can’t put any number at present. As a first step it’s looking at SMEs. Because of its limitation to do larger portfolio extension, it plans to overcome this impediment this year. “This is the reason why we have targeted small industries and SMEs,” he explains. For video conferencing business two distributors have been appointed: neoteric for corporate

and enterprise channel and another for govt business. And if required it plans to expand regionally too. “Being late entrants, if the requirement arises for direct inroads, we will go for regional distribution as well. But right now we are happy with whatever neoteric is doing. This year we are expecting a high turnover. We are doing business worth Rs. 450 million from video conferencing business alone, and government contribution out of this will be Rs 150 million,” he asserts. With 28 channel partners for this segment plans are to expand it to 75. Till now Toughbook was only for business requirement but now Panasonic is expanding thus business. The rugged Toughbook were earlier sold to high-end individuals, but starting this year it’s also getting into consumer channel with a reversible tablet and laptop, which is still under experimentation. Recently it launched a 7” rugged tablet and plans to add few more products like Hand-held computers particularly for logistic

companies and is looking forward to a 300% growth in this category. The Printer segment of Panasonic showed a growth of 180% in last year. Till last year the focus was on office automation but Panasonic moved into IT channel as well and hopes that it will give further edge to the printer business. Almost two years back it made a conscious decision to move out of Jobbers’ segment which includes business of printing, making duplicate copies etc. but the way this market is growing from strength to strength it has reversed this decision and is again moving back to this segment. Zha reasons, “We thought that this market will vanish very soon and only larger Jobbers’ segment will remain and rest will move to consumer. Later we discovered the presence of small shopkeepers who wanted this and suddenly we found a robust and growing market.” “From where we left are looking at 100% growth and maybe 200% growth overall,” he adds. he adds.

Finally… Moving forward, due to security reasons Panasonic has found a new market in video door phone segment and will be looking at it seriously this year. Though it comes under security but is a part of telephone group. POS is another area it wants to re-emphasize on. Commercial panel is another area it is stressing on because of its requirement in various areas from security to HD video conferencing.

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FEATURE

SOFTWARE BUSINESS

G CHANGING THE GAME OF SOFTWARE BUSINESS MOBILE AND CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES

Earlier channel partners shied away from software business due to piracy. But now with mobile and cloud the market seems to be turning positive for taking up this business. BY APARAJITA CHOUDHURY aparajita@smechannels.com

artner predicts India will become the fourth largest enterprise software market in Asia-Pacific in 2013. Whereas NASSCOM reports that the revenue from the software product segment currently stands at $2.2 billion and is expected to reach $10 billion by 2020. Today, enterprises across verticals seem to be very much dependent on software to design products, provide services, communicate with customers, and manage operations which triggers huge opportunities for the software business in India. At macro level, the growth drivers of software industry are growing economy, foreign direct investment (FDI) in different sectors and India being an outsourcing destination also contributes to increase in GDP, employment, and exports over next few years. Ashwin Mehta, Vice Chairman, India BSA, says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;As per NASCCOM reports, Indian IT industry maintained its growth momentum registering two digit growths, clocking revenue of USD 108 billion in 2012-13. It is further expected to grow 13%-14% in 2013-14. Domestic demands

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SOFTWARE BUSINESS

will be generated through need of consolidating businesses through cost reduction, business process optimization, incorporation of new emerging technologies into solutions, such as mobility, social, cloud etc. that will further fuel additional investments and sustainable growth for software business in India.” With the increase in the demand and adoption towards the mobile, social and cloud computing environment, India attains fifth position among the emerging market in software business. Even the Asia Pacific region is considered as the growth engine of the global economy. Industry vertical like, banking, telecom, manufacturing, retail, SOHO and home segment (with deep internet penetration) also attribute to the growth of software business. Number of internet subscribers across India touches more than 20 million which leads the internet penetration in India to reach 10.2%. Besides, with the increase in penetration of IT services in BFSI and in the operations of small and micro business units (SMB), the focus in the investment of IT infrastructure across the country augments which makes Indian IT users vulnerable to hackers driving the growth of IT security market in India. Anil Gupta, AVP (India Sales), eScan, says, “More than 80% of Indian business has reported data theft. It has been observed that IT users in India lack even the basic IT security systems. In 2012, the market potential was estimated at USD 218 million with an annual growth of 20-30 per cent. This clearly shows the huge potential for security software products in India. Today, we only see basic IT security measures being adopted. A rise in IT spending is primarily on solutions like firewall, antivirus and protection for VPN. The fear of data theft has become a major concern for most companies today which increases the spending towards security systems.” Presence of international software and hardware vendors in India, backed by a very strong ecosystem of system integrators, service providers and business partners also contributes to the growth of Indian Software Businesses. Suchita Vishnoi, Head - Marketing (India & SAARC), Trend Micro, says, “The combination of sustainable domestic demand, presence of global vendors, entry of new small vendors and the Nexus of Forces (as Gartner defines it as the convergence of new mobile, social, cloud and information computing environments) are the key drivers for high sustainable growth and opportunities for software business for India.”

Trends The latest trend in the software business is the

FEATURE

security solutions which can support multiple platform and operating system because the rapid growth of the Internet and e-Commerce in India pose security threats. As access to internet via mobile devices set aside accessing internet via desktop and users also tend to use multiple operating systems which drives demand for comprehensive security solutions that can support multiple platforms, mobile and standalone devices. Jagannath Patnaik, Director (Channel Sales (South Asia)), Kaspersky Lab India, says, “Increasing web threats are driving the consumer antivirus (AV) market. According to Gartner, the security software market in India was pegged at Rs. 1,045 crore in 2011 and is set to grow to Rs. 1,530 crore by 2014 (Home and SOHO market is approximately 700 crore).” Increasing number of targeted and sophisticated cyber threats raises the concern over securing IT infrastructure, so business needs a reliable and advanced security solution that is affordable, effective and helps manage the security of the IT infrastructure as well as ensures data security. Besides, there some other factors that help the security business to grow year on year which include insecurity of the networks due to increasing internet penetration, awareness of data theft through internet usage, growing awareness for better and secured networks, rise in the adoption of WLAN technologies like 3G and WiMax, growing e-commerce markets in India, increased usage in LAN, extranet/ intranet and wireless access services, globalization and liberalization. Vishnoi says, “Growing maturity of Indian users is a key trend and an important driver for overall growth. There has been a sustainable demand with availability of new small and existing global players.” When it comes to the pricing strategy of the software products, it depends upon the consistency of quality offered with the software and the target audience. Users spend money on those software products with which they get familiar depending upon the usability.

ing on highlighting the threats accompanying fake software. Gupta avers, “We at eScan regularly organise road shows, IT security campaigns as well as various events to spread awareness amongst the IT users. With the increasing penetration of social media, eScan has its presence in all major social media platforms, wherein we interact with IT users and educated them about IT security, latest updates on cyber security landscape, and much more.” Kaspersky lab reports that when it comes to security software usage in India, approximately

Awareness of Genuine software

60% of the populations use free or pirated software to protect their digital assets. Besides Kaspersky lab regularly emphasizes on raising the awareness of using genuine software among customers, organizations, resellers, and other partners. Patnaik elucidates, “Recently we conducted the Internet Safety Campaign – Stop. Think. Connect India in association with Data Security council of India in which main agenda was to raise the awareness about internet security and educate the student’s on the risk of using pirated or freeware’s

Piracy is a common problem that the software industry is facing. Piracy rates for India stood at 64 per cent and 63 per cent in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Hence it’s a routine for software vendors to educate the customers about on the benefits and advantages of genuine software and warn about the disadvantages of using pirated software and its harmful effects on the systems and critical data. Apart from this, the vendors are also focus-

“MORE THAN 80% OF INDIAN BUSINESS HAS REPORTED DATA THEFT. IT HAS BEEN OBSERVED THAT IT USERS IN INDIA LACK EVEN THE BASIC IT SECURITY SYSTEMS. IN 2012, THE MARKET POTENTIAL WAS ESTIMATED AT USD 218 MILLION WITH AN ANNUAL GROWTH OF 20-30 PER CENT. “ ANIL GUPTA, AVP (INDIA SALES), ESCAN

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FEATURE

SOFTWARE BUSINESS

“AS PER NASCCOM REPORTS, INDIA IT INDUSTRY MAINTAINED ITS GROWTH MOMENTUM REGISTERING TWO DIGIT GROWTHS, CLOCKING REVENUE OF USD 108 BILLION IN 2012-13. IT IS FURTHER TO EXPECTED TO GROW 13-14% IN 201314.” ASHWIN MEHTA, VICE CHAIRMAN (INDIA), BSA

and benefits on the usage of the genuine software.” BSA works closely with Government and Industry bodies like FICICI & ACMA, etc. to generate awareness on the benefits of legal software usage among masses. The company also runs anti-piracy programs to check software piracy and spread awareness among masses for legal risk involved in indulging in software piracy. Use of licensed software contributes not only facilitates growth of software software innovation but also directly contributes to GDP, generation of employment and revenue in form of taxes to the Government of India.

Channel Partners Traditionally, channel partners have been into hardware business only because in a country like India where software piracy has become an obstacle for software business and which may land channel partners in trouble in terms of yielding business results. Besides, channel partners hardly get time to educate the customer on the products, as they have to deal with multiple brands to preserve their sales

“ACCORDING TO GARTNER, THE SECURITY SOFTWARE MARKET IN INDIA WAS PEGGED AT RS 1,045 CRORE IN 2011 AND IS SET TO GROW TO RS 1,530 CRORE BY 2014 (HOME AND SOHO MARKET IS APPROXIMATELY 700 CRORE).”

“THE ADOPTION RATE FOR SOFTWARE BUSINESSES MAY HAVE BEEN LESS IN COMPARISON TO THE HARDWARE BUSINESS IN THE PAST. THE SCENARIO IS CHANGING WITH THE PREVALENCE OF THE MOBILE AND CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES.”

JAGANNATH PATNAIK, DIRECTOR, CHANNEL SALES (SOUTH ASIA) KASPERSKY LAB, INDIA

SUCHITA VISHNOI, HEAD MARKETING (INDIA & SAARC), TREND MICRO

and volumes to survive in the market. Promoting popular brands enable channel partners to gain better margin reason being they are easy to sell. But in AV segment, channel partners who deal with hardware seem to embrace antivirus products under their portfolio. Vishnoi maintains, “The adoption rate for software businesses may have been less in comparison to the hardware business in the past. The scenario is changing with the prevalence of the mobile and cloud technologies. The market dynamics are changing and vendors are open to software business adoption. The market is expected to grow at a rapid pace owing to this adoption.” Some of the challenges channel partners face in terms of adopting software business which include firstly, low level of awareness about the upcoming technology. Secondly, adopting new ways of promotions like online medium, social media, etc. Thirdly, limited infrastructure to cater to the requirement and needs of the customers. Fourthly, no clear government policy on the software taxation part and fifthly, lack of proper work force. Sixthly, long payment cycle and

credit period; and finally, shrinking margins and competition. “Channel work closely with us to develop profitable, sustainable businesses, Trend Micro in return rewards them with training, certification, specialization, business planning and marketing tools, as well as very competitive margins,” adds Vishnoi.

Finally… It is very crucial to implement and establish stringent intellectual property law to eradicate software piracy. However according to eScan, they have not come across the pirated version of eScan till date and claim that if they find any then they will take strong legal action against any person or organisation found indulging in piracy. Pirated software also has an adverse impact on the growth of economy. According to the ‘Competitive Advantage: The Economic Impact of Properly Licensed Software’ study done by INSEAD and BSA, properly licensed software would deliver US$739 million in additional economic value.

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GUEST TALK

‘THE IMPORTANCE OF PSUs’ With Fake Power PSUs inundating the market it makes good sense to invest in high-quality PSUs to protect your hardware from failure and damaging the connected components.

BY KEVAN LI Business Head – India, Antec Inc

BRIEF PROFILE As the Head of Sales and Operations, Kevan Li is in charge of the India business of Antec Inc. and has taken up the challenge to develop Antec market in India. With an experience of more than a decade in IT industry, Kevan has been associated with Antec since early 2010. He has played a vital role in successfully developing channel operations in the Middle East, South East Asian & European Countries prior handling Indian operations. In addition, Kevan is actively involved in marketing and distribution of Antec products in India. He is responsible for marketing, developing a strong channel network, new business & entrance OEM.

MANY PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings) may not work at optimum efficiency, but when your PC’s power supply unit (PSU) is not working properly, you are in trouble. A low-quality PSU (or a PSU with insufficient wattage) can result in sudden rebooting and hardware failure and this can damage other connected components. There are usually three kinds of PSUs: Fake Power, Peak Power and Continuous Power PSUs. A Fake Power PSU has false wattages labeled on the product and the output can never meet the labeled wattage, while a Peak Power product can meet the labeled wattage only for a very short period of time. So, the only truly genuine power supply is the Continuous Power PSU because it can meet the labeled specifications on a continuous basis. Unfortunately, Continuous Power PSUs are rare. Currently, it is estimated that around 80 to 85 percent of PSUs in India are Fake Power ones. Moreover, these PSUs are usually over labeled anywhere between 50 percent and 250 percent of their wattages. This means that they can support only entry-level PCs and even there, their probability of failure in the long term remains high. A Continuous Power PSU is something similar to the Horse Power of your car, while efficiency is like mileage. A high quality PSU gives you protection from high/low voltage, high/low power, short circuit protection, over temperature protection and surge and inrush protection. Using a poor quality PSU can be dangerous. Sometimes, if unprotected, capacitors in the motherboard can leak toxic electrolytic fluid as they age and this, in tandem with poor quality PSUs, can cause explosions (yes, explosions) from gas build-up inside them. Various standardizations are in place to ensure energy efficiency. 80 PLUS certification is the most widely recognized independent standard in power supply efficiency. The Figure 80 stands for 80 percent efficiency, which signifies that the PSU can utilize 80 percent of the input electricity as usable energy, while only the remaining 20 percent gets wasted as heat. Apart from the obvious electricity bill savings, energy efficient PSUs also lower the surrounding heat,

which reduces the vulnerability of other components inside the PC case. An 80 PLUS certified PSU uses less energy and generates lesser heat, thereby staying cooler, running quieter and lasting longer. There are five levels of certification based on efficiency at varying operating loads. These are the 80 Plus Standard (about 80 percent), Bronze (about 85 percent), Silver (about 88 percent), Gold (about 90 percent) and Platinum (about 93 percent). All 80 Plus certified PSU have Active PFC (Power Factor Correction), which enhances the efficiency of the PSU. Active Power Factor Correction improves the power factor value of the PSU by altering the input current wave shape. PSUs with Active PFC can achieve a power factor of 0.99, while PSUs with Passive PFC can only achieve 0.70, and PSUs with no PFC achieve less than 0.60. A higher power factor reduces transmission losses and improves efficiency, making Active PFC an important feature for the environment. A Fake Power PSU usually has less than 40 per cent efficiency. Though the price for a cheap PSU can be very low, it is in fact generating a false sense of economy especially for SMEs, which have 10 or more PCs—the owner has to replace the PSU more frequently and at the same time his electricity bills may be higher by 40 percent to 55 percent as compared to using an 80 Plus certified PSU. Buying a good PSU Points to keep in mind while buying a PSU: • Continuous Power Logo: One should ensure that it should be a Continuous Power Supply, and should have a logo mentioning this on the packing of the PSU • Brand: Use only branded PSUs because they are more reliable. Most unbranded PSUs are Fake PSUs • Weight: The bigger the PSU, the better, because it shows that it has a lot more components inside • Others: Does the PSU have many safety logos? Does it have detailed information and brochures, in many foreign languages highlighting the product’s International reputation? Check out all these things before buying a PSU for your PC

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SME TREND

NETAPP

DATA ONTAP 8.2 TO REDEFINE STORAGE APPLICATIONS Apart from aggressively engaging with channel partners, NetApp intends to be the frontrunner in terms of delivering the capabilities of software defined storage (SDS) and aims to be become the most efficient storage deployment entity. BY APARAJITA CHOUDURY aparajita@smechannels.com

oftware-Defined trend is catching up in the industry. Be it Software Defined Data Centre (SDDC) or Software Defined Storage (SDS), people are talking about these new trends. Why not? People are finding App like flexibility and ease of usage from these new technologies. In this situation, enterprise storage leader NetApp believes that SDS is going to be a game changer. NetApp’s objective is to deliver high level of storage agility that extends directly to an application or business process and with the launch of its Clustered Data ONTAP 8.2, it looks to be a reality. The company says the new software gives organizations and cloud service providers the capability to rapidly and cost effectively deliver new

KRITHIWAS NEELAKANTAN, DIRECTOR (CHANNEL & ALLIANCES FOR INDIA AND SAARC OPERATIONS), NETAPP

“STORAGE SOFTWARE LIKE CLUSTERED ONTAP ABSTRACTS THE DATA ACCESS AND CONTROL AWAY FROM THE PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE.”

services and capacity with maximum application uptime. Clustered Data ONTAP 8.2 cuts through the performance, availability, and efficiency limits of traditional hardware silos, empowering IT to non-disruptively align the storage infrastructure with changing business and application demands. Besides, Cluster ONTAP 8.2 is a software which deploys storage architecture where not only does it abstract the company’s hardware but also the third party’s hardware which allows customers to deploy NetApp’s co-operative products. So overall, NetApp delivers all the SDS capabilities with the Cluster ONTAP which according to Krithiwas Neelakantan, Director (Channel & Alliances for India and SAARC Operations), NetApp, , provide quality services to customers. The company further informs that this very product is a unified and virtual environment and provides secured multi tenants capability and it is perfect for cloud as well because cloud service provider needs to be efficient, agile, nimble, secure and scalable in terms of deploying application. Neelakantansays, “Storage Software like Clustered ONTAP abstracts the data access and control away from the physical infrastructure. We offer every capability called storage virtual machine, with which one can have a pool of storage environment and create a virtual storage machine and move from one physical device to another, it is very much like virtual machine, the moment you defined it on software, your agility rapidly increases your administrative capabilities.” Cluster ONTAP 8.2 further offers internet scale, non-disruptive operations, and it has a single unified ability to manage and monitor and administer the environment irrespective of scale. With this new launch, the company claims to be the most efficient storage deployment entity, which they claim that nobody can compete them in terms of ability to deduplicate the data, to compress and provide storage efficiency. Neelakantan elucidates, “We provide the industry’s most efficient storage with various technologies like Deduplication, Compression and Provisioning that help our customers actually drive a very efficient way of deploying storage.” There are differentiating factors which enable NetApp to sustain its competitive edge in the storage market because they provide consistent and unified management framework deployed in the smaller and larger scale, and an extra byte class deployment in order to make management easier. NetApp’s management framework does not get affected by the one Terabyte or Exabyte deployment, it remains consistent and the infrastructure cost is prospect to the company as they drive

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NETAPP

SME TREND

2013

normal amount of efficiency. Neelakantan, states, “We are probably the only vendor, who not only have the strategy of SDS, but also the products that the customers can use effectively. Everybody has announced a lot of SDS roadmap but we are the one who actually deployed it, we have lots of customers’ references too.” With the launch of Clustered ONTAP 8.2, NetApp reduces the discriminations between the large enterprises and SMBs in terms of delivering solutions as it covers the entire market. The company believes that data is important for all, no matters whether it is small customers or big customers, so they provide all capabilities irrespective of the size of the deployment. The USP of this product is that it can be deployed without storage and it gives the customers a competitive platform. In addition, with its software defined nature, the agility and automation of workflow, the administrative and monitoring capabilities have become well defined which as a result creates lots of efficiency. Apart from Clustered ONTAP, NetApp’s flash business and Flex Pod business are doing well. Besides, the company will look into Virtualization

and Cloud Computing which are already a growing market and NetApp aims to offer differentiated engagement model and value proposition to customers. Business critical infrastructure, HPC (High Performance Computing) analytics and big data market are also considered as the key focus of the company. As per IDC report, NetApp garnered market share of 14.9% in Q1, for which the company states that their unified, secured and virtualized storage architecture attributed to this growth. There are also other crucial factors which enable the company to attain this level like its efficiency, performance and its ability to manage an extra byte or terabyte class system or ability to upgrade, the non-disruptive operational capability. Clustered ONTAP 8.2 creates opportunities for channel partners as well so that they can deliver high end services level to customers. Chanel partners can go to the existing customers and mould them to this platform as a lot of customers demand competitive products which according to the company is another target market which channel partners can go and address. “We have a very elaborate enablement program for partners, where they get trained on sales, pre-sales, consult-

ing, implementation and support. Besides, our partners are very well enabled and trained and skilled and NetApp is fairy partner centric and we will continue to focus on our business through partners.” avers Neelakantan. Currently, NetApp has 110 partners in India and the company does not want to add more partners rather increase market coverage through the existing partners. So, the vision of NetApp is to reinforce the current set of partners so that they can bring in some unique differentiation and value proposition to the customers. In which, Neelakantan, says, “We are more than happy to support and engage them and deliver customer focused solution through them.” NetApp believes that channel partners are the ones who can help the company to reach out to more and more customers so they reinvested heavily on the partners to go and make demand generation.

Finally… NetApp will continue to invest aggressively on channel partners in order to make them offer value propositions. Further, they support channel partners to sustain existing customers and acquire new customers.

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SME TREND

KONICA MINOLTA

OUT OF THE BOX SOLUTIONS FOR SMES Already a proven leader in the A3 MFP segment, Konica Minolta plans to command 25% market share in the office environment in the next two years. BY APARAJITA CHOUDURY / MANALI MISRA aparajita@smechannels.com / manali@accentinfomedia.com

ccording to the latest Gartner report, the A3 MFP segment declined 14.8 percent in 2013 compared to the first quarter of 2012, and Konica Minolta was no. 2 with 16% market share. The overall industry estimates, however, suggest that the company currently enjoys a 17% market share in A3 monochrome printing and 20-23% in color printing space. India being a significant market, the printer vendor is eyeing a 25% market share in the office environment in the next two years’. “As India is an important market for Konica Minolta, our objective is to retain our top position in the production printing segment,” informs Tadahika Sumitani, MD, Konica Minolta Business Solutions India. For the last two years, Konica Minolta has been selling its products in India. Initially the products were sold through two distributors but six months back it kicked-off its direct channel operations to service its Global Account Program. And today it

V BALAKRISHNAN, EXECUTIVE GM (MARKETING SALES & MARKETING DIVISION), KONICA MINOLTA

“THE FACILITIES AVAILABLE ON OUR DEVICES MAKE THINGS EASIER FOR SMES AND WE ARE ALL GIVING IT OUT OF THE BOX, SO THERE IS TREMENDOUS CONNECT BETWEEN SMES AND VALUE OFFERING BY KONICA MINOLTA.”

is working with 90 channel partners. Since the beginning of its India operations, the printer vendor’s focus has been on driving solutions and this year, it has sharpened its focus on partner centric activities so that they are enabled to meet customers’ expectations. “Connecting to partners and customers along with right solutions has been a very big differentiator for Konica Minolta,” says V Balakrishnan, Executive GM (Marketing Sales & Marketing Division), Konica Minolta. Having some of the unique in-built features on A3 printers such as the cloud capability, the company says that SMEs can benefit a lot in terms of reducing the operating cost. Balakrishnan further elucidates, “The facilities available on our devices make things easier for SMEs and we are all giving it out of the box, hence there is tremendous connect between SMEs and value offering by Konica Minolta.” In its endeavor to capture the Indian market, the company organized 200 road shows in multiple cities last year. Recently, its 3rd Annual Partner meet was held at Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad, which witnessed the presence of 90 channel partners along with two senior executives from Konica Minolta, Japan. The objective of the meet was to provide insights on technology and product domains to the partners and educate them on the ways of creating new opportunities with the right kind of solutions. Recently, it launched its Digital Imaging Square (DIS) center, which according to Balakrishnan is a very unique set up where all Konica Minolta solutions are available under one roof. As part of the CSR activity, in the wake of havoc caused in Uttarakhand, Konica Minolta tied-up with Delhi based NGO, ‘Save the Child’, to extend its help to the victims; and not only donated Rs.10 lakhs, but its employees also contributed their one-day salary. Sumitani comments, “As a responsible corporate citizen, Konica Minolta is committed to contribute to local communities and the well-being of their citizens. Each contribution, however small, will help a larger cause and particularly the flood victims in the Uttarakhand region. As a part of CSR initiative, we have taken the decision to help the flood effected people. ”

Finally… Already a known leader in the A3 MFP segment, Konica Minolta intends to make great inroads into the A4 market too. Besides, by the end of this year, the company aims to become a leader in color digital production system. Last year, it clocked a turnover of Rs. 230 crore in India and intends to touch Rs. 300 crore this year.

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I N FO M E DIA

Ronak Samantaray Accent Info Media MEA FZ-LLC 223, DMC – 9, Dubai Media City, Dubai, UAE Mob: +971 562 151 157 Email: ronak@accentinfomedia.com Website: www.accentinfomedia.com

Connecting South Asia with Middle East and Africa A magazine for Channel partners with lot of Focus on Solution Business, The leading IT magazine in South Asia will now be available in Dubai for MEA Market.

NOW AVAILABLE IN DUBAI FOR MEA MARKET

Cov

WATH F OR OUT O AUG U U R S ISSU T E

PRODUCT

REVIEW

CYBEROAM FLEXI PORT (XP) UTM APPLIANCES

PANASONIC KX-MB1500 LASER A4 MFP BY MANAS RANJAN

Cyberoam Flexi Port (XP) UTM appliances are a part of future-ready NG Series range. The new appliances offer flexible network connectivity with I/O slots that allow additional Copper/ Fiber 1G/10G ports on the same security appliance, allowing organizations to upgrade to new technologies easily

info@smechannels.com

and cost-effectively.

PANASONIC KX-MB1500 laser A4 MFP (which was wrongly published in the March 2013 issue as Panasonic Laser Multi Printer KX-MB1500BX) is perfectly designed to simplify the everyday office tasks like print, copy and scan. Its USP is its compact design, which enables it to be accommodated in small desk space and rack commonly seen in Indian SMBs. An inner paper exit tray greatly reduces the protrusion of the body cutting the actual installation area by approximately 25%. The Japanese manufacturer seems to have stuffed all the features into this small footprint printer that is necessary for the Indian home, SOHO and small offices. Available in three colors, this MFP is absolutely easy to use and easy to manage. With print and copy speed of 18ppm, the KX MB1500 comes with 150 sheet capacity paper tray. The handy slanted control panel of the MFP lets the users use the printer comfortably whether they are standing or sitting. Plus, all basic operations are done from the front. The LCD displays on the front panel, shows the status of the function after given a command. The easy to use one touch buttons on the panel including copy, scan, setting, etc. make users comfortable while using this printer. You can push the printer to as close as the wall and make the front portion of the table free for other things as the power cord inlet of the machines comes on the side than on the back. All your basic operations i.e. replacing consumables and paper can be done from the front. Hence it is an absolutely useful printer for the Indian environment.

FEATURES n Input Tray Capacity: 150 sheets n Memory Size: 32mb n Print Speed: 18ppm

Cyberoam Flexi Port (XP) UTM appliances come with CR200iNG-XP and CR300iNG-XP UTM appliances for SMEs. It will offer cost-effective option

n Paper Capacity: 150 sheets

for future network or technology

n Scan Resolution: Up to 600 x 1200

upgrades in organizational networks.

dpi (Optical)

The FleXi Port (XP) appliances help

n Dimensions (W x D x H): 380 mm x

meet cost and performance needs of

360 mm x 203 mm

growing networks by allowing them to

n Weight: Approx. 9 kg

migrate to newer technologies without

n Scan Function: Scan to PC

ripping off their existing hardware and

n Colour/Mono Scan: Yes/Yes

security investment. For enterprises, the Flexi Ports in the NG Series

PRICE Rs.10,090 (MRP)

CONTACT Toll Free: 1899 103 1333/1860 425 1860

OVERALL RATING

appliances offer them the freedom to choose Copper, Fiber 1G/10G network interfaces as per their needs. In addition, Cyberoamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Flexi Ports consolidates the number of devices in a network, offering benefits of power efficiency, reduced network complexity and reduced OPEX.

n Price: On request, Warranty: 1 year, Contact: Vijay Shah, Phone: 9099010929 Email: Vijay.shah@ cyberoam.com

48 SME CHANNELS JULY 2013

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NEW ARRIVALS

PRODUCT

ZYXEL

ZYXEL 600MBPS POWERLINE ADAPTERS ZYXEL 600MBPS Home Plug AV2 Power line Adapters are designed specifically for HD media streaming. The PLA5200 series adapters come with a breakthrough Smart Link Plus technology to counter performance drops due to noisy line conditions or when connected through a power strip. The PLA5200 series uses existing electrical wiring to share Internet connectivity throughout the home. Designed with innovative HomePlug AV2 technology, the ZyXEL PLA5200 Series Powerline Adapters make it possible for users to enjoy simultaneous, lag-free HD streaming, gaming and Web browsing on multiple devices. The product family features data transfer rates 20 percent faster than 500 Mbps powerline technology. Additionally, the advanced Quality of Service (QoS) feature prioritizes traffic such as HD video streaming, gaming, high-speed Internet access, and VoIP services to ensure transmission quality for bandwidth-intensive applications. The new PLA5200 Gigabit Powerline Series can reach farther and offer greater coverage and can be used to eliminating wireless dead spots without having to install new Ethernet cabling. The series overcomes most common interference with the SmartLink Plus technology by using the ground wire to bypass common noise sources to ensure better performance. The PLA5215 adapters come with the convenience of a pass through plug to free up electrical outlets. n Price: On Request, Warranty: 3 Years, Contact: ZyXEL Technology India Pvt. Ltd., 407, Elegance tower, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi-25, eMail: sales@zyxel.in, Phone: 011-47608800, Toll Free-1800-102-999

LENOVO

LENOVO THINKPAD L430 LENOVO INDIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S newly launched ThinkPad L430 laptop with 3rd generation Intel core i3, i5, and i7 processors is built for ruggedness and reliability. This laptop is equipped with third generation ThinkPad docking, and has a wide range of built-in of ports for extensive usability coupled with a long battery life. The Cool and quiet thermal design with dual vents allow you to work in complete serenity. It also comes with a new ThinkPad precision keyboard with improved ergonomic design and power manager software that helps regulate power usage and extend battery life. The machine is thoughtfully built with HD+ display for better viewing and Dolby sound for superior communications experience. It also comes with 720p HD camera with face tracking for high-definition and smoother video collaboration. Lenovo Enhanced Experience 3 and rapid boot technology with Windows 7 Professional Operating system helps the users to have a very good experience. Its Quick Connect option can connect WiFi or WWAN in less than five seconds from wake. The inbuilt digital microphone with new conference and private internet microphone call settings is integrated for outstanding web conferences. Also the company has optimized the data security with self-encrypting drives that protect data on the hard disk drives in case of loss or theft. n Price: INR 42,000 Onwards+ Tax, Warranty: Three-Year (onsite), Contact: 1-800-3000-9990 (Toll free)

TRANSCEND

TRANSCEND 64GB CLASS 10 SDXC CARD TRANSCEND 64GB CLASS 10 SDXC memory cards offers a transfer speed of up to 25 MB/s. Ideal for consumers who are into photography and videography, this card offers extended Full HD video recording time and improved camera performance for high-resolution digital photography. This 64GB SDXC card can store a maximum of 26,208 pictures (based on 5 megapixel JPEG compression format), 352 hours of standard quality video (MPEG-4 video at 384 Kbps), or 640 minutes of 1920x1080 Full HD videos. Fully Class 10 compliant, Transcend Ultimate SDXC cards boast read speeds up to 25 MB/s. n Price: Rs.5,100 Warranty: Lifetime, Contact: Rahul Sarda, Director, Rahul Industrial Enterprises Tel: 91-98-30-064573 Email: riepl@ ca12.vsnl.net.in Website: www.riepl.co.in

SME CHANNELS 49 JULY 2013

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SME SOLUTION

ZOHO

DELIVERING SOLUTIONS APP WAY To capitalise on the fast growing India market with the increasing penetration of internet and smartphones, companies are adopting unique ways to delivering solutions to the customers and Zoho’s approach is something futuristic. BY KARMA NEGI

karma@smechannels.com

acebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest... are some of the powerful networking tools in the list of exhausting social networking tools. However, the lack of options when it comes to collaboration in business context made Zoho, provider of on-line business, productivity & collaboration products on the Cloud, launch three new apps: Zoho Pulse, Zoho Vault and a Mobile app for scanning. India remains one of the fastest growing markets for Zoho. The growth rate of India has been remarkable and features in the top three largest markets but lags behind when it comes to revenue contribution. “This means we are increasingly going to focus on the Indian market and the adoption of mobile will be a major factor in moving forward. So this means we will be launching lots of mobile applications this year,” says Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist, Zoho. Zoho Pulse is a social network app for businesses. “There are many social networking tools in the public like Facebook etc. But in the business context there is a need to enable collaborations. Hence we have come out with this app,” he says. While there are many private collaboration applications in the personal context like email chat, web conferencing audio, there is a lack of same in public communication in organisations. Pulse has been launched to fill this gap. It comes with a discussion forum, blog etc. and integrates with its document management system, and its social intranet, this allows customer app to be built within the organisation, which none of the competition offers claims Vegesna.

Zoho Pulse has three editions: Free edition at no charge, Professional Edition at $2 per user per month and the Enterprise Edition at $5 per user per month. The free edition comes with unlimited free users but the feature that they will not get is private group creation. This means an organisation you will not be able to create a private group to discuss private matters within the group. In addition there are limited storage options as well with the free version. The second app called Zoho Vault is a password managing application for businesses. Vault aimed at business users, is being offered free for individuals, if it is for personal use, and one dollar per user per month for businesses with more than one user. But with the paid version like $2 comes with more storage and personal private group creation, while $5 version comes with custom applications. And the third one is a mobile app which aims to replace the badge scanning devices that are typically used at trade shows. It’s a mobile app that can be used to scan and extract information from the badges and send it directly to CRM system. Last year, Zoho witnessed 100% growth in India y-o-y and is expecting it to remain the same given the penetration of internet and smartphone in the country. The importance of SMBs for Zoho can be gauged from the fact that the name Zoho has been derived from SOHO (small office home office). “Our applications are needed by businesses having greater than two or three employees.” With 900 partners worldwide, 20-30 are in India and are increasing the numbers. “We have

RAJU VEGESNA, CHIEF EVANGELIST, ZOHO

“THERE ARE MANY SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS IN THE PUBLIC LIKE FACEBOOK ETC. BUT IN THE BUSINESS CONTEXT THERE IS A NEED TO ENABLE COLLABORATIONS.” some good partners like Tata communication to carry some of our applications in India. But we are certainly increasing the partner number. Ingram micro is another good partner in India which has been carrying our applications and we are expanding the list,” informs Vegesna. Direct sales constitutes majority of its revenues but it also has partners who take its applications to their local market, and in the process provide reach. “Direct constitutes majority of revenue and that is pretty much the case with any online service but indirect is certainly increasing especially through some OEM channels and there are some companies who take our apps, rebrand it and sell it as their own apps,” he says.

Finally… With 100,000 customers using Zoho apps, the goal of the company is to increase its brand familiarity along with its offerings.

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RNI NO: DEL ENG/ 2010/ 31962 Postal Reg. No.: DL-SW-1/4145/13-15

Date of Publication: 20 of Every Month Date of Posting: 22 & 23 of Every Month

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