SME Channels June 2020

PLUS

Ingram Micro signs distribution agreement with Rapidor /06 www.smechannels.com

India’s leading IT magazine for channel business VOLUME 11 | ISSUE 03 | PAGES 32 | JUNE 2020 | RS. 20/-

GUEST ARTICLE / 17

MCAFEE “Mcafee Uncovers Flood of Attacks on Corporate Cloud”

SME CHAT / 26

LOGMEIN “Rahul Sharma: Channel Partners can Benefit from our Superior Brand Positioning”

CASE STUDY / 28

“Rishikul Vidyapeeth Schools Chose Matrix for Efficient Time-Attendance Management”

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PLUS

Ingram Micro Cloud and LogMeIn Team Up to Support Remote Work Pg: 13 www.smechannels.com

India’s leading IT magazine for channel business

GUEST ARTICLE / 17 Mcafee Uncovers Flood of Attacks on Corporate Cloud.

SME CHAT / 26

Rahul Sharma: Channel Partners can Benefit from our Superior Brand Positioning.

CASE STUDY / 28

Rishikul Vidyapeeth Schools Chose Matrix for Efficient Time-Attendance Management.

MY EXPERIENCE EDITORIAL

COVID-19, LOCKDOWN 4.0: THINGS MOVING SLOWLY SANJAY MOHAPATRA

sanjay@smechannels.com

Dear Friends When I am writing this article, I am under Covid-19, Lockdown 4.0 - in fact, the whole country is under the Lockdown 4.0. Although the offices of many organizations have opened but the employees are not seen coming to the office. Even the employers are not ready to take the risk of bringing or spreading Covid-19 positive in whatsoever format. The employees are of opinion that if they are affected and their family members are affected who will take care of them as the cases are going faster during time. Secondly, as far as major public transportations are concerned including local trains in Mumbai, Metro rail in Delhi NCR, Kolkata, public bus services in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad are yet to open. Taxi and auto services is not that great and costly afire. Employees also come from near by cities of the business centers and there is also intra state moratorium on the business services.

Many of the partners and OEMs are speaking to me and discussing about the business situation. Every one of opinion that the situation is not good event though the offices are partially open. Customers are not willing to invest in technologies except a few i.e. security, collaboration, cloud, physical security and monitoring devices, and hygiene products. So, in this situation, partners’ businesses are not that very good. They are reassessing their investment and expansion for rest of the year. So, what to do?

This is right time that partners can expand their business and become dynamic to accommodate new line of business. They need to think practical and look at the market changes very closely.

Since there is a lot of training session going on across the world, business partners need to acquire information as much as possible attending these paid and free technology sessions and certifications.

They should treat the period as a productivity time rather than sitting idle.

There is of course desperation and depression among all, and mental health of people is not better either. Therefore, I would suggest you should pursue your passion of entertaining yourselves and your families.

Acer Swift 3 with AMD Ryzen 4000 Series Mobile Processor The latest thin and light notebook series from Acer, known as Acer Swift 3 is now available up to AMD Ryzen 5 4500U Processor with Radeon Graphics. Acer Swift 3 sports narrow-bezel display, offering 82.73 percent screento-body ratio with a 14-inch Full HD IPS display and packs a lot of power into its 15.95 mm thin chassis with weighs just 1.2 kg light. It also includes up to 1 TB PCIe Gen 3 8 Gb/s up to 4 lanes, NVMe storage and 16 GB LPDDR4X RAM. The dual-band Intel Wi-Fi 6 offers a strong, fat and more enjoyable wireless experience. It delivers up to 11 hours of battery life and offers fast charging capabilities, and approximately 4 hours of battery life.

SPECIFICATION: The laptop is equipped with Windows 10, Microsoft Office 2019, DTS® Audio, featuring optimized bass response and micro-speaker distortion prevention for optimum sound experience.

FINAL WORDING: With a starting price of Rs.59,999, this laptop is really good for the overall experience of the consumers.

SME CHANNELS JUNE 2020

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contents

Trusted Advisor of Channel Business

VOLUME 11 ISSUE 03

2020

JUN E SMAT CH

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra Sub Editor: Nidhi Shail, Pooja Jain Designer: Shadab Khan Web Designer: Vijay Bakshi Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Marketing Manager: Vaishali Shukla Circulation and Printing: Rajkumar Hansa SALES CONTACTS Delhi 6/102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016 Phone: 91-11-41055458 / 8587835685 sanjeev@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 Delhi: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, New Delhi110016, Phone: 91-11-41657670 / 46151993 info@ smechannels.com Bangalore #28/1, 3rd Floor, Sri Lakshmi Krupa, Near

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Shamanna Park, Model House Street, Basavanagudi, Bangalore - 560004 Ph. No. +91 88618 21044 E-Mail info@ accentinfomedia.com

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GUEST ARTICLE MCAFEE / 17

“Mcafee Uncovers Flood of Attacks on Corporate Cloud ” Printed, Published and Owned by Sanjib Mohapatra

SME CHAT

Place of Publication: 6/101-102, Kaushalya

LOGMEIN / 26

“Rahul Sharma: Channel Partners can Benefit from our Superior Brand Positioning”

CASE STUDY MATRIX / 28

“Rishikul Vidyapeeth Schools Chose Matrix for Efficient TimeAttendance Management”

Park, Hauz Khas

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SNIPPETS PRODUCT | CHANNEL | CONSULTING | SERVICES

for more log on to smechannels.com

Ingram Micro signs distribution agreement with Rapidor Ingram Micro has added Rapidor to its Cloud portfolio in India. A flagship product of ACELR Tech Labs, Rapidor was named as the winner of the India edition of Comet Competition conducted by Ingram Micro Cloud in 2019.

Rapidor enables digital transformation of millions of SMEs who struggle with manual business operations. It offers them a powerful B2B sales order management platform that helps them streamline and automate critical processes, increase efficiency and reduce expenses.

Commenting on

the partnership, Jyotil Mankad, Director & Head of Cloud business at Ingram Micro India said, “SMEs are increasingly adopting technology to streamline business processes and focus on business growth. Rapidor helps them reduce the time spent on operational activities by 60% by eliminating redundant tasks. We look forward to working with Rapidor and our ecosystem of channel partners to help SMEs automate processes and increase efficiencies cross the order-to-collection value chain.”

Wipro Launches Global Channel Partner Program Wipro launches Global Channel Partner Program. As the market continues to evolve in the coming months, Wipro will collaborate with the channel partners to identify new business challenges that can be quickly addressed.

Ajay Bhaskar, Vice President and Global Head of Corporate Strategy and Intellectual Property, Wipro Limited said, “Products and

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platforms are central to Wipro’s strategy to stay relevant and deliver differentiated value to our clients.

A key part of accelerating our footprint across segments and geographies is the Channel Partner Program. We believe channel partnerships can accelerate adoption and bring innovation in relatively under penetrated industry segments and geographies. Together, we can

take some of the most innovative and differentiated products and platforms to the industry and open newer sources of growth.”

Wipro has a large portfolio of cutting-edge products and platforms which are designed to transform business operations, increase the speed of change, and reduce the cost of change across industry domains.

They are aligned to Wipro’s ‘Digital

First’ strategy, focussed on the outcomes of Business Transformation, Modernization, Connected Intelligence, and Trust. They are easily and quickly deployable and offered in flexible and simplified outcome-based and as-a-service commercial constructs.

SNIPPETS

LTI Wins 2020 SAP Pinnacle Award Larsen & Toubro Infotech has won the 2020 SAP Pinnacle Award as the Industry Innovation Partner of the Year. This award recognizes LTI’s contribution to delivering best-in-class industry solutions that complement the industry portfolio from SAP. LTI has a long-term relationship with SAP, spanning over 20 years, and is uniquely positioned as a partner, co-Innovator and customer.

LTI is a Global Strategic Services Partner, and this partnership enables its participation in the SAP S/4HANA Movement program to promote and accelerate adoption of SAP S/4HANA. In addition, this partnership enables LTI to work closely with SAP’s industry teams to deliver transformational industry specific solutions such as its

Intelligent Construction Enterprise.

With its deep industry expertise, gained through L&T heritage, LTI has successfully delivered ERP transformations for its Fortune 500 clients globally. For project-based industries like EC&O, LTI’s offering Project Pay Chain, addresses the critical process of payment applications and cashflows. Project Pay Chain is a result of comprehensive co-innovation initiative between LTI and SAP. Sanjay Jalona, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, LTI, said “The recognition as ‘Industry Innovation Partner of the Year’ is an exceptional testament to the LTI team. LTI has proven innovation capabilities as well as deep technical knowledge and expertise with SAP S/4HANA.”

Fortinet Offers Secure SD-WAN Solution Fortinet delivers Secure SD-WAN as an integrated feature of its industry-leading FortiGate next-generation firewall, powered by the industry’s first SD-WAN ASIC to enable better application experience, higher performance, and better cost efficiency. To help implement network changes that ensure business continuity for an expanding remote workforce with minimum IT staff and infrastructure resources, FortiGate’s broad product portfolio with built-in SD-WAN offers flexible business policies from a centralized Fabric Management Center console. These intuitive policies allow faster configuration rollouts at scale within minutes to enable the best performance for collaboration applications such as voice/video conferencing and SaaS applications.

Rajesh Maurya, Regional Vice President, India & SAARC, Fortinet, said,“SD-WAN is not just for the branch, it’s an important technology for the entire end-to-end enterprise. With applications for work from home, campus to cloud, data center to cloud, and the ability to connect clouds together, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN is a hugely impactful technology that improves user experience and drives cost efficiency and time savings for organizations.”

SAP Hosts S/4 HANA Cloud and on India Data Centre SAP IN launches SAP S/4 HANA Cloud and SAP Commerce Cloud on India Data Centre. Digital transformations and superior customer experiences are key requirements for businesses to survive and thrive in this new normal succeeding through the COVID-19 era. With this launch, Indian enterprises can now meet end-to-end customer demands, make commerce frictionless while ensuring compliance with current and upcoming Personal Data Protection Bill.

“Adoption of agility like that of a Digital Native model across the business landscape can lead India Inc to quicker recovery as well as push the demand of a digital buying mindset (electronic commerce),” said Debdeep Sengupta, President and Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent “With SAP’s locally available Business Cloud, we are easing Indian enterprises transition to be a digital business.”

As the economy shifts towards a consumption-based model, SAP brings together core technologies into one “stack” to deliver a high level of scalability and flexibility in the country while adhering to localization of the data policy. Further, with an € 5.5 Billion addressable market opportunity by 2023[1], SAP believes the need for companies to dive into technology areas such as user experience, data analytics, cloud solutions and mobility.

MY POINT

“COVID HAS BLURRED THE LINES BETWEEN CONSUMER AND ENTERPRISE, AND PEOPLE ARE USING PRODUCTS IN ALL KINDS OF CONTEXTS.” SUNDAR PICHAI, CEO, GOOGLE

Capgemini and Audi launch new Joint Venture: XL2 Capgemini and Audi launched their joint venture – XL2. Following regulatory approvals, the company was founded at the end of April. It will provide digital technology and consulting services, namely in the fields of SAP S/4HANA and cloud services primarily for Audi and the entire Volkswagen Group. XL2 combines an agile start-up culture reinforced by two global industry-leaders. The company’s goal is to expand its project business gradually and achieve a powerful workforce within the next five years.

XL2 was founded by Audi and Capgemini to support the automotive industry in digital transformation tasks. The joint venture that focuses on consulting and technology services for cloud and SAP S/4HANA® includes industry solutions such as SAP Leonardo®. XL2 is designed to enable end-to-end digital manufacturing, covering all central processes, including production planning, logistics, finance, maintenance, quality and materials management. Projects of the legally independent entity are to be carried out for Audi. The first focus areas are SAP projects for production and master data management, as well as development in the context of cloud-based applications.

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SNIPPETS

2020 GCSA: Creating a Sustainable World Companies worldwide with an outstanding commitment to sustainable development have the opportunity to earn recognition and acclaim they deserve by entering the 2020 Global Corporate Sustainability Awards (GCSA).

2020 GCSA embraces the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined in the UN’s 2030 agenda. In previous years, the award winners included Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) from the US, Siemens from Germany, ASUSTeK from Taiwan, GSB from Thailand, PT Vale Indonesia Tbk from Indonesia, and JANAJAL from India. The entries will be reviewed by a distinguished panel of international judges drawn from government, academia, and corporations.

Guided by the UN’s sustainable development outline, GCSA has four key objectives: 1. Promoting corporate sustainability principles and SDG practices. 2. Recognizing corporate efforts toward sustainable development. 3. Honoring companies that provide complete disclosure of economic and 4. Encouraging individuals who contribute to positive impacts and accomplish outstanding successes in sustainability.

BenQ Ranked No.1 in 4K Projector Brands in Asia Pacific Region BenQ ranked No.1 in market share for 4K projector brand in Asia Pacific region. It achieved 36.83% SoM in the 4K projector segment for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa in Q1 2020. In the countries – Australia, Japan, India, Saudi Arabic, United Arab Emirates, BenQ ranked No.1 in the 4K projector segment during the same period. In Q1 2020, BenQ had a market share of 48 % in the Indian Market in 4K Projectors.

“In the current scenario of social distancing and non-operational malls/ cinema halls, options for outdoor entertainment have reduced. But easy availability of content, especially 4K, on platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar+ and affordable rates of fast internet connections have kept people engaged. Our wide range of projectors enhance the customer experience of binge-watching series or movie night with family by showcasing the content on bigger screen, in authentic colors and in the right mode via BenQ’s proprietary features”, said Rajeev Singh, Managing Director, BenQ India.

Global IT Spending to Decline 8% in 2020 Due to Impact of COVID-19 Spending on Cloud Services is Bright Spot in 2020 IT Spending Outlook

EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT

DIGISOL Systems Appointments Sarvesh Mishra as the Head of Sales and Marketing.

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.4 trillion in 2020, a decline of 8% from 2019, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. Christian Alvarez Becomes Channels Sales Boss at Nutanix.

Table 1. Worldwide IT Spending Forecast (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

Data Center Systems Enterprise Software Devices IT Services Communications Services Overall IT

Source: Gartner (May 2020)

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2019 Spending 211,633 458,133 698,086 1,031,578 1,357,432 3,756,862

2019 Growth (%) 0.7 8.8 -2.2 3.8 -1.6 1.0

2020 Spending

2020 Growth (%)

191,122 426,255 589,879 952,461 1,296,627 3,456,344

-9.7 -6.9 -15.5 -7.7 -4.5 -8.0

VMware India’s Pradeepto Dey has moved to a new role as Director, Distribution Business, APJ. Manish Alshi has taken on an expanded role of Channel Chief for VMware India.

Riverbed names Alex George as the Country Manager for India. His role will encompass growing Riverbed’s market share in India.

SNIPPETS

World’s Frst AI Powered Source Code Marketplace Has Been Launched Piecex is a Smart Source Code Marketplace to buy and sell Code, Applications, Plugins, and Templates. In short, PieceX is a marketplace for source codes. PieceX enables you to reduce soOware development time by 95% with readyto-use source code and reduce development by 90%.

Don’t start from scratch. PieceX offers the opportunity to find the best pieces of source code that will help your project development process.

“PieceX” is a platform developed and maintained by ONE ACT Co., Ltd., and anyone can purchase and sell the source code that is really usable. You can use the obtained source code as it is or modify it and use it for your own or company’s service, system, software development.

“We aim to reduce system development costs and dramatically accelerate development speed. It also makes it easier for IT beginners to provide their services to the world.” says Yusuke Asano, CEO, ONE ACT Co. Ltd.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation Receives a 3.75 Crore Grant from Micron Foundation The Akshaya Patra Foundation received a 3.75 Crore grant from the Micron Foundation for COVID-19 relief. Funding will go towards preparing and distributing over 15,00,000 meals (including essential food relief kits) to the affected people in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as per the directions of local administrative bodies.

“The effects of COVID-19 pandemic in India have been far reaching, creating tremendous need,” said Anand Ramamoorthy, managing director of Micron India. “Micron’s grant to Akshaya Patra’s local kitchens and distribution chains aims to address the burdens most often borne by low-income communities and migrant workers.”

Akshaya Patra has served more than four crore meals across the country. In Telangana, the Foundation is working with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and local municipalities to serve cooked meals.

LogMeIn Launches Rescue Live Guide Rescue Live Guide is the latest offer in a series of solution advancements to LogMeIn’s Support Solutions portfolio.

“An ethos for us at LogMeIn is helping brands redefine how they engage with their customers, and a critical part of that is visual engagement. While traditional tools like phone and email are still effective CX methods, investing in less conventional approaches like co-browsing can help brands elevate their service and support to meet customer expectations,” said Anand Rajaram, head of product for support solutions at LogMeIn, in a statement. “While some inherent challenges of co-browse technology have hindered companies from using it more extensively, we believe we’ve cracked the code with Rescue Live Guide to make co-browsing much more frictionless, secure, and seamless to use. The solution allows businesses to deliver personalized, shoulder-to-shoulder support so they can resolve customer issues faster and with the white-glove service that can help set them apart from other brands.”

Rescue Live Guide provides a lightweight, zero-download design for both chat and phonebased agents and customers.

RP Tech Unveils WFH Solutions Portfolio Designed to address the specific needs of employees at stay home scenario, RP tech WFH solutions portfolio ensures maximum efficiency and enhanced performance.

With an objective to make WFH efficient for employees, RP tech India has launched ‘RP tech WFH solutions portfolio’. Designed to address specific needs of employees at ‘stay at home’ scenario, the cutting edge technology solutions ensure enhanced performance and better productivity.

Unveiling the portfolio, Rajesh Goenka, Director, Sales & Marketing, RP tech India said, “WFH is not a new concept in the IT industry, however, the lockdown has triggered its massive adoption in India. However, in the absence of proper technology support, WFH might affect the performance of employees. We at RP tech India are determined to make WFH more efficient and productive for employees. We are offering series of cutting-edge technology solutions from renowned brands to address concerns of employees.”

Dell EMC Launch PowerStore Dell Technologies launches Dell EMC PowerStore, a modern infrastructure platform built from the ground up with superior technology and expertise to address the challenges of the data era.

“Data visibility has become the top priority for majority of organizations. Therefore, to accelerate digital transformation, IT organizations must address their data needs by simplifying and automating their IT as well as by consolidating systems for greater control,” said Amit Luthra, Director & GM – Data Centre Solutions, Dell Technologies India. “Our new PowerStore solution is our first product as a combined company which acts as a testimony of our unwavering commitment to support our storage portfolio.

Dell EMC PowerStore’s unique features including datacentric design, intelligent automation and adaptable architecture will help customers address their storage challenges and help them deliver continued innovation.”

Said Anil Sethi, Vice President & General Manager- Channel, Dell Technologies India, “Dell EMC PowerStore is a uniquely adaptable infrastructure platform that will provide our partners with a massive opportunity to help customers easily consolidate their IT architecture across the data center, public cloud and the edge.”

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SNIPPETS

Kerala Records Highest Number of Cyber Attacks While the sudden outbreak and spread of COVID-19 has led to a continuing lockdown in India, the situation has exposed the netizens to cybercrimes in the country. K7 Computing’s Cyber Threat Report found that Kerala recorded the highest number of cyberattacks during this period. The report analyses various cyberattacks within India during the pandemic and reveals that threat actors targeted the state with COVID-19 themed attacks aimed at exploiting user trust.

The sudden surge in the frequency of attacks witnessed from February 2020 to mid-April 2020 indicates that scamsters across the world were exploiting the widespread panic around coronavirus at both the individual and corporate level. These attacks aimed to compromise computers and mobile devices to gain access to users’ confidential data, banking details, and cryptocurrency accounts. The key threats seen during this period ranged from phishing attacks to rogue apps disguised as COVID19 information apps that targeted users’ sensitive data. Phishing attacks were noticed more in Tier – II and Tier – III cities while the metros fared better. Smaller cities saw over 250 attacks.

IceWarp launches Deep Castle Software Solution for WFH

Axis Communications expanded its footprint in Kolkata and the eastern India region and shared the successful implementation details of their association with Kolkata Police for surveillance and traffic management on the streets of Kolkata. The event also showcased their integrated smart solutions in IP Audio, Radar Technology, Network Cameras, and Thermal cameras.

Centered around their philosophy of Creating a Smarter & Safer Tomorrow, the event brought to fore Axis’ recent success stories and their key takeaways from prestigious surveillance implementations across the country, including the implementation of surveillance systems in Vivekananda Stadium, Salt lake during FIFA U-17 World Cup, in 2017.

Holla, Director – India SAARC, Axis Communications said, “We are proud to be a partner of choice for the Kolkata Police city-wide project. This is an example of a city authority participation towards building a safer and secured smart city. We have 800+ camera installations across the city to track, monitor, and analyze the video feed for detecting criminal activities, traffic violations, and road conditions.”

JUNE 2020

Tech Data has partnered with Dataiku, one of the world’s leading enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning platforms. As a catalyst for data-powered companies, Dataiku provides a common ground for data experts and explorers, a repository of best practices, shortcuts to machine learning and AI deployment/management, and a centralized, controlled and collaborative environment. This partnership will enable Tech Data partners in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam to accelerate enterprise AI adoption by bringing together all the required business resources from data scientists, data engineers, business SMEs and analytics users.

“AI has the potential to increase the efficiency in various business aspects, through broad enterprise applications,” said Naresh Desai, vice president, specialist business unit, Asia Pacific, Tech Data. “We are thrilled to partner with Dataiku and are confident that the addition of their products will enhance our end-to-end solutions offering. Moreover, the addition of Dataiku complements our big data capabilities by providing a robust data science tools option for our partner ecosystem.”

In order to offer safe Work-From-Home experience, IceWarp has launched Deep Castle, an end-to-end encrypted software solution that allows real-time collaborative editing and video calling.

As the first step towards a deeply interconnected future, Deep Castle Gen 1 allows one to collaborate in real-time for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with colleagues across the world. In addition, it enables all users to get access to a beta version of the new video calling feature. It further integrates video calls into Team Chats; adding WebFlow integrations with 3rd party services enhancing security capabilities.

Speaking on the launch, Pramod Sharda, CEO – IceWarp India & Middle East commented, “Access to personalized video conferencing software is a necessity to work from home which is the current need-ofthe-hour. However, the news of Data-breach through numerous Video-conferencing solutions is now an everyday affair. We at IceWarp believe in protecting our customer’s data and thus are elated to introduce Deep Castle the latest version upgrade for IceWarp with end-to-end encryption and state of art features.”

Axis Expands Footprint

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Tech Data Partners with Dataiku to Accelerate Enterprise AI Adoption

Ingram Micro to Distribute Check Point in India Ingram Micro India will distribute Check Point Software Technologies. Commenting on the engagement, Navneet Singh Bindra, Executive Director, Advanced Solutions at Ingram Micro India & SAARC remarked, “Data is the most valuable asset of organizations in today’s digital economy and they need to protect themselves from cyber-attacks designed for data theft. Cybersecurity is critical for businesses as it provides comprehensive digital protection from a wide range of threats. We are pleased to offer Check Point cybersecurity solutions spanning network, data, endpoint, cloud and mobile technologies that can be leveraged by channel partners to protect their customers against the most advanced attacks.”

“We are pleased to appoint Ingram Micro as a Check Point distributor in India,” said Sundar Balasubramanian, Managing Director, India and SAARC, Check Point Software Technologies.

SNIPPETS

Legrand India to facilitate quarantine centres to support healthcare infrastructure Legrand India has initiated supporting the local Govt. in the creation of quarantine centres and isolation wards in Kolkata, Odisha and Chattisgarh. They are working with various government stakeholders across the nation with electrical products to be used for creating isolation wards and quarantine centres. One of the key focus areas of Legrand India is healthcare when it comes to giving back to the society. Legrand is also supporting govt. hospitals & quarantine centres with disposable isolation beds as a proactive step to facilitate to accommodate the migrant returns in the respective districts’ quarantine facility. The team has enabled support through its electrical products such as protection devices, wiring devices and UPS for hospitals and healthcare facilities countrywide which will house over 2000 beds and intensive care facilities for COVID-19 patients.

Veeam Partners with Google for Google Cloud VMware Engine As evidenced in this year’s 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant, Google Cloud has quickly ascended as one of the top three hyperscale providers on the market. As the leading provider of Cloud Data Management (CDM), we see and know the value in providing our customers with a fully comprehensive solutions portfolio that addresses the three cloud service providers. Today, we are thrilled to announce an exciting new partnership with Google that delivers more options and value to our customers.

Veeam is one of the founding partners for Google Cloud VMware Engine, a fully native, first-party solution for customers to run applications on VMware Cloud Foundation in Google Cloud. The solution is a fully compliant and certified full-stack cloud infrastructure sold and supported by Google Cloud. Customers can deploy VMware vSphere-based workloads, natively, in a dedicated SDDC on Google Cloud and utilize the same applications, tools, processes and policies you use today with no changes.

Ingram Micro to Distribute Datamatics IT & BPM Ingram Micro adds Datamatics to its Cloud portfolio in India. Datamatics enables data-driven businesses to digitally transform themselves through its intelligent automation suite of products including enterprise-grade Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software – TruBot, OCR solutions to digitize unstructured documents – TruCap+, and enterprise-ready business intelligence platform – TruBI. Speaking about the partnership, Jyotil Mankad, Director Sales & Head of Cloud Business, Ingram Micro, said “Emerging technologies like RPA enable organizations to transform their business models and adapt quickly in an unpredictable business landscape. Ingram Micro is delighted to partner with Datamatics and take their industry-leading RPA solutions to the channel ecosystem. With our solid technology partner network, engineering support and after sales service, we look forward to empowering our partners by helping them deliver the speed and efficiency that is required in today’s times.”

IBM Systems Offers Stimulus Package for COVID:19 Pandemic In response to the COVID:19 pandemic outbreak, IBM has enacted sizable stimulus measures to counteract the disruption caused to partners & clients.

Viswanath Ramaswamy – Director, Systems I/SA, IBM, said, “As our business partners and clients work to come out of this situation, we have announced, “The IBM Systems Stimulus Package” for our Clients, Client Facing Partners and Distributors to help them wade through the overheads.

“For our India clients, we will offer a zero percent or Interest free four quarterly instalment package for IBM Power and IBM Storage hardware purchases made between April 1st and June 30th, 2020. This is a short-term package to address the immediate term where we are offering different payment models to our clients,” he added. “Furthermore, we are supporting our IBM Channel Partners with additional programs to enhance their profitability in these trying times as well.

DIGEST UIPATH EXPANDS SUPPORT FOR BUSINESS PARTNERS UIPATH ENHANCES ITS BUSINESS PARTNER PROGRAM TO ENABLE ORGANIZATIONS AROUND THE WORLD TO LEVERAGE THE POWER OF HYPERAUTOMATION. UIPATH IS OFFERING NEW TRAINING, CERTIFICATION, AND MARKETING PROGRAMS FOR BUSINESS PARTNERS THROUGH THE LAUNCH OF ITS UIPATH SERVICES NETWORK (USN).

UIPATH GLOBAL AND REGIONAL PARTNERS ARE USHERING IN THE WORKPLACE OF THE FUTURE DRIVEN BY HYPERAUTOMATION FOR THOUSANDS OF BUSINESSES AROUND THE WORLD.

AGC NETWORKS TO ACQUIRE FUJISOFT IN MIDDLE EAST AGC NETWORKS IS ALL SET TO ACQUIRE FUJISOFT (ALONG WITH ITS ASSOCIATED COMPANIES IN UAE) THROUGH ITS INDIRECT SUBSIDIARY – BLACK BOX HOLDINGS LIMITED CAYMAN ISLANDS. FUJISOFT IS A TECHNOLOGY COMPANY COMMITTED TO BRINGING THE BEST POSSIBLE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS TO CUSTOMERS IN THE REGION. THE PROPOSED ACQUISITION IS SUBJECT TO APPROVAL FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN DUBAI AND FROM ABU DHABI DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR THE COMPANY IN ABU DHABI.

SOLARWINDS APPOINTS SAVEX TECHNOLOGIES AS ND SOLARWINDS APPOINTS SAVEX TECHNOLOGIES AS A DISTRIBUTOR FOR INDIA AND THE SOUTH ASIAN ASSOCIATION FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION (SAARC) REGION. THE NEW RELATIONSHIP WILL HELP INCREASE AWARENESS OF THE SOLARWINDS IT OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT (ITOM) PORTFOLIO FOR TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS IN INDIA, AND ULTIMATELY PROVIDE THE TOOLS THEY NEED TO MEET THE GROWING DEMAND IN THE REGION TO SOLVE TODAY’S IT CHALLENGES. MUMBAI BASED ND, SAVEX TECHNOLOGIES HAS OVER 32 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WITH OPERATIONS ACROSS MORE THAN 700 CITIES IN INDIA

MAKE IN INDIA IOT SOLUTION ENABLING HOME DELIVERIES MAKE IN INDIA IOT, IOTFY LAUNCHES IOT AND MULTI-FOCAL UVC TECHNOLOGY THAT WILL POWER FOOD-TECH COMPANIES, ONLINE BRANDS AND DELIVERY COMPANIES TO MAKE THE HOME DELIVERY OF FOOD, PRODUCTS, AND PACKAGES CORONA-SAFE, THROUGH IOT-UVC DISINFECTED DELIVERY BAGS. WITH THE LAUNCH OF THIS BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY, IOTFY ENVISIONS POWERING AND SUPPORTING ONLINE BRANDS TO REINSTATE SAFETY AND TRUST AMONG THE USERS, WITH RESPECT TO HOME-DELIVERY OF PRODUCTS. WITH SDK AND API INTEGRATION ON THE MOBILE APP OF THE ONLINE BRAND OR FOOD DELIVERY COMPANY, THE DISINFECTION PROCESS CAN BE STARTED BY THE END-USER BEFORE ACCEPTING THE DELIVERY THROUGH THE APP OF THE ONLINE BRAND OR FOOD DELIVERY COMPANY.

SME CHANNELS JUNE 2020

11

SNIPPETS

Dell Adds Enterprise SONiC Distribution Dell Technologies is announcing Enterprise SONiC Distribution by Dell Technologies, a new set of fully supported open source networking solutions that help enterprises modernize and simplify the operations and management of their data centers at scale.

As organizations increasingly rely on modern hybrid cloud models to do business, the historically monolithic and proprietary approach to networking has created inefficiencies and unneeded complexity. Dell Technologies is building off the work Microsoft spearheaded as part of the Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) open source project. By integrating SONiC into the DNA Dell’s Enterprise SONiC Distribution removes complexity and creates an agile and flexible network through an approach built on open standards.

“Our customers tell us that, while a hybrid cloud approach is critical to their success, they struggle to maintain and scale their networks, and manage them to effectively avoid multiple points of failure,” said Tom Burns, SVP & GM, Dell Technologies.

Time for Taiwan to Surf on the Favorable Tide COVID-19 pandemic has polarized sentiments of countries and its citizens. It has also created the new normal of distancing everything – education, work, shopping, meeting, etc.

In this situation, Taiwan, which is known for its hardware excellence, has developed capability to support the new normal. Many of the hardware centric companies are now offering complete solutions targeting the remote work, collaboration and education market.

Historically, India has been one of the biggest consumers of Taiwan technology. Taiwan innovation and aggressive pricing has been always appreciation by Indian buyers. But for several reasons the last decade has not been good going for Taiwan in India. There might be several reasons including Indian consumers growing attraction for Chinese products, growth of cloud and changing consumption partner of the consumers. But things are changing now; and buyers – specially the technology resellers are keen to support the Taiwan products which come with good technology and aggressive pricing. On top of it Taiwan capability has evolved.

Simon Wang, Executive Vice President, TAITRA, said, “As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan’s robust remote working solutions are making their presence felt in international markets. Top Taiwanese brands have been working on a war footing to offer solutions that will help companies and educational institutions across the world to enable employees and students to work agilely, collaboratively, and securely – with access to specialized support.”

CMS IT Services launches Defensible Cyber Security CMS IT Services, a leading provider of Managed Services and Systems Integrator Services, unveiled its Defensible Cybersecurity framework that takes a fresh approach to Enterprise Cybersecurity in the new post – Covid19 environment.

The Defensible Cybersecurity framework encompasses three solution portfolios of Protect, Detect, and Respond and a state-of-the-art Integrated Cyber Security Command Centre (i3C) committed to supporting enterprises.

The Protect portfolio designs and creates strong defences in identities, at the end points, on the edge, in computing infrastructure and in systems, using traditional and nextgeneration techniques. The Detect portfolio determines security breaches in real-time and manages malware, unpatched systems, and identifies cybersecurity risks. The Respond portfolio helps enterprises to address cybersecurity threats through streamlined cybersecurity command and automated procedures.

NetRack acquires UL Certification NetRack has acquired the UL certification for its NRSs series product line. NRSs (seismic) Series are ultra-rigid racks for high-density applications in data centers & server rooms, specially designed for the seismic zones.

As per National Building Code 2016 Edition (NBC 2016) considering the operability of essential facilities such as hospitals, airports, emergency response centers, data centers, and buildings vital to national defense, along with the building, Non-Structural Components also should be seismically isolated. Since the racks are the major passive component for hosting IT equipment, it has to be Seismic proof. “Quality and safety standards have been a top priority for NetRack. We have always maintained compliance with globally recognized safety standards. For acquiring UL certification NetRack has agreed to rigorous examination, testing, and follow-up surveillance of our manufacturing process and procedures while maintaining compliance with nationally recognized safety standards. The certification guarantees the safety and reliability of the products and also aids in ensuring brand loyalty and long-term business success,” said Ravi Raj, Brand Head, Director, Sales & Support at NetRack.

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Aspire Systems becomes ‘Consulting Partner’ for Salesforce Commerce Cloud Aspire Systems becomes ‘Consulting Partner’ for Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC). SFCC is one of the leading Unified Cloud Commerce platforms in the industry that offers best-in-class features and functionality, developed and refined over many years to provide a highly optimized e-commerce experience.

As an SFCC consulting partner, Aspire Systems will now be able to help retailers create seamless, personalized, and intelligent digital customer experiences with a mobile-first solution. Additionally, the partnership will also help retailers address their business-specific requirements and provide a comprehensive view of orders, customers, inventory, products, and promotions. Aspire’s solution will enable retailers to provide a truly unified digital commerce experience from discovery to delivery.

Commenting on the partnership, Sunil Bajaj, Vice President and Practice Head – Retail Solutions, Aspire Systems, said – “This is an exciting development & this partnership will play a vital role in helping us serve our existing and future customers with an industry-leading digital commerce platform. We are committed to continue investing in our digital commerce capabilities further. With this collaboration, both Aspire and SFCC will be able to grow SFCC footprint in North America, Europe, and across the globe.”

SNIPPETS

Panzer IT to Distribute Somansa DLP in South Asia Somansa partners with Panzer IT to offer it advanced DLP in South Asian countries including India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Maldives and Pakistan. As an exclusive distributor partner, Panzer IT will drive Somansa’s regional growth strategy.

According to Richard Kim, CEO of Somansa, “We are very excited to work together with Panzer IT to distribute Somansa data security products and services in India. As Somansa expands its business, it is critical that we offer the best support to our customers in those regions to help them protect sensitive data from leakage.”

Pankaj Jain, CEO, Panzer IT said, “We are very excited to partner with Somansa. The Somansa products and support was thoroughly evaluated and we are highly satisfied and confident to present it to customers in SAARC. Somansa DLP products are a perfect fit for all types of organizations, large or small, BFSI, manufacturing, Retail, Engineering, Technology companies, etc.”

ICMR to Leverage IBM Watson Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, has collaborated with IBM to implement a Watson virtual agent (called Watson Assistant) on its portal to respond to specific queries of front line staff and data entry operators from various testing and diagnostic facilities across the country on COVID-19.

The virtual agent has been deployed on protected pages of the ICMR website that can be accessed only by authorized personnel who are involved with sample collection and testing in hospitals and diagnostic labs. The queries could be related to nature and process of data to be captured by test labs, how to record inventory of test kits & reagents, process of reporting to various Government agencies and references to the latest guidance, in addition to responding to queries on COVID19 in general.

Professor Balram Bhargava, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said, “While India has been able to manage COVID-19 to a certain extent, the challenge still continues to minimize further. It is critical to remain focused on testing, diagnosis and treatment in order to lower the growth curve.

With the number of on-field testing teams expanding across the nation as part of India’s COVID-19 measures, this collaboration with IBM will help automate responses from the field & facilitate access to accurate & updated data.

Ingram Micro Cloud and LogMeIn Team Up to Support Remote Work Ingram Micro Cloud along with LogMeIn sets to aggressively support the customers’ remote work challenges of their partners.

In recent weeks, the need to adopt remote working by organisations worldwide has moved from something that employees do occasionally, to fully remote organizations almost overnight. Ingram Micro Cloud and LogMeIn are working together to support this new way of working by offering LogMeIn’s cloud-based products that make it easy to deploy unified communications and collaboration (UCC), identity and access management and customer engagement and support solutions to IT teams and end-users needing to maintain business continuity.

The partnership between the two companies leverages Ingram Micro Cloud’s extensive offerings and Value Software-as-a-Service, and its position as a leading distributor combined with LogMeIn’s integrated portfolio of remote work technology solutions that simplify how businesses and employees interact with each other and the world around them.

IceWarp offers Free Video Conferencing Solution IceWarp has unlocked its video conferencing solution for everyone regardless of their license setup, all to help a hassle-free communication in the time of crisis. The features are free of charge for a period of three months which would end on June 18, 2020.

IceWarp has extended its support to the Public, offering Face-to-face Conference Calls available for everyone, to enable mobile workforce during the COVID19 crisis. The beta version will help organizations and teams to collaborate and stay productive, it supports up to 20 video call participants and audio calls are unlimited. The service is free of cost to anyone irrespective of whether they are IceWarp’s Customer or not, it is very simple to use one just need to follow the simple steps. *visit https://www.icewarp.co.in/conferencing* and *click (Start Conference)* and then *share the URL in the browser with the people whom you want to invite/join*.

IIT Alumni Council set up first Covid 19 Test Bus An IIT Alumni Council’s initiative – the first Covid19 Test bus was flagged off in Mumbai

by Shri Aditya Thackeray, Minister of Tourism & Environment and Shri Rajesh Tope, Heath Minister, Govt of Maharashtra.

The Bus is an initiative by the C19 Taskforce of IIT Alumni Council that was brought to life with support from the Health Department of MCGM, Dr. Muffazal Lakadawala and Krsnaa Diagnostics Private Limited.

“The IIT Alumni Council has taken a proactive approach to supporting the Government’s efforts in fighting the Covid 19 challenge. We have acted swiftly and set up the IIT C19 Task Force to channelize the energies of the global IIT Alumni for this fight. The Covid 19 Test Bus is based on indigenous technology and to the best of our knowledge, is the first vehicle of its kind in the world with onboard genetic testing, AI based teleradiology and contactless sample collection. We chose Mumbai as the launch location given the relatively high number of cases in the city”, said Ravi Sharma, President, IIT Alumni Council.

SME CHANNELS 13 JUNE 2020

SME CHAT

AWARENESS ABOUT THE DATA PRESERVATION IS IMPORTANT What are the challenges customers have during lockdown from storage point of view?

Remote working has become the new reality of business for the world today. A new, more connected world is emerging at a pace faster than anticipated. It’s a world that rides high on digital transformation and embraces it across every walk of life and business fuelled by data. Today, companies are leveraging data to improve customer experiences, open new markets, make employees more productive, processes seamless, and create new avenues of competitive advantage.

Businesses and users are also facing various challenges including data security, lack of data integration & data management, insufficient storage capacity and speed performance issues related to drives while working from home. It can be inferred that with the continuous rise in applications and services, the demand for storage devices (hard disk drives, flash drives, SSD) is also bound to grow. Additionally, as more and more businesses are now moving from a client/server model to mobile or on cloud, we are looking at demand of up to 20TB data being deployed in the cloud for mass storage. According to IDC, there will be more data stored in the public cloud than in traditional data centers by 2021. IDC has also stated that the data generated by the digital transformation will grow to 175 zettabytes by the year 2025 – representing an increase of ten times from the 16ZB in 2016.

Data is created at three key locations – traditional and cloud data centers; enterprise-hardened infrastructure like cell towers and branch offices; and on the PCs, smart phones, and IoT

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devices. Thus, data created is further propelling the growth of global datasphere expansion and therefore, stemming the demand for data storage.

Additionally, awareness about the data preservation is important to protect the organizational information. According to the organizers of World Backup Day, almost 30 per cent of users never backup their data which increases the chances of losing valuable information. An unanticipated accident could destroy important files, for instance when the devices are on the move. To safeguard the data, well-organized content with regularly planned backups helps in preserving the data on computer, phone and other devices.

Recurring data backup helps in keeping the data secure throughout and provides easy access to the information as and when it is required. Additionally, it is important to know the capacity of data to be secured; hence, one should choose the right storage drives to backup the data.

What are the security challenges that Seagate storage is solving along with storage?

Organization have adopted remote working as the new norm to maintaining their business continuity and it has proven to be an effective way to keep employee safe as well. However, working from home has also brought focus on the issue of cyber threats, especially due the fact that organizational data is being access over personal networks that not as secure as enterprise networks. Employees are now conducting virtual meetings with their peers using personal computers and smart phones. These devices aren’t integrated with the necessary security tools and antivirus, thereby

increasing the risk of potential malware injection on the devices as well as corporate servers/cloud.

In order for the businesses to protect their data from the vulnerabilities, it is essential to store data on encrypted drives. Seagate Secure™ selfencrypting hard drives protect data at rest and reduce IT drive retirement costs. Additionally, these drives keep the data safe even if the drives are misplaced.

Similarly, companies should look for Common Criteria accreditation for security features, and ensure every drive complies with the top industry standards for security. Seagate® has achieved Common Criteria accreditation for products such as Nytro®, Exos™ and BarraCuda® portfolio—these drives fulfill international-recognized regulations and offer a wide range of storage solutions to as per the demands of the enterprises.

Also, by following certain processes such as by using Secure Encrypted Drives (SEDs) to encrypt user data and locking data during transport, utilizing AES 256 encryption (ISO/IEC 18033-3) & hard drives that are Common Criteria certified.

Following the (ISO/IEC 15408) standard and practicing end-of-life data erasure on devices can also help in protecting the sensitive data.

Seagate Secure devices offer two level services i.e. Essential and Certified, Essential features are available across all Seagate drives and Certified features are for government, healthcare, finance, and education industry. Furthermore, businesses should test for secure remote infrastructure to ensure that they can support the expected increase in remote access. They should implement Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that can bypass geographic restrictions and are unaffected by

SME CHAT

SAMEER BHATIA, DIRECTOR OF ASIA PACIFIC CONSUMER BUSINESS GROUP AND COUNTRY MANAGER FOR SAARC & INDIA, SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY

“TO PROTECT DATA EFFECTIVELY, SEAGATE BELIEVES THAT WELL-ORGANIZED CONTENT WITH PLANNED REGULAR BACKUPS CAN HELP EFFICIENTLY STORE THE DATA ON COMPUTER, PHONE AND OTHER DEVICES� drives. Those that come in both 2.5 SATA and M.2 2280 form factors, like our BarraCuda SSD solutions, are perfect for ultra -thin and ultrasmall laptops, mini PCs, and desktop PCs that need next-level SSD speed for accelerated applications and multitasking. intercepts.

What technology and services Seagate offering at this time?

What extra services Seagate is offering to the work from home customers?

With businesses rapidly adopting digital transformation and deploying AI powered applications and cloud services, large amount of data is being generated every second. Therefore, it becomes imperative for organizations to focus on data protection, storage and recovery. To protect data effectively, Seagate believes that well-organized content with planned regular backups can help efficiently store the data on computer, phone and other devices. Organizations should also evaluate how much data needs to be secured and what are the right storage drives to do so.

To help choose the right drive, here are a few tips businesses should keep in mind Tip 1: Think Capacity If the data is mostly in the form of text files or images/videos or a huge library of multimedia content, then Seagate Backup Plus Hub drive with up to 10TB of capacity would be the best fit.

In case of less data storage requirement, a mobile drive such as Such as Barra Barracuda Fast SSD, Backup Plus Portable drives and One Touch SSD with 1-2TB of storage would be sufficient.

Tip 2: Ensure Easy Access Seagate caters to the requirements of a wide array of customers including student community, working professionals as well as entrepreneur and business owners who are always on-the-go. Customers and businesses can keep their important data accessible every time on a Seagate portable drive; however, we also advise them to backup their old data on the cloud or another backup drive so as to make more space for the new information.

Tip 3: Pair Fashion and Function Seagate also offers a range of trendy hard drives such as One Touch SSD special editions, Backup Plus Slim or Special Edition game drives, which comes in bright and appealing colors and offer up to 5TB of data storage.

Tip 4: Speed Up Your Computer Take your data to the next level of performance, reliability, and efficiency with internal solid-state

Tip5: Safeguard the data Seagate Instant Secure Erase renders all data on the hard drive unreadable in less than a second via a cryptographic erase of the data encryption key.

So you can return, reuse or dispose of the drive securely; auto-Lock automatically locks the drive and secures its data the instant a drive is removed from a system, or the moment the drive or system is turned off.

Seagate has also introduced the enterprise Exos Systems Nytro Systems, offering a revolutionary modular approach to designing and deploying data center storage systems. These drives are specially engineered to move the data around enterprise, cloud and edge efficiently, offering a variety of storage solutions to fulfil the demands of public & private cloud providers, service providers and traditional data centres. The designed systems being modular in approach are easy to set up, maintain, and expand thanks to the interchangeable FRUs and hot-swappable components, including the controller. Even if users want to maintain large scale systems, the modular approach drastically simplifies the user experience with easily replaceable parts.

SME CHANNELS 15 JUNE 2020

GUEST ARTICLE

FUTURE-PROOFING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (CX) FOR A DIGITALFIRST ‘NEW NORMAL’

CHUCK LEDDY, B2B Brand Storyteller/Solopreneur

The term “customer experience” (CX) doesn’t seem to have a standard definition, but it’s often used interchangeably with customer journey, brand perception and customer engagement. In its broadest meaning, customer experience is the subjective impression (always viewed from the customer’s perspective) a brand makes from the totality of interactions, resulting in how a customer thinks of a brand across every stage, channel and touchpoint of the customer journey.

By definition, one or two touchpoints in isolation do not make a customer experience: CX is made up of all the touchpoints across all the channels (i.e., omnichannel engagement) across the entire customer journey.

Why is Customer Experience (CX) so important The way a customer feels about your brand will shape not only how loyal that customer is but also how often that customer refers your business to friends and family. Providing great CX increases customer loyalty and lifetime customer value, which directly impacts the bottom line.

One oft-used measure of CX is “net promoter score” (or NPS), which goes from 1 (not satisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). A customer reporting an NPS of 5 is a loyal, repeat buyer who has such a positive perception that she promotes your brand within her circle, the most credible, valuable promotion any company can get. The customer reporting an NPS of 3 may be “satisfied,” but will also likely switch when your competitor offers a small discount. A customer reporting an NPS of 1 will not return and will share their bad experiences with others, a sure-fire revenue killer.

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The CX opportunity COVID-19 has accelerated CX trends that were already percolating for some time: the crisis has become a catalyst pushing more customers, employees and businesses to adopt (or accelerate the adoption of) digital ways of doing business.

Companies that started their digital transformation pre-COVID are outperforming rivals who are digital laggards. Why? Because people aren’t just working from home via digital tools, but also shopping and accessing service from home via digital tools. Moreover, the way customer service gets delivered has changed as call centers are now virtual, even as the demand for service has increased due to COVID-related economic uncertainty.

In a future where rapid change and business disruption become the “new normal,” self-service tools can distribute incoming workload/traffic away from your overworked service agents, who can focus on more complex interactions that they typically handle better. Self-service is thus a CX (and employee experience) win for all involved. Digital-first is the one and only scalable and future-proof CX strategy available at a time when brick-and-mortar retail and face-to-face interactions have become (and will likely remain) problematic for some time.

How to future-proof your CX Customers want service, but they increasingly want it via digital channels. For routine queries, today’s customer often prefers self-service tools that empower them to access service 24/7, through any channel and/or via any device.

Omnichannel engagement will be a key competitive advantage for companies going forward, and self-service tools like conversational chatbots can fuel a scalable, digital-first and future-proof approach to CX. Blending self-service tools with human agents, empowering each to do what each does best, is a powerful driver of CX and high NPS scores. It’s not easy to do and will require investments of time and money, but getting your CX wrong will wreak

havoc on your revenues. No customer will tolerate long wait times, burned-out, overworked service employees who don’t understand their needs, unresolved issues/questions that leave them frustrated and churning, too much automation and not enough human touch, and service that isn’t personalized or empathetic.

Blending self-service + human agents When customers consistently get their routine needs met, whether via self-service tools or by human agents (or both), your CX is good. But to create a superior, scalable CX that keeps customers coming back and transforms them into brand ambassadors, you need to occasionally deliver personalized, memorable moments of “wow” (NPS 5-type service). This superior CX takes a careful blending of self-service and trained human agents where you leverage every complex, nonroutine interaction as an opportunity to “wow” your customer. You do this by knowing your customer and what she expects at each step of the customer journey, then over-delivering on their expectations with stellar service.

Often it will be your human agents who are intelligently leveraging customer data and/or your company’s knowledge base in order to deliver superior service. Your self-service chatbots, for example, can support your human agents once an interaction gets escalated by providing relevant data and/or suggestions. This “blended” service can create those moments of “wow,” which are CX gold. Consistently getting the small moments right is essential, but brands must also identify and leverage moments where they can go beyond the small things to create memorable moments that convert customers into brand ambassadors.

To conclude, CX is a subjective perception encompassing all interactions a customer has along the journey. When you blend self-service options and trained employees to serve customers in consistent, scalable and memorable ways, they’ll keep coming back to you for more. That’s a future-proof CX.

GUEST ARTICLE

MCAFEE UNCOVERS FLOOD OF ATTACKS ON CORPORATE CLOUD External attacks on cloud accounts grew 630 percent from January to April

SANJAY MANOHAR, MD, McAfee India

McAfee released a new research study titled ‘Cloud Adoption & Risk Report – Work-from-Home Edition’. The report uncovers a correlation between the increased use of cloud services and collaboration tools, such as Cisco WebEx, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with an increase in cyber-attacks targeting the cloud. Based on anonymized and aggregated data from more than 30 million McAfee MVISION Cloud users worldwide between January and April, the report reveals significant and potentially long-lasting trends that include an increase in the use of cloud services, access from unmanaged devices and the rise of cloud-native threats. These trends emphasize the need for new security delivery models in the distributed work-from-home environment of today–and likely the future.

In the time surveyed, overall enterprise adoption of cloud services spiked by 50 percent, including industries such as manufacturing and financial services that typically rely on legacy on-premises applications, networking and security more than others. Use of cloud collaboration tools increased by up to 600 percent, with the education sector seeing the most growth as more students are required to adopt distance learning practices.

Threat events from external actors increased by 630 percent over the same period. Most of these external attacks targeted collaboration services like Microsoft 365, and were large-scale attempts to access cloud accounts with stolen credentials.

Insider threats remained the same, indicating that working from home has not negatively influenced employee loyalty. Access to the cloud by unmanaged, personal devices doubled, adding another layer of risk for security professionals working to keep their data secure in the cloud.

“We are witnessing an explosive increase in remote working and adoption of collaborative tools across industries in India. We have seen Cloudnative threats multiply seven-fold. Cybercriminals are adept at adjusting their strategies and are now focusing their efforts to exploit the sudden acceleration in cloud adoption.” said Sanjay Manohar, MD, McAfee India. “In addition, cloud traffic from

unmanaged devices and unsecure networks expose businesses to massive risk. Mitigating this risk will require companies to establish an integrated cloud security posture and deploy solutions that have visibility and security controls across every cloud service.”

With cloud-native threats increasing in step with cloud adoption, all industries need to evaluate their security posture to protect against account takeover and data exfiltration. Companies need to safeguard against threat actors attempting to exploit weaknesses in their cloud deployments. Tips to maintain strong security posture include: • Think cloud-first: A cloud-centric security mindset can support the increase in cloud use and combat cloud-native threats. Enterprises need to shift their focus to data in the cloud and to cloudnative security services so they can maintain full visibility and control with a remote, distributed workforce.

• Consider your network: Remote work reduces the ability for hub and spoke networking to work effectively with scale. Network controls should be cloud-delivered and should connect remote users directly to the cloud services they need.

• Consolidate and reduce complexity: Clouddelivered network security and cloud-native data security should smoothly interoperate, ideally be consolidated to reduce complexity and total cost of ownership and increase security effectiveness and responsiveness.

Report Methodology: For the Cloud Adoption & Risk Report – Work from Home Edition, McAfee aggregated, anonymized MVISION Cloud usage data for more than 30 million McAfee MVISION Cloud users worldwide who collectively generate billions of unique transactions and policy events in the cloud each day.

This data set collected between January and April 2020, represents companies across all major industries across the globe, including financial services, healthcare, public sector, education, retail, technology, manufacturing, energy, utilities, legal, real estate, transportation and business services.

SME CHANNELS 17 JUNE 2020

PARTNER CORNER

IBM: PARTNERS CAN BUILD, SERVICE AND SELL APPLICATIONS In a bold move by IBM, the company expands its Business Partner program to create applications, develop code, integrate their intellectual property (IP) or deliver services with the IBM Cloud. This has come at a time when the partners are feeling pressure due to Covid 19 pandemic.

The new evolution of PartnerWorld expands the program framework to three specialized tracks—Build, Service and Sell— each with tailored offers that are designed to help Business Partners unlock meaningful benefits faster. By adding the new Build and Service tracks alongside the existing Sell track, IBM aligns with the growing trend of partners shifting and expanding their models to better compete in a market driven by cloud adoption. With 58 percent of partner revenue now coming from their own IP, partners are increasingly focused on integrating and delivering cloud-based solutions and services.

This includes helping clients with their hybrid multi-cloud strategies, as well. As IBM continues to enhance its Systems portfolio with IBM Cloud, including Red Hat and IBM

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Cloud Pak solutions, clients look to partners to help them improve IT agility and bridge mission critical applications on IBM Z, Power and Storage Systems.

“The world looks drastically different than it did just months ago, and our current business environment has only advanced the trend toward business model flexibility,” said David La Rose, GM, IBM Partner Ecosystem.

“During this time, our Business Partners continue to adopt cloud business models and strengthen their digital skills to serve clients, who are also facing new challenges.

Our partners’ success is dependent on their adaptability and ingenuity when it comes to helping clients overcome these challenges, now more than ever. We’re counting on them to use IBM’s open, hybrid cloud approach to help clients discover new ways to solve problems during these uncertain times.”

The company therefore has created a new incentive structure that rewards Business Partners for delivering client value in Cloud and Systems. This includes companies that invest in the development of bespoke solutions and IP, demonstrate deep skills and

industry expertise and integrate critical IBM software and hardware offerings as part of their solutions.

Enabling innovation through Competencies that are aligned to the three PartnerWorld tracks, helping Business Partners deepen their technical expertise and achieve customer success across the industries and workloads that matter most to their businesses. IBM also launched a new Partner Support Desk that serves as a central location for personalized and proactive support via phone, email or chat, helping accelerate partners’ success.

Delivering value via new IBM Partner Packages that bundle Cloud and Cognitive benefits so that partners can quickly learn, develop and test solutions on the IBM Cloud.

In addition to helping Business Partners speed up development time and reduce time to market, IBM also has an extensive network of sellers, ecosystem partners and go-tomarket resources that can help partners gain global visibility and monetize their solutions and services more quickly.

PARTNER CORNER

DAVID LA ROSE, GM, IBM PARTNER ECOSYSTEM.

“THE WORLD LOOKS DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT THAN IT DID JUST MONTHS AGO, AND OUR CURRENT BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT HAS ONLY ADVANCED THE TREND TOWARD BUSINESS MODEL FLEXIBILITY.”

SME CHANNELS 19 JUNE 2020

COVID 19_COSOSYS

COVID 19 BRINGS PARTNERS CLOSER Complementing and coworking is the new normal. They wish to live to compete another day.

BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA sanjay@smechannels.com

I

f Covid 19 has taken many things away from us and made people separated from each other, it has also brought many people together. In the Indian IT channel ecosystem, it has impacted positively by bringing the partners together and pushed them to work in tandem with each other, which was rarely seen in the past. Although the associations were created to sermonized togetherness and propagated theory of complementing each other but it was limited to not under cutting margin by quoting too aggressive pricing and passing the lead if there was no absolute competition or the solution was beyond one’s limitation.

Ever since the nationwide lockdown, no one was able to step out of his houses and purchase technology to support him in work from home.

He placed the order with his partner; but the Partner was also unable to deliver as he was under lockdown. After some days of impasse, partners could realize that by not supporting the customers

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means losing business. Therefore, not caring about what would happen to their own business, they exposed their customers to other partners who were located near the lead, thereby ran a risk of losing the customer to the competition.

This turned out to be a miraculous step for the partner ecosystem. When they started trusting each other, the business whatsoever started coming on their own way and this became a new normal.

Today most of the partners are talking to each other and sharing their lead on national basis. A partner in Mumbai is passing leads of Delhi to Delhi partners and asking him to fulfill the order, who used to be a competitor in the past. Even intracity cooperation is on the growth trajectory now. A Delhi partner based out of Nehru Place is asking a North Delhi partner to fulfill the order of a North Delhi based customer. A partner of Juhu, Mumbai is passing the lead of Navi Mumbai to a Navi Mumbai partner and asking him to fulfill the

order, which he would never do in normal days.

By doing this the partners are able to manage flow of business at the same time address customers with a limited workforce.

Mumbai Vimesh Avlani, Managing Director of Graftronics says, “I am able to manage my business swiftly by executing order anywhere in India not even stepping out of the locality a single day.

His peers in ISODA and ASIRT are doing this for him.”

Avlani is also reciprocating to others by executing order and giving services on others’ behalf wherever he can in his personal capacity within the city or outside the city. This way he is not finding any challenge to his business while others are gasping with anxiety of loss of business.

It is not Vimesh only but there are many partners who are coming forward and reporting this camaraderie during this time of difficulty.

WIRELESS CHARGING

CA-WCHP - USB-C DOCKING STATION WITH WIRELESS CHARGING

BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA sanjay@smechannels.com

E

ra of the Wireless: Wireless charging docks allow users to charge their devices in the absence of a charging port or power outlet. Power is transferred to the users’ mobile devices without any connecting cable. This is done with the help of a power transmitting pad and a receiver, which is attached to the mobile device or in-built. Electricity is modulated to make sure that the charging pad and the battery can communicate with each other. In this way, the charger verifies that a valid battery is in place before power is transmitted.

Recently, the use of wireless chargers has become extremely popular among technology enthusiasts. With time, more and more customers are shifting to the world of wireless charging.

This is because wireless charging allows easy and fast charging without the hassle of USB cables, adapters, and power outlets. People do not have to depend on the availability of power outlets or wired charger while on the go.

So, what’s the solution?

Cadyce’s CA-WCHP wireless charging dock is one of the best wireless charging docks available in the market. It is based on Qi technology and adds HDMI and USB ports to computers and charges compatible smartphones wirelessly. l The device uses inductive charging technology, and so, all new devices with built-in Qi charging properties can make use of it. l It supports 5W/7.5W/10W Max output. The

wireless charging dock by Cadyce supports USB 3.0 super speed (5Gbps) transmission and is compatible with USB2.0 as well. It has an HDMI resolution of up to 4Kx2K@30Hz and is compatible with the MacBook or Google new Chromebook Pixel or any device supporting USB-C™. l It is compatible with both Windows OS as well as Mac OS. The wireless charger is easy to use and carry and supports advanced features like plug and play and hot-swap. l One of the distinguishing features of Cadyce’s CA-WCHP wireless charging dock is that the users can charge their phones without even having to remove the phone cases. Being a bus-powered device, it does not need an external charging mechanism. It is a high-speed wireless charging dock and can work with most of the cases.

Therefore, users don’t have to remove their phone cases every time they need to charge their phones.

Moreover, the device has an anti-slip surface, which provides maximum protection from the device falling or slipping. l CA-WCHP is small and handy. It is about 8.5 cm x 0.7 cm and weighs around 125g. It is lightweight and can be carried anywhere conveniently.

It is convenient and proves to be a blessing for those who have a hectic travelling schedule. With LED indicators, the device quickly notifies the users about the status of the operation. It is a solid white while the charging is on, and the white light flashes when an incompatible device is connected.

Why should you choose Cadyce? l What makes Cadyce’s wireless charging docks different from other wireless chargers in the market is that it is highly convenient to use, reasonably priced, and frees the users from the inconvenience of carrying USB cables and adapters.

Therefore, this product is becoming increasingly popular in the field of wireless charging docks. l Cadyce’s wireless charging docks proves to be a boon for those who dislike messy and cluttered workspaces. Breaking away from the traditional charging system that uses wires and adapters clears the workspace and makes it convenient and easy for users. The cable-free functionality saves space and is highly efficient at the same time. l Being priced at INR 6999, it has a plethora of advanced features. The CA-WCHP is reasonably priced and has garnered positive reviews from customers. The variety of advanced features and its cost-effectiveness makes it a hit among technology enthusiasts. Customers do not need to burn a hole in their pockets to access the advanced technology of wireless charging. l The CA-WCHP device is best suited who use their smartphones for long periods for both professional as well as leisurely purposes like watching videos or playing games. It provides users with the convenience of effortlessly charging their phones without having to worry about the availability of chargers and power outlets. The high-speed charging ensures that the users do not have to wait for long periods to charge their smartphones.

SME CHANNELS 21 JUNE 2020

WFH_SECURITY

4 EASY STEPS TO SECURE CONFIDENTIAL DATA WHILE WORKING REMOTELY

BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA sanjay@smechannels.com

P

ost Covid-19, a lot of the companies, who were earlier hesitant to let their employees work from home, will resist the remote working model much less. The coronavirus pandemic will change the world of work and leaders would become open to giving their employees more control over their schedules. For employees and teams to work from home smoothly however, IT teams need to provide technical support at all times. This makes IT security extremely crucial with the workforce having access to confidential organisational data from their homes.

In such a scenario, how does one ensure data/ system security while working from home? Here are four easy steps that can help you keep your data secure.

Prevent unauthorized system access Cybercriminals and hackers are everywhere, looking for an opportunity to hack into your system and gather important confidential data. And if you think they are going to let you off the hook during these difficult times, you are mistaken. The fear of unauthorized access is way higher during these times as hackers know a large portion of the population is working from home. Every small

22 SME CHANNELS JUNE 2020

and medium business needs to have a strong access control policy defined for their employees.

So how does one prevent unauthorized access More than half of the data breaches happen due to weak or old passwords. Use passwords, and strong passwords and change time at regular intervals.

Do not write down your passwords on your laptop/computers.

If you move away from your computer, even for a washroom break, lock your computer. It doesn’t matter that you’re living alone and don’t have anyone around.

There are multiple tools available to see if your password is compromised.

Require two-factor authentication/ multi-factor authentication An increasing number of companies are requiring two-factor authentication when employees log in to their devices/accounts.

Two-factor authentication adds a layer of redundancy to ensure that only the actual account owner can access their account. A hacker could steal an employee’s password, but they probably won’t have a phone that receives the verification

code or commonly known as OTP. Also, the hacker wouldn’t have access to a fingerprint, which is used in some systems. Honestly, adding one extra layer to the login process could make a lot of difference in keeping hackers out.

Two-factor authentication systems can also serve as a type of alert when an unauthorized user is attempting to log in to an account. This will help you know when you need to change your password or contact your IT team about a potential threat.

Beware of phishing emails and messages According to a recent report, phishing scams and malicious COVID-19 links have grown from 15 in January 2020 to 54,772 in March. If you ever receive an email around PPE’s, masks, hand sanitizers etc, think twice before clicking on the link.

There is an increasing number of cases where employees receive such emails, which once clicked on provide an inroad to hackers with malicious intent.

Secure your home networks Even if you have a separate work laptop provided by your office, while working from home, you’d

SECURITY_WFH

be using your home Wi-Fi. And your organisation’s IT team has no control over it what so ever.

Changing password to something far more complex than just names or birthdays of family members is the most basic step in securing the home network. In case the IT team of your organization

fails to install a VPN client, you can always secure the WiFi network or individual devices, as you prefer, by subscribing for a paid VPN service.

Use a virtual private etwork (VPN) on your work device before connecting it to your home network is another security practice that should be

followed. However, make sure to avoid free VPN’s as they are not safe and usually compromise security, killing the purpose of using it in the first place.

These are some important tips that you can follow to safeguard your systems from being compromised and falling victim to a cyberattack!

SME CHANNELS 23 JUNE 2020

WFH_RASHI

24 SME CHANNELS JUNE 2020

RASHI_WFH

RAJESH GOENKA, DIRECTOR, SALES & MARKETING, RP TECH INDIA,

“WE ARE OVERWHELMED WITH THE RESPONSE FROM CHANNEL PARTNERS TO GREEN AND ORANGE ZONE OFFERS. WE WANT TO BE THE FIRST MOVERS AND ENCOURAGE PARTNERS TO DRIVE CHANNEL BUSINESS AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO COME UP WITH SUCH PROGRAMS TO SUPPORT OUR PARTNERS.”

RP TECH INDIA’S GREEN & ORANGE ZONE OFFERS GAVE IMPETUS TO CHANNEL BUSINESS: PARTNERS

BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA sanjay@smechannels.com

R

P tech India’s Green and Orange zone offers received an overwhelming response from channel partners across India. Over 500 partners in more than 250 cities benefitted from the offers announced between 4th-16th May. Appreciating RP tech’s proactive step, partners said that the initiative provided an impetus to the channel business during Corona crisis and subsequent lockdown.

RP tech India successfully concluded Green and Orange Zone offers for all India channel partners. Under the offers, partners were eligible

for various rewards on the achievement of certain turnover from RP tech during the offer period.

Valid on Peripherals, Components and Accessories brands from RP tech Portfolio, the offers were divided into the various slab to ensure maximum participation from partners.

Highlighting the benefits of the offer, Akhilesh Goyal, Proprietor of Hubli based Goyal Infotronics, said, “The Orange zone offer helped me to restart business and reduce losses I incurred in the last 2 months. I am thankful to RP tech India’s local team for their support in the timely delivery

of material. These kinds of offers are essential to boost confidence of channel partners and help them sustain in the business. I thank RP tech for the steps they have taken to support channel partners during the COVID -19 crisis.”

Endorsing similar opinion, Sanjay Sharda, Proprietor of Sangali based Sun Art Studio, said, “The offer helped me in getting my business back on the track. Their prompt material delivery and service support helped me get good business during the offer period. The initiative was fantastic. However, I would appreciate if they provide clarity on products availability and offer multiple SKUs options in future.”

Vipul Maheshwari, Proprietor of Ajmer based R. S. Infotech, said that the offer was a positive step towards normalising the channel business.

“It was a positive step from RP tech India”, Mr. Maheshwari said adding, “The demand for work from home solutions is huge and we will see a surge in the demand for components, PCs and peripherals post lockdown.”

Appreciating the support from RP tech’s Ludhiana branch, Ranjeev Singh, Proprietor of MAX IT HUB said, “RP tech’s local support was very valuable to get maximum benefit out of the offer. They provided me with regular updates about products and also helped in the billing process. I am thankful to them for their value-added support to channel partners during these challenging times.”

Kushal Sarda, Proprietor of Hubli based Visa Infotech said, “This initiative was very aggressive and out of the way. RP tech India is very bullish over business compared to other distributors and hence, they are offering all the possible valueadded support to channel partners. I expect them to extend this offer further and they should also add options to bundle products for maximum business.”

The offers not only received big thumbs up from channel partners, but brands also lauded RP tech India for successful implementation of the initiative. Expressing his views, Khalid Wani, Director, Channel Sales – India & SAARC – Western Digital, said, “RP tech India has always been in the forefront when it comes to channel enablement and we feel that the innovative promotions that they are running for the partners in the Green and Orange zones will further help the partner to maximize the margin opportunities, which is the definite need of the hour.”

SME CHANNELS 25 JUNE 2020

SME CHAT

RAHUL SHARMA: CHANNEL PARTNERS CAN BENEFIT FROM OUR SUPERIOR BRAND POSITIONING Give a brief description of LogMeIn and its Latest offerings?

LogMeIn, Inc. is one of the top 10 SaaS companies in the world. We develop and market a suite of remote access and collaboration solutions that provides secure connections between Human to human and internet-enabled devices. Our product portfolio comprises of three broader categories, namely Identify and Access, ‘Customer Engagement & Support’, and ‘Unified Communications and Collaboration’. They include cutting-edge solutions such as GoToWebinar, GoToMeeting, Bold360, Rescue and many more.

In the wake of the pandemic, our company has launched the Emergency Remote Work Kit – a free remote working solution for three months.

It includes GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, Central and Rescue Assist; all products necessary to

26 SME CHANNELS JUNE 2020

enable organizations to connect remotely and work. The kits are being provided to non-profit organizations, educational institutions, healthcare providers, and government bodies free of cost. It has also been extended to our existing customers at no additional cost.

What are the sectors LogMeIn caters to from a market point of view?

Being pioneers of the freemium business model, we have users and customers from Micro businesses all the way to large enterprises. The major Industries LogMeIn caters to are inclusive but not limited to banking and financial services, telecom, retail, manufacturing, IT, ITES and all organizations that need the power to remote work and support customers digitally. We are also working

very closely with companies of all sizes including startups.

What challenges do you see from the highly competitive environment?

We are able to support our customers with the ability to work from anywhere seamlessly and securely with all our products. Most of the challenges we see are opportunities to make our products user friendly and easy to use and it is availability and scalability, so that users are able to use our products on demand without any friction.

New-age technologies like AI/ML are changing the way people connect these days with their customers, what is the kind of usage you have in

SME CHAT

RAHUL SHARMA, DIRECTOR & MANAGING DIRECTOR, INDIA & SAARC, LOGMEIN

“THE LOGMEIN SAAS PARTNER PROGRAM BRINGS BEST-IN-CLASS ORGANIZATIONS TOGETHER TO ENJOY SHARED SUCCESS.”

bring the in-person experience to the digital world and its simplicity improves contact center efficiencies and delivers fundamentally better customer or employee experiences that build loyalty, advocacy and grow share of wallet.

We are seeing very good usage of our product and great feedback from our customers. Digital engagement is changing the face of customer engagement and AI/ML adds the extra layer of efficiency and scale to the process.

your solutions?

Bold360 is our AI-enabled digital engagement platform that delivers rich, personalized interactions at every step of the customer journey. By leveraging next-generation Artificial Intelligence(AI) and Natural Language Processing

(NLP), Bold360 helps personalize and enhance every engagement and now by using proactive AI, organizations can manage real-time and relevant engagements across the entire customer journey – from customer acquisition, through conversion and into post-sale support. It helps companies

What are the opportunities for partners with LogMeIn? LogMeIn empowers 200 million customers everyday which makes us one of the top 10 SaaS companies in the world. Our products are leaders in their markets. Channel partners both big and small can benefit from our niche products and superior brand positioning.

The LogMeIn SaaS Partner Program brings best-in-class organizations together to enjoy shared success. The program enables a partner to grow its business in bold new ways and thereby, unlock limitless potential. Customers also benefit from joint value propositions offered by LogMeIn and its partners that are specific to many vertical industries across India.

SME CHANNELS 27 JUNE 2020

CASE STUDY

RISHIKUL VIDYAPEETH SCHOOLS CHOSE MATRIX FOR EFFICIENT TIME-ATTENDANCE MANAGEMENT

Industry Education Customer Name Rishikul Vidyapeeth Schools Locations 3 Places in India Devices 1.COSEC DOOR FOT 2. COSEC LE PLATFORM 3. COSEC LE TAM

Company Profile Rishikul Vidyapeeth is a reputed residential school built across 43 acres of land located in Sonepat, Haryana with separate hostels facilities. It is one of the best CBSE boarding schools in Delhi/NCR with international faculty and tie-ups. Rishikul Vidyapeeth is an eco-friendly residential school, housed in well-defined infrastructure rich with architectural extras including well-furnished and well-ventilated modern buildings, smart classrooms and sophisticated labs to suffice the needs of 21st-century learners and educators. The school is big on quality teaching and on helping the students to reach their full potential.

Challenges Rishikul Vidyapeeth has its presence in three places - Sonepat, Jagos Bhaghpat and Alipur.

Managing the attendance data of various loca-

28 SME CHANNELS JUNE 2020

CENTRA server installed at Rishikul Vidyapeeth, Sonepat. Moreover, with the help of the solution, they could generate customized reports in different file formats. Matrix has integrated COSEC CENTRA server with an SMS web server for instant notification on exceptions. With that, the users were instantly updated on occurrences of such events. tions from a central place was a major challenge for the organization. The system they used was inefficient to address their challenges.

The officials were looking for a comprehensive time-attendance solution for efficiently tracking the movement of its staff situated at different locations from a central place. Moreover, they required an effective solution that would notify on exceptions - missing in/out punch, attendance summary, etc.

Solution After a comprehensive discussion with their team, Matrix has proposed a comprehensive time-attendance solution for managing their attendance and tracking their staff movement from a centralized location. Matrix has installed a total of 10 fingerprint-based time-attendance terminals at three different locations. These devices are connected via LAN with the COSEC

Results l Efficient time-attendance management l Improved accuracy in attendance calculation with SMS notification l Proper user database management l Centralized monitoring and control l Increased productivity l Customized reports as and when required

Products and Solutions Offered l COSEC DOOR FOT o Optical Fingerprint and Card based TimeAttendance Terminal l COSEC LE PLATFORM o COSEC Software Platform for 1000 Users l COSEC LE TAM o Time-Attendance and Leave Management Module for COSEC Software Platform

PRODUCT

REVIEW

MATRIX COGNIFACE INTEGRA200

NETGEAR ORBI RBK50 MESH SYSTEM FOR HOME WI-FI

BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA info@smechannels.com

WITH THE NEW NORM, I.E., “WORK FROM HOME”, most professionals today are working from home during the pandemic; it has become a necessity to have a good and secure home networking solution. Weak Wi-Fi is the paramount concern when it comes to the topic of remote workers. The dead spots, unreliable connections, and slow speed hamper everyday productivity. To overcome these networking challenges NETGEAR offers its Orbi Mesh RBK50 to provide a seamless experience throughout the house.

The new Orbi Systems all deliver industry-leading 802.11ac AC3000 Wi-Fi speeds up to 2.2Gbps*, so one can enjoy the seamless Wi-Fi experience everywhere in their home, without any dead zones from the attic to the basement, patio to the garage, front yard to back garden while streaming 4K HD video content. It also consists of a router and one or more satellites which is suitable to cover the surface area upto 200sqm. The RBk50 offers Wi-Fi coverage of up to 4,000 square feet and it also has an individual stand-alone router that covers up to 2,000 square feet.

The RBK50 supports download speeds of upto 1.4Gbps, while Wi-Fi speeds can reach up to 2.2Gbps for devices that connect to Wi-Fi on your home network.

FEATURES: • Ultra-Performance Whole-Home Mesh Wi-Fi System–Covers large homes up to 5,000 sq. ft with fast Wi-Fi. System includes a Wi-Fi router and one satellite.

• Fast Internet speeds for all devices- The dedicated Wi-Fi connection gives you the fastest and most consistent Internet speeds available, even as more devices connect.

• Stream and play even faster with up to 3 Gbps combined Wi-Fi speeds.

• Orbi creates one seamless network, so as you move from room to room, your signal won’t drop.

• Quick & easy setup with the Orbi app–Pause Wi-Fi, do a quick speed test, set up Smart Parental Controls, and much more • NETGEAR Armor™ – Best-in-class anti-virus and data theft protection for ALL of your smartphones and computers. Protects your connected home from internet threats.

• Works with Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant so you can use voice commands to control your home Wi-Fi network.

• Circle® Smart Parental Controls–A smart way for families to manage content and time online on any connected device.

COSEC COGNIFACE INTEGRA200 is a contactless face recognition terminal for Time-Attendance. This device is equipped with a 2 MP IP Camera, which recognizes faces within a split-second – even in low light conditions. It has the capacity to recognize up to 50,000 users and also stores 1,00,000 fingerprint templates and 50,000 events.

This device combines all the essential controls like IP connectivity, Power connectivity and battery switches in a single metal enclosure.

This solution offers a hassle-free experience to users without any halt or prolonged queues.

KEY FEATURES n Multiple Credential Support n Ultrafast User Verification n Intuitive User Experience n Vandal Resistant Enclosure with IK08

Certification n Engineered to Withstand Tough Outdoor

Conditions

PRICING: ON REQUEST WARRANTY: ON REQUEST CONTACT: TOLL FREE – 1800-258-7747 /

PRICING: ON REQUEST WARRANTY: ON REQUEST CONTACT: SUPPORT@NETGEARSTORE.IN

E-MAIL: INQUIRY@MATRIXCOMSEC.COM / WEBSITE: HTTPS://WWW.MATRIXACCESSCONTROL.COM/

SME CHANNELS 29 JUNE 2020

PRODUCT PRODUCT

DELL CHECK POINT

DELL EMC POWERSTORE

CHECK POINT QUANTUM SECURITY GATEWAYS Check Point Quantum Security Gateways series delivers unprecedented protection, scalability, and ease of deployment and control for enterprises, from their branch offices to corporate data centers.

The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has forced enterprises to quickly expand support for remote connectivity and home working at an unprecedented scale.

Recent research by Check Point showed that 71% of enterprise IT and security professionals globally reported an increase in security threats and attacks since the pandemic started, as criminals seek to exploit the remote working explosion, and 95% of respondents said they are facing added IT security challenges related to these changes. Organizations are focused on three key network and security requirements: • Preventing even advanced, zero-day cyber-attacks before they impact the organization • The ability to secure any type of network expansion or changes on demand • Unified solutions that speed up operations and automate protection • Hyperscale-ready with up to 1.5 Tera-bps of Threat Prevention Performance • Latest CPU models • Modularity and easy customization through multiple expansion slots • 100% Enterprise Solid State Drives (SSD), second power supply unit, and lights-out management for optimum reliability and availability. n Price: On Request, Warranty: On request, Contact: www.checkpoint.com

Dell EMC PowerStore – a modern infrastructure platform built from the ground up with superior technology and expertise to address the challenges of the data era.

Organizations can accelerate decision making, data access and application performance with PowerStore, which is designed for six-nines (99.9999%) availability: • Any Workload: PowerStore simplifies IT infrastructure by supporting a wide range of traditional and modern workloads with its scale-up, scale-out architecture for block, file and VMware vVols.

• Performance Optimized: PowerStore is seven times faster and three times more responsive than previous Dell EMC midrange storage arrays, because of its end-to-end NVMe design and support for Storage Class Memory as persistent storage powered by dual port Intel® Optane™ SSDs. • Efficiency Without Compromise: Customers can save on IT budget and capacity with always-on deduplication, compression and a guaranteed 4:1 data reduction.

Machine learning and intelligent automation allows for faster delivery of applications and services with up to 99% less staff time to balance volumes.

Customers can deploy PowerStore in the way that best meets their cloud strategy and business needs.

n Price: On Request, Warranty: On request, Contact: 000 800 440 2475

ATEN

ATEN 6 X 6 DANTE AUDIO MATRIX WITH HDMI 2.0 INTERFACE AND 4-PORT POWER INJECTOR ATEN VE66DTH is featured with Dante networked audio Matrix, a complete audio networking solution that distributes uncompressed, multi-channel audio transmission via standard Ethernet networks, with near-zero latency and perfect synchronization. It supports 6-channel of audio inputs and outputs via a Dante network and the audio inputs can support not only the line input but also the dynamic and condenser microphones at the same time. The device is built-in with 48V Phantom Power compatible condenser and

30 SME CHANNELS JUNE 2020

dynamic microphone, equipped with HDMI 2.0 input and output. It provides up to True 4K video output and audio embeddingand de-embedding, supports POE and DC power supply. Especially suitable for large-scale applications such asconference venues, or wherever that requires implantation of Dante-based professional audio devices for extended and flexible networked AV applications.

The ATEN 6 x 6 Dante Audio Matrix with HDMI Interface provides flexible audio capability with audio de-embedding and embedding. It can

de-embed HDMI stereo audio signals to the Dante networking system and embed Dante audio signals into the HDMI output. Moreover, VE66DTH is equipped with PoE and DC power supply to ensure the normal operation and can be powered by a compatible PoE device through Ethernet cable. n Price: On Request, Warranty: On request, Contact: https://www.aten.com/

RNI NO: DEL ENG/ 2010/ 31962 Postal Reg. No.: DL-SW-1/4145/16-18 Licensed to Post without pre-payment U(SW)/19/2017-18

Date of Publication: 13 of Every Month Date of Posting: 15 & 16 of Every Month