SME Channels November 12 issue by SME Channels

PLUS

HP Unveils Cloud-based Service Desk /10

india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 03 | ISSUE 09 | PAGES 56 | NOVEMBER 2012 | RS. 20/-

TREND SETTER

/44

IBM: IBM Products’ Road Map is Based on Three Pillars

PERSONA

/46

Canon: Dr. Alok Bharadwaj

SME CHAT

/54

Quantum: “Market Confused Over Big Data Definition”

FEATURE

PARALLEL IMPORTING: WHO IS THE LOSER? /34

WITH 24% GROWTH THE OPPORTUNITY IS GALORE To enhance employee productivity, increase collaboration and reduce IT operational costs companies are increasingly looking towards Unified Communication which has become a key factor in enabling real-time connectivity. /28 01

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PLUS

K7 Celebrates 20 Years of Success /20 www.smechannels.com

india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 03 | ISSUE 09 | PAGES 56 | NOVEMBER 2012 | RS. 20/-

SME BIZ

LEADERS’ CORNER

/50

Buffalo: Buffalo india to Launch Partners’ Club

/26

Cyberoam: “Positioned Well In Mid-level nterprises

PARTNER CORNER

/24

Paras: “Matrix Products are Robust, Stable and Feature Rich“

MY EXPERIENCE EDITORIAL

BEFORE THE YEAR ENDS… SANJAY MOHAPATRA editor@smechannels.com

BEFORE THE YEAR ends, there is a lot of commotion in the market. Two different things

are happening at a time. One: the principals are seen investing in organizing events for their employees and partners in exotic locations within or outside India for empowering and encouraging them. The events are featuring a lot of sportive events along with serious PPT presentations on company’s roadmap, product trainings, performance appraisal, etc. Besides giving spirited presentations, the top braces of the principals are seen giving lofty target for the channel partners for the years to come. To me this should happen more often because the partners and even the internal resources of the principals remain under tremendous pressure throughout the year, which decreases their performance. So by taking these people for unwinding for some days could really mean a great performance booster. This does not only help the individuals but indirectly the companies. But the other important thing is that before the festive season started there was a great expectation from the market. But as the time passed (We are half way through by now) the market seemed to be very low unlike the previous years. Principals are pulling out investments from the market. There is a concern among the partners that this quarter might go as the lowest performing one vis-à-vis previous quarter of the year and even corresponding quarters in previous years. This is of course very good and bad for the market. The good thing is that the principals are getting ready for 2013 calendar year. They are able to predict the situation and planning for it well in advance. The bad thing is that the channel partners had pinned hope on this quarter that that it would yield some good performance, which could enhance their profitability but it will be elude from them this time. Actually, the typical human behaviour is that they go with their own notion, they cannot or do not accept things given in different orientation or different ways. This actually influences their business and their social life. So, if this quarter is not behaving according to their expectation, one should not drop the hat out of disappointment rather take it as another learning curve and the learning is that one should do better planning. The financial compensation can happen any time. Cheers!

Transcend Wi-Fi SD Card MEMORY CARDS are very crucial these days. But when these cards add wireless capability it offers pure convinience. Transcend Wi-Fi SD memory card is one such card, which comes with wireless capability for an SDHC-compatible digital camera. This card operates in two modes, direct share or internet mode. Direct Share Mode is meant for outdoor photo shoots and vacations. Internet Mode allows users to browse and download photos from the Wi-Fi SD card. Developed specifically for iOS (iPhone/iPad/ iPod touch) and Android devices, the freeto-download Wi-Fi SD App automatically organizes Wi-Fi SD card data into intuitive categories.

SPECIFICATIONS Available in 16GB and 32GB capacities, the cards provide higher transfer speeds and greater stability than currently available Class 6 cards. FINAL WORDING Available in two models i.e.16 Gb and 32 GB, these cards cost sub 100USD, which is fair. OVERALL RATING

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SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2012

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Enjoy natural conversations with Panasonic HD Visual Communication Solution, delivering real time 3D video. It focuses on enhancing the productivity and collaboration of commercial and professional applications for industries like healthcare, manufacturing and education, etc. For Sales Enquiry: sales.hdvc@in.panasonic.com | www.panasonic.net/hdvc. tm

breadnbutter /panasonic/119/oct.12

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contents

NOV VOLUME 03 ISSUE 09

2012

ER COV RY STO

india’s first IT magazine for sme business

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra Assistant Editor: Karma Negi Reporters: Aparajita Choudhury Executive Editor: Smruti Chaudhury Copy Editor: Neil D’Souza Web Designer: Vijay Bakshi Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan Satya Sagar Sinha Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Senior Manager: M Raj Marketing Executive: Rajat Kumar Circulation and Printing: Panchanan Bhoi SALES CONTACTS Delhi 6/102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016 Phone: 91-11-41055458 / 9313891660 E-mail: raj@smechannels.com Bangalore Subrat S NO.661, 10th Main, 5th cross, 4th Block, Koramangala, Behind Old Maharaja, Bangalore-560034 Phone: 9886107294 E-mail:info@smechannels.com Mumbai Hemal Shah B/14, Neel Ashish 92, J.P.road, Andheri (West) Mumbai - 400058 E-mail: info@smechannels.com

With 24% Growth the Opportunity is galore

Kolkata S Subhendu

To enhance employee productivity, increase collaboration and reduce IT operational costs companies are increasingly looking towards Unified Communication which has become a key factor in enabling real-time connectivity.

Delhi: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, New

/28

BC-286, Laxmi Apartment, Kestopur Kolkata-700101 Phone: 9674804389 EDITORIAL OFFICE Delhi-110016, Phone: 91-11-41657670 / 46151993 editor@smechannels.com Bangalore 136/ 9, Ground Floor, Eden Crest Apartment, Grape Garden, Ejipura

PERSONA

Canon /46

Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice President, Canon India

more inside

Vivek Nagar PS Bengalore-560047 edit@smechannels.com

Editorial~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 04

TREND SETTER IBM /44

IBM Products’ Road Map is Based on Three Pillars

Snippets~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 08 Partner Corner ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 24, 43

“Market Confused Over Big Data Definition”

Mohapatra Place of Publication: 6/101-102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas

Leaders Corner ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 26

SME CHAT Quantum /54

Printed, Published and Owned by Sanjib

Case Study~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 42 Products~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 52

New Delhi-110016

SME BIZ

BUFFALO /50 Buffalo india to Launch Partners’ Club

PLUS FEATURE: Parallel Importing: Who is the Loser? /34

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

SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2012

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Advanced Portable Projectors with High Brightness, Wireless Functions,* and Abundant Features.

I N D I A WA R

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Panasonic India Pvt. Ltd. For sales and queries contact : North: Mr. M.P. Singh - +91-9717007378 - mohinderpal.singh@in.panasonic.com, Ms. Megha Sehgal - +91- 9650023517,megha.sehgal@in.panasonic.com East: Mr. M.P. Singh - +91-97170 07378 - mohinderpal.singh@in.panasonic.com, Mr. Robin - +91- 9007083113 West: Mr.Vijay Rangarajan - +91-9987787513 - vijay.rangarajan@in.panasonic.com, Mr. Varun Agrawal - +91-7738355732 - varun.agrawal@in.panasonic.com, Mr. Amula Gangasagar - +91-9920494835, amula.gangasagar@in.panasonic.com South: Mr. Devesh Divakaran +91-9986717514 - devesh.divakaran@in.panasonic.com, Mr. D. Somasundaran - +91-9884615515 - somasundaran.d@in.panasonic.com, Mr. Jayaprakash Narayana - +91-9963507779, jayaprakash.narayana@in.panasonic.com Join us on : www.facebook.com/panasonicindia www.twitter.com/panasonicindia |

Service Helpline : 1800 103 1333, 1860 425 1860, 044 -4288 9222 | Website: www.panasonic.co.in, E-mail: helpline@in.panasonic.com

breadnbutter /panasonic/118/oct.12

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SNIPPETS PRODUCT | CHANNEL | CONSULTING | SERVICES

for more log on to smechannels.com

Big Data Driving Demand for PaaS: IBM In world awash in data, where complexity is on the rise and the pace of innovation has never been faster, the need to streamline new application development is driving demand for a relatively new form

of cloud computing known as Platform as a Service (PaaS). This was the finding of a new study released by IBM Center for Applied Insights. In response, IBM is announc-

ing a new PaaS offering to help organizations build and deploy its own software applications quickly and effectively by renting IBM’s PaaS cloud computing platform of integrated middleware, monitoring,

networks, servers and storage. IBM’s survey of more than 1,500 IT decision makers from 18 countries found that forward looking IT leaders are blazing the trail with early adoption of PaaS for business advantage – citing big data as the #1 reason amongst several strategic initiatives they were targeting. The study also showed that nearly 20 percent of respondents are currently using PaaS, although more than half recognize the opportunity. Business and technology leaders are beginning to seek out this new type of cloud computing to keep computing costs low and to expedite delivery of new products and services. Unlike other cloud computing services, such as IaaS and SaaS, PaaS uniquely offers a foundation of common application services, tools and templates for businesses to rent and build their own powerful software applications quickly and deploy them into an automated environment. “Just as auto makers have used common platforms or chassis to manufacture their lines of cars more efficiently, PaaS allows organizations to standardize their IT platform and quickly introduce new competitive offerings,” said Erich Clementi, Senior VP of IBM Global Technology Services.

Oracle Offers Entry Level SPARC Server for Mid-sized Companies Oracle has launched new bundled offerings around its x86 servers - entry level SPARC servers and storage solutions to enable mid-sized organization drive superior consolidation and virtualization as they embrace cloud computing. This new volume business initiative will be driven through partners and is being rolled out across APAC markets. “In their journey to cloud computing, many midsized companies are moving from silos to a virtual environment. However, the traditional method of building a virtualized infrastructure is very time-consuming and a perplexing effort, owing to the required integration of many components such as servers, storage, network, virtualization tools, and operating systems from a broad range of vendors,” said Stuart Long, CTO and Senior Sales Consulting Director, Systems Division, Asia Pacific and Japan, Oracle Corporation.

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SNIPPETS

Dell Extends Cloud Client Computing Dell has expanded its end-to-end cloud client computing portfolio in Asia-Pacific. The new desktop virtualization and cloud client solutions are easy to deploy and support, and deliver a cost effective and highly secure way to enable any worker to use any app on any device. Under this initiative the company is introducing Desktop Virtualization Solutions (DVS) Simplified Appliance in Asia-Pacific to specifically address the cost and complexity challenges of virtual desktop adoption. This solution is an easy, affordable, all-in-one desktop virtualization appliance for organizations looking to avoid the time and complexity involved in building out their VDI infrastructure. It is uniquely designed to remove traditional cost and complexity barriers associated with deploying virtual desktop infrastructures. The solution consists of a new 12th generation Dell PowerEdge R720 rack server pre-configured with new Citrix VDI-in-a-Box 5.1 software and hypervisor components installed and ready-to-run, backed by 3-year Dell ProSupport service.

HP Unveils Cloud-based Service Desk HP hsa launched HP Service Anywhere, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) IT service management solution that delivers a simple-to-use, modern experience that enables IT professionals to increase productivity while managing and delivering high-quality services. HP Service Anywhere integrates key technologies, such as the market-leading HP Universal Configuration Management Database (UCMDB), which manages services, applications and hardware across the IT environment. It is populated and maintained with HP Universal Discovery software, which automates discovery and dependency mapping of relevant IT elements. It will be available worldwide directly from HP or via its ecosystem of channel partners. Entry-level pricing is expected to start at $89 per user per month.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM to Provide Better Experience Microsoft’s next service update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online will be released in December 2012. This new service update comes on the heels of continued success that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM business is experiencing in the market, as it completes its 33rd consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth and closes the gap on its 3 millionth seat. Delivering on the Microsoft Dynamics commitment to rapidly innovate, and help businesses attract, win and retain customers through solutions that delight users and proactively help them do business, the next service update will reimagine the way sales, customer service and marketing professionals work with CRM. Moving away from the traditional data-centric approach, this service update will add new experiences that simply and visually guide users through their business processes. Microsoft Office 2013 compatibility; and cross-browser support enabling new levels of communications and collaboration for customers.

MY POINT

NetApp Refreshes Midrange Storage Balancing the data infrastructure realities of today with the growth promise of tomorrow, NetApp updated its FAS midrange storage systems with the introduction of the FAS3220 and FAS3250. The new systems deliver a superior mix of industry-leading performance, capacity scaling, and value to create an infrastructure foundation that accelerates business growth. Designed for stringent SAN and NAS environments, the new FAS storage systems help enterprises and midsized businesses that are consolidating operations onto a shared storage platform improve performance by up to 80% and increase storage capacity up to 100% over existing midrange products claimed the company’s press release. Native support for high-speed, lowlatency Flash and industry-leading non-disruptive operations provides organizations with the necessary foundation for an intelligent, immortal, and infinitely scalable agile data infrastructure. Brendon Howe, VP (Product and Solutions Marketing), NetApp, said, “Our new unified midrange products are optimized for both mission-critical SAN and NAS environments, leverage technologies such as Flash and clustered Data ONTAP to address today’s performance.”

Lenovo Appreciates Iris for its Success

“As global markets improve in 2013 and resume growth, Asia Pacific remains one of the bright spots of the global IT market.” PETER SONDERGAARD SENIOR VP AND GLOBAL HEAD OF RESEARCH, GARTNER.

Lenovo’s MD, Amar Babu hailed Iris Computers in playing a key role in Lenovo’s success. “Iris Computers is our long and old partner,” said Babu. “We have grown together with Iris playing a key role in our success both in the consumer side and enterprise side. As their share of Lenovo has increased our share has also increased in the market from 5 percent (when we started) to 17 per cent at present.” “We leverage their strong capability in their distribution network and they use our products and brand name. Iris gave us our mindshare with distributors. The Iris team has good leadership and a good relationship with people at our end. The team is very stable and consistent. We know what they want and they know what we want. We understand each other and air our differences openly in a healthy atmosphere,” noted Babu. The company informed that its success in India has been led by a strong international brand, right set of products for the country, right distributors, channel partners, one thousand franchisees as retail investors.

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SNIPPETS

SAP Releases Comprehensive IT Platform for Banks SAP brings the 8.0 release of banking services, the latest edition of a banking platform for IT innovation from SAP. A comprehensive and fully realized offering, the latest release helps banks face the new realities of compliance, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), real-time transactional banking and advanced risk analysis. Over 100 banks worldwide successfully run or are in the process of implementing the platform. The announcement was made at the SAP Financial Services Forum North America, which was held in New York in late October. Suprakash Chaudhuri, Acting Managing Director, SAP India, said, “The 8.0 release represents the type of forward-looking platform that today’s banks need to better engage with their customers and drive innovation while reducing costs.”

D-LINK TO HELP BUSINESSES GROW D-Link has launched its DGS-1500 Managed SmartPro switch series, which it says provides all the essential features of a managed switch, including Layer 3 functions such as static routing, at a price point accessible to small-tomedium-sized businesses. The Managed SmartPro series allows businesses to invest in their networks now, without having to worry about the future impact on their IT budgets. Historically, for small-to-medium-sized businesses to upgrade their switching environments they have had to make a quantum leap in terms of investment and move to Sanjay Sehgal, VP (Entera next level of switching said the networking company. In prise Business), D-Link order to provide a more gradual upgrade path, D-Link has (India) Limited introduced the DGS-1500 Series which allows businesses to scale their switching infrastructure incrementally at a reduced financial outlay. Sanjay Sehgal, VP (Enterprise Business), D-Link (India) Limited, commented, “Our goal as a company is to provide the widest range of solutions that address the requirements of any business to an almost bespoke level of detail. The Managed SmartPro series takes its place within our full range of unmanaged, smart, managed and chassis switches, in what we consider ours to be the widest portfolio of switches on the market.”

NEC Announces Express5800/HR120a-1 NEC is providing a new addition to the Express5800 IA server series, the “Express5800/HR120a-1.” Sales of the server have begun in Japan and availability is expected to steadily expand to markets throughout the world. The Express5800/HR120a-1 features the latest Intel architecture, including the Intel Xeon Phi family, supporting Many Integrated Core (MIC) and super-parallel processing that existing servers struggle to perform. The server is equipped with NEC’s I/O symmetric architecture, enabling up to 15 times the processing performance of existing machines. “This new product provides high-speed, real-time processing at a low cost during a time that big data is drawing greater attention as a key for handling the needs of complex systems,” said Kazuaki Iwamoto, GM (Server Division), NEC.

ZyXEL Launches New Series of Access Points ZyXEL introduces NWA1120 Series 802.11n PoE access points with proven performance. The multifunction, ceiling-mount access points are designed to empower a number of indoor users in a large premise with high-performance wireless Internet connectivity to take advantage of a wide variety of mobile devices. This series features exceptional stability to minimize dead spots for better wireless connectivity. In addition the NWA1123-NI model also incorporates a cutting edge dual-band design with selectable 2.4GHz and 5GHz options that enable users to set matching priority with the current Wi-Fi services on either frequency. Mobile device users can be assured of transmission efficiency and quality thanks to the less crowded bandwidth and signal independence.

Digilite Launches Powerful Mobos Digilite has launched new motherboard DL-N68VS3-FX for AM3+ Processor. This board is designed to build up the most powerful system and delivers the most demanding technology for users nowadays as claimed by the company. The company informed that DL-N68VS3-FX has Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 7025 graphics, DX9.0 VGA and Pixel Shader 3.0. This motherboard supports DDR3 1600/1333/1066/800 non-ECC, unbuffered memory and has max 8GB capacity of system memory. DL-N68VS3-FX has 4 x SATA2 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5 and JBOD), NCQ and has “hot plug” functions.

HCL Infosystems Witnesses Huge Growth HCL Infosystems’ computer systems segment registered strong growth across different verticals Q1 ending September 30th 2012. In the BFSI segment, the company bagged a significant order for Corporation Bank for Automated Data Flow with HCLs BancScan. The manufacturing, retail and oil vertical won important orders from IOCL and HMSI. The Company also launched the HCL Ultrabook based on third generation Intel processors. In the server category the business won several major orders from SBI.The business is also tapping into the SMB market.

Norton Strengthens Channel Strategy Norton plans to expand its channel breadth in top 20 to 40 cities across India. It has also initiated an upcountry education program to educate smaller cities across India on internet security, which will run multi-tier channel promotions and redemption. Ritesh Chopra, Country Sales Manager (India), Norton, said, “We have developed infrastructure for an education channel and have tied up with Diglife to leverage on existing mobile channel across India. With the resellers’ base of 200, we are now planning to expand channel breath in top 20 to 40 cities.”

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FIVE Ways to Boost sMB ProFItaBIlIty. Partner with McAfee and opportunities abound Millions of small and medium-sized enterprises are in search of a trusted security advisor. When you partner with the leader in digital security, you can take advantage of this tremendous growth opportunity. Here are the top five reasons to say “yes” to partnering with McAfee: 1. Opportunity Increase deal opportunities in the growing SMB market when you partner with McAfee, the largest dedicated security technology company. 2. Flexible Solutions Offer your customers the most flexible security solutions for SMB—from SaaS to on-premise suites. 3. Profitability Start earning more, fast with up to 25% higher margins and lucrative McAfee SMB rewards programs, with quick and easy deal registration. 4. Program Address the needs of your SMB customers with a range of enablement tools, turnkey marketing programs, and exclusive profitability programs. 5. Breadth of Coverage Provide the right SMB solution for every customer need—email, web, endpoint, and mobile security—only with McAfee.

Need more reasons? Learn more at www.mcafee.com/becomeapartner.

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SNIPPETS

WatchGuard Shows Good Growth in Q3

VIEWSONIC INTRODUCES NEW VISUAL SOLUTION

WatchGuard Q3 financial results recorded 18% growth over Q2’12 with 9% YoY. Driven by demand for WatchGuard’s core firewall and UTM products, the APAC region and the Americas saw YoY gains of 42% and 17% respectively. While other UTM vendors have reported YoY decline in Q3 revenues, WatchGuard’s growth trend continues with 13% overall in UTM. WatchGuard’s enterprise-class products, such as the XTM 8, 10, and 20 Series showed a higher rate of growth. Mohit Puri, Country Manager, India & SAARC, WatchGuard, said, “In India, we have witnessed a substantial uptake of our enterprise solutions with a 219% growth in 8 series and above. Our enterprise solutions have been exultant in achieving assenting results for the users and have observed a momentous development. The newly emerging high-performance platforms and our high-selling 5 Series have demonstrated our performance level competently in Q3. We are affirmative that with the launch of this secure and comprehensive cloud-based management solution, we will be able to maintain persistence in our growth levels in future.”

ViewSonic has launched its latest touch-enabled LED display – the TD2220. The 22” (21.5” viewable) TD2220 display is equipped with advanced dual point optical touch technology featuring a hardened 8H level scratch resistant surface to ensure high touch accuracy and durability. With Full HD 1080p resolution, the TD2220 delivers excellent image quality for a variety of multimedia content, with a dustproof surface that is perfect for 2-point touch control, whether by finger, stylus, or even a gloved hand. With a USB HID compliant design, the Kuldeep Ramaiya, Country TD2220 provides automatic touch functionality via USB Manager, ViewSonic connection under Windows operating systems. Paired with multiple video sources (DVI with HDCP and VGA inputs), and a 20,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, the TD2220 delivers an immersive viewing experience that is ideal for blur-free video and sharp business graphics. “The TD2220 is designed to serve the needs of commercial verticals such as kiosk and information desks where touch functionality is required, as well as for consumers who want a touch-enabled display,” said Kuldeep Ramaiya, Country Manager, ViewSonic. “This is because of the TD2220’s dual point optical touch technology, which offers a highly accurate touch experience. Paired with its superior performance and durable 8H surface, this display will stand up to most any high traffic environment.” The TD2220 comes with a standard 3-year limited warranty and ViewSonic’s strongest pixel performance guarantee. The TD2220 will be available in India at an exciting retail price of INR16,999.

EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT

IN Q3 ’12, LENOVO LEADS THE ASIA/PACIFIC PC MARKET

Brocade has appointed networking industry visionary David Meyer to the position of Service Provider business chief technology officer and

ASIA/PACIFIC (EXCLUDING JAPAN) PC MARKET GREW 4% SEQUENTIALLY BUT DECLINED 5% Y-O-Y IN 2012 Q3 TO REACH 31.4 MILLION UNITS, COMING IN LOWER THAN IDC’S INITIAL FORECASTS. ASIA/PACIFIC (EXCLUDING JAPAN) PC MARKET SHARE FOR Q3 OF 2012 (% OF SHIPMENTS) Dell

National Instruments has promoted Victor Mieres to vice president of emerging markets for Asia/RoW, who recently relocated

ASUS

8.4

8.6

7.0

10.6

Acer

to Singapore. 9.7

9.8

7.0 Others

11.3

40.1 40.1

25.3 22.1 Lenovo Q3 2012

chief scientist.

Q3 2011 Source: Gartner (August 2012)

Lenovo remained ahead in the region, relying on aggressive price cuts and promotions to boost shipments in China while also introducing several new models there. HP adopted a similar pricing strategy in China to bounce back from a low Q2.

Lenovo India’s managing director RK Amar Babu has been appointed as the new VP of MAIT GlobalLogic, a fulllifecycle product development services company, announced that Shashikant Chaudhary has been named Managing Director, India.

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SNIPPETS

Cadyce Introduces Travel Router PoE Injectors

DIGEST

Cadyce has launched the Battery Powered 3G/3.75G Wireless N travel Router and PoE Injectors in India. The company informed that the CA-PE100I and CA-PE1000I are the latest developments in low-cost power-over-Ethernet injectors that offer users the ability to power any low or high-power POE device over a dedicated Ethernet cable with the data speed up to 100 Mbps and 1000 Mbps. Cadyce further claimed that 150Mbps Wireless N Travel Router is the ideal travel companion with pocket-sized dimensions and powered by its own powerful internal 1700mAh battery, users can work or play for hours on end. It allows users to rapidly set up an Internet connected wireless network in as little time as it takes to plug in their 3G USB router or WAN cable and when finished, this device can be used to create a Wi-Fi hub.

GlacialTech Inc has launched a series of AMD CPU coolers & multi-platform solutions that are compatible with AMD FM2 CPUs. The noise proof and light weight form of technology keeps computers cooler for long duration which makes them safe to use for extended period of time as informed by the company’s press release.

KASPERSKY SMALL OFFICE SECURITY HAILED In Q3 2012 experts from Dennis Technology Labs, an independent UK-based lab attached to Dennis Publishing, tested the effectiveness of security solutions in the Small Business Anti-Virus Protection and Enterprise Anti-Virus Protection categories. Kaspersky Small Office Security was the top performer in its category, while Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows was among the leading products in the enterprise category. Testing saw the experts at Dennis Technology Labs compare corporate protection solutions from leading global software developers, assessing the solutions’ ability to block as many Internet threats as possible. In the main test the security products had to block access to a malicious site or, if this wasn’t possible, to eliminate the threat while it was trying to penetrate the system. The analysts gave higher marks for immediate blocking. In addition, the products were tested for false positives. The final result was determined by the combined score for both tests. Kaspersky Small Office Security earned 388.9 points out of a possible 400 to top the rankings of small business solutions, and receive the highest AAA award from Dennis Technology Labs.

JUDCon 2013 to be Held in a Big Way Red Hat plans to host India’s second JBoss User and Developers Conference (JUDCon) January 17-18, 2013 at the NIMHANS Convention Center in Bangalore. Dr. Mark Little, Vice President, Middleware Engineering, Red Hat, said, “Some of the best open source developers are based in India and the surrounding regions and it would be fantastic for these developers to congregate, engage in lively discussions, and find out about the latest goings-on with the JBoss Community and the open source community yet again.” According to a 2011 study on Global Developer Population and Demographics by Evans Data Corporation, the number of software developers worldwide is expected to grow from 16 million today to more than 20 million in 2015, with the hottest areas for growth projected to be in India, China and Russia. By 2015, India is expected to surpass the United States with more than 3.5 million developers.

Fujitsu Unveils Thin Client With SOC Fujitsu has unveiled the FUTRO Z220, the next-generation thin client with a system-on-a-chip (SoC) design based on powerful and efficient ARM architecture, with integrated hardware-based protocol acceleration. Bridging the gap between Zero Client and Thin Client systems, it provides a versatile and economical entry into server-based-computing and virtual desktop infrastructure environments. “Businesses and enterprises today require individualized solutions to fit their unique needs in terms of infrastructure and company size. A considerable increase has been witnessed in the number of businesses and enterprises that look to deploy server-based computing or virtual desktop infrastructures. Depending on customer requirements for manageability, it can also support Scout Enterprise software to optimize the central administration of large thin client infrastructures,” said Alok Sharma, Country Manager, Workplace Systems, Fujitsu India.

GLACIALTECH LAUNCHES CPU COOLERS FOR AMD FM2 CPUS

KINGMAX LAUNCHES UI-05 USB FLASH DRIVE Kingmax has launched the COB (Chip-on-Board) type USB flash drive, UI-05 which is both waterproof and dustproof. This USB flash drive is available at a capacity of 8GB/16GB/32GB. Its sturdy metal housing provides security and protection. UI-05 flash drives meet or exceed RoHS regulations, CE, FCC and BSMI requirements. All KINGMAX products follow strict quality standards and have been 100% tested under strict quality control systems to ensure the durable performance before shipping as claimed by the company.

AVERMEDIA RECENTRAL SUPPORTS GAME BROADCASTER HD AVerMedia has declared the official support of RECentral software to the Game Broadcaster HD (C127). With the release of RECentral, users of the Game Broadcaster HD get to stream and record 1080p HD game footages without hassles. The Game Broadcaster HD adopts various video inputs and supports a wide variety of resolutions. With the help of RECentral software, AVerMedia turns the Game Broadcaster HD into a powerful gear for gameplay capture and streaming. The direct connection to TwitchTV, Own3D, Ustream and NicoNoco, makes streaming gameplay easier than ever, the RECentral also supports custom RTMP connection.

MSI TO HOLD LIGHTNING DESERT STORM EVENT In order to reward users of Lightning Graphics cards, MSI will launch the MSI Lightning Desert Storm event and participants who visit the event website and complete the two missions, “MSI Lightning Picture Matching” and “MSI Lightning Desert Storm Battlefield” will have a chance to bring home the MSI N680GTX Lightning or R7970 Lightning. These graphic cards are based on the Unlocked Digital Power Framework, and users can easily unleash the ultimate performance of the card without card modification or flashing procedures.

CASIO UNVEILS GREEN PROJECTOR SERIES Casio is introducing a new genre of ecofriendly projectors, its new tri series: Standard Series, Pro Series and Short Throw series in the market. Green Projectors have a hybrid Light source with a life of straight 20, 000 hours, which is approx. 10 times higher than normal mercury based conventional projectors. This new category of projector is equally beneficial for education, corporate & entertainment applications. Casio’s new tri series have 3D projection function and compatible with Wireless devices.

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Seagate Backup Plus to be Recognized at CES 2013 Seagate Technology has declared that it has been named an International CES Innovations 2013 Design and Engineering Awards Honouree for the Seagate Backup Plus family of external storage. The company’s press release said that Seagate Backup Plus families of hard drives are newly designed external storage devices, which work interchangeably with both Windows and Apple computers. It provides backup for content on social networks, such as Facebook and Flickr. Scott Horn, VP (Marketing), Seagate, said, “Seagate is thrilled to have been recognized by the Consumer Electronics Association for our latest offering of external storage, Backup Plus hard drives. This prestigious award helps underscore the important role storage plays in everything that people do today. Backup Plus storage illustrates that simplicity in design and function to address consumer needs is a true example of innovation.” These drives come with a hassle-free Seagate Dashboard software for one-click local backup.

Corsair Launches Value Series Power Supplies

CANON TO LEAD INKJET PRINTER MARKET BY 2015 Canon is aiming to garner 25% market share and Rs 200 crore in revenues for the year 2013, in the Inkjet category. Not only this, it plans to become the number 1 in Inkjet printer category by 2015. Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Senior VP, Canon India, announced, “As running costs go lower and lower inkjet is finding acceptance in business application especially among SoHo. In 2012 Inkjet will see a growth of 33% and Rs 125 crore in terms of revenue. By 2013 we are looking at 330k units.” To further build this category Bharadwaj further revealed the directions adopted to achieve this will include building momentum for the new product E series and its consumers and building a unique position of Pixma. Canon further plans to expand CEP base from 890 to 1500 by 2013, Canon Image square from 100 to 200, and active original inter-centers (OICs) from 610 to 1000. Alongside the company also announced the launch of innovative imaging software My Image Garden for its PIXMA range of inkjet printers along with new Ink Efficient Series and color variant models. The new applications are designed to streamline the scanning and printing processes and offers consumers new interesting ways of innovating with photos and creating exciting craft works, calendars, posters, collage etc. On the retail side with 80 stores at present, Canon plans to increase it to 100 by this year end and further increase this to 300 by 2014. Further, Canon hopes to close the year with a 28% growth.

Corsair has launched India specific ‘Value Series’(VS) power supply units. The VS power supplies are specifically designed for the price sensitive Indian market which offers high quality performance at competitive price. VS PSUs are available in four different wattages 350w, 450w, 550w and 650w. These PSUs are up to 85% efficient and produce less noise as compared to traditional PSUs. With 120mm fan and plentiful connectors and long cables VS PSUs deliver excellent airflow. They come in vibrant Black color, the black cable sleeving and black connectors offer a large diameter, thermally controller fan, and are nearly silent when running at idle. These products come with a warranty period of 3 years and are available ex-stock. The Corsair VS350 is priced at Rs. 2,499, Corsair VS450 - Rs. 2,699, Corsair VS550 - Rs. 3,499, and Corsair VS650 - Rs. 4,499.

Envent Expands Presence in J&K Kingston Ships SSDNow V Series Envent has appointed K & M Enterprises as its distributor in Jammu & Kashmir for IT and telecom peripherals. K & M Enterprises is an organization that has been involved in the IT & telecom business. Rajni Koul, MD, K & M Enterprises, said, “We are proud to associate with Envent which is known for innovative product line up with state-of-the-art technology. We are confident of attracting customers on account of this, at the attractive pricing that Envent offers.” Sukhesh Madaan, Founder and CEO, Envent, commented, “With this partnership, we aim to penetrate deeper into the north region. We are looking forward to meeting the expectations of customers in Jammu & Kashmir using the effective logistics and business tools that K & M Enterprises is known for.”

Kingston has announced that it is shipping the next generation SSDNow V Series solid-state drive which is designed to upgrade desktop or notebook PC. This SSD drive is powered by an LSI SandForce Flash Storage Processor (FSP) solution customized for Kingston and optimized for 19nm NAND Flash memory to deliver read and write speeds of up to 450MB/s. Nathan Su, Sales Director (Flash Memory, APAC Region), Kingston, said, “Kingston is committed to delivering SSDs at the best price to performance ratio as possible. We achieve this again with our next-generation SSDNow V300. The SSDNow V300 is the best cost-efficient upgrade for users who want their existing systems to perform faster. They will experience faster boot up and shutdown times, and will also see much better system performance when multiple applications are open.”

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Symantec Offers Integrated Backup Appliances in India Symantec Corp. has introduced NetBackup 5220 and Backup Exec 3600 in India which include the latest NetBackup 7.5 and Backup Exec 2012 software. The company informed that Symantec’s backup appliances deliver an end-to-end integrated backup appliance for servers, storage, and software. Anand Naik, MD (Sales), India and SAARC, Symantec, said, “Earlier this year, we announced our new approach to delivering better backup to our customers, introducing ground-breaking new features to replace outdated and complicated approaches. Beyond features, we are changing the market with technologies like our purpose-built appliances that combine backup software, servers, storage and deduplication in a single solution – a key part of our strategy to drive complexity and costs out of the backup market.”

WD LIGHTENS UP DIWALI FOR UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN WD and its channel partners came together to commemorate the festival of lights with the underprivileged children of approximately 300 families that reside in slums near Springdale School in Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi. The company also tied up with Smile Foundation, which runs a community centre for child education and healthcare in the area, and organized a visit for WD Rishi Prasad, WD’s Channel Marketing Manager for employees and channel partners on India celebrating with the kids November 10. Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director (South Asia, Middle East, Africa and Turkey), WD, said, “WD will help SMILE support the education of 25 girls for a year. He said, “It is our pleasure to make this Diwali a special one for the children living here, but I’m also happy that our channel partners were equally supportive about the cause. Each one of us has the ability to bring about a positive change in society, and as a socially conscious organization it is our responsibility to sensitize our partners about the cause.”

Win Gigabyte Motherboards on Facebook Gigabyte Technology India has offered an opportunity for Facebook users to win motherboard models. In this contest, the company has invited Gigabyte India Facebook page India residing ‘Likers’ to participate by sending in entries describing why they like Gigabyte motherboards. The objective of this contest is to allow participants to have their individual photographs featured on the Gigabyte India Facebook page which they can ‘Share’, and solicit ‘Likes’ and ‘Comments’ from their Facebook friends. The prize, the GA-B75M-D3H motherboard, comes with the B75 Express Chipset that supports Intel 2nd and 3rd generation processors and is positioned between Intel Q77 and Intel H61 Express Chipsets.

BUSY Organizes Channels Meet BUSY conducted its dealers meet from November 1-4, 2012 at Jim Corbett, Uttrakhand. The dealers meet consisted of all the channel partners of Busy InfoTech Pvt. Ltd. (national and international). BUSY’s main purpose of conducting the dealers meets was sharing company’s product, marketing and sales roadmap for the next one year. The focus will also be on bonding with channel partners, motivating and felicitation of partners. “This is going to be a good opportunity for us to connect with our channel partners and get an insight on their issues and requirements. This feedback will help us in creating a better strategy for national and international markets. We also intend to felicitate our top performing partners in both,” said Varun Yadav, Spokesperson, Sr. Manager – Marketing & International Business.

SanDisk Conducts Raids in Richie Street Recently, Police in Chennai with the help and support of SanDisk specialists conducted raids across the city to address the sale of counterfeit versions of SanDisk products. Three premises in the Richie Street wholesale electronics market area were raided. The raid team allegedly found large quantities of counterfeit SanDisk microSD cards and USB flash drives along with fake packaging and import labels bearing the SanDisk trademark. The stock was seized and six individuals were arrested. “As an industry leader, SanDisk is actively involved in curbing the distribution of counterfeit products across markets where it is present. This not only protects consumers from false products that don’t work as advertised, but also protects the interests of authorized partners,” announced the company’s press release.

K7 Celebrates 20 Years of Success K7 Computing is offering its security product with a lifetime valid license to mark its 20th anniversary. As a part of the celebration, K7 Computing has released security product called “K7 Ultimate Security GOLD”. J Kesavardhanan, CEO and MD, K7 Computing Ltd., said, “We have always striven to make security and safety of computer usage simple. What can be simpler than buying a product with a lifetime validity? Of course this is a limited edition and will be available till January 31st, 2013 only.”

Toshiba Expands Storage Portfolio Toshiba Digital Media Network Taiwan Corporation (TDMT) has launched Canvio Desk Desktop External Hard Drive in order to expand the portfolio of storage products. This external hard drive is available in 2TB and 3TB configurations and its USB 3.0 interface improves file transfer performance for large media files. In addition, this hard drive is pre-loaded with NTI Backup Now EZ software and it also offers password protected backups, the ability to schedule automatic backups, as well as file, folder and full system backup and recovery.

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AMD to Bring x86 and ARM Processors AMD announced that it will design 64-bit ARM technology-based processors in addition to its x86 processors for multiple markets, starting with cloud and data center servers. AMD’s first ARM technology-based processor will be a highly-integrated, 64-bit multicore System-on-a-Chip (SoC) optimized for the dense, energy-efficient servers that now dominate the largest data centers and power the modern computing experience. The first ARM technology-based AMD Opteron processor is targeted for production in 2014 and will integrate the AMD SeaMicro Freedom supercompute fabric, the industry’s premier high-performance fabric. AMD’s new design initiative addresses the growing demand to deliver better performanceper-watt for dense cloud computing solutions. Just as AMD introduced the industry’s first mainstream 64-bit x86 server solution with the AMD Opteron processor in 2003, AMD will be the only processor provider bridging the x86 and 64-bit ARM ecosystems to enable new levels of flexibility and drive optimal performance and power-efficiency for a range of enterprise workloads.

WeP Introduces New Dot Matrix Printer series

EPSON TAKES PARTNERS TO AMSTERDAM Epson’s Accredited Partner’s Meet 2012 was recently held in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In keeping with the location, the theme for this year’s event was Carats & Courage. The event was appreciated by all the partners and was used as a forum for discussions between Epson partners and management. The meeting served to review Epson’s performance for the year so far and to discuss the roadmap and strategies for the year ahead. Epson business managers presented their plans and updated partners on the key objectives & strategies going forward. Thereafter presentations to help the partners improve both their professional and personal lives were well received and appreciated by all present. Epson senior management from India also shared their vision for the business in India and the Indian sub-continent which includes countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. At the meet Epson informed its partners that it had seen significant market share gains across categories since they last met. The team visited the tourist sites in Amsterdam including the Windmills, Cheese Factories, the Van Gogh Museum etc to unwind after their business strategy meetings.

WeP has launched the new Dot Matrix Printer series models named HQ 2650 & HQ 2800. It comes with Remote Management Software. The company informed that this printer features 600 & 660 pages per hour printing speed. These printers offer a low cost of ownership with its High Print Head life of 800 Mn Characters. It also comes with various connectivity options with Serial, Parallel, USB 2.0 and LAN interface. These printers can be used in segments like BFSI, manufacturing and logistics for improving the efficiency of printing announced the company.

Asus Launches Graphics Cards

Sophos Secures Small Business

Asus has launched dual-fan GeForce GTX 650 Ti DirectCU II graphics cards for home multimedia, graphics-reliant productivity and detailed gaming. It features DirectCU II thermal design for 20% cooler and 3X quieter operation, DIGI+ VRM and Super Alloy Power for extended longevity and greater stability. The cards further support four-screen displays via NVIDI 3D Surround technology. Vinay Shetty, Country Head (Component Business), Asus (India), said, “Asus offers TOP and OC editions, improving the design with exclusive DirectCU II, which runs 20% cooler and 3X quieter than reference with dual sound-dampening fans.” These cards offer high-output products well-suited to a wide range of PC DIY needs. The TOP version uses GPUs that are aggressively-tested and factory-overclocked to 1033MHz boost clock (105MHz above reference). The OC version runs 954MHz boost (26MHz above reference).

Sophos has released a comprehensive unified threat management appliance and software package for small businesses, the Sophos UTM 100 appliance. This appliance with BasicGuard sets a new standard for small business security solutions offering network, email, web and wireless protection together claimed the company’s press release. According to a recent IDC Report, “Small and medium-sized businesses have as much need for information technology as much larger companies. They also require security because they are a target of cybercriminals, but there are unique issues that prevent SMBs from just buying what large enterprises purchase.” Chris Kraft, VP (Product Management), Sophos, said, “We believe small business shouldn’t have to compromise between security and budgets, which is why we developed the UTM 100 having enterprise features and the ability to upgrade, at an attractive price point.”

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Axis wins “Best Surveillance Brand 2012”

Axis is the

world leader in IP video and surveillance cameras

And your #1 choice for quality, innovation and expertise. > The founder of the world’s first network camera > The world leader in network video, driving the shift from analog to digital > Sweden-based company, with over 16 years of experience in IP video and nearly three decades of network know-how > Installations worldwide in sectors ranging from retail and transportation to education and city surveillance > Solutions delivering enduring results, even in the most extreme conditions and remote locations

> Dedicated partner network offering unrivaled expertise > Open standards only, for easy integration and scalability Get the Axis picture. Stay one step ahead. Visit Axis at IFSEC India: Booth H15, Hall 3 November 1-3, India Expo Centre & Mart, Gautam Budh Nagar, India. www.axis.com

Distributed by:

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PARTNERS CORNER

PARAS TELECOM

RAMLU C REDDY, DIRECTOR, PARAS TELECOM PVT. LTD.

“MATRIX PRODUCTS ARE ROBUST, STABLE AND FEATURE RICH“ Paras Telecom Pvt. Ltd., a one stop solution company particularly in low voltage solutions, has had a good run in the telecom market since 1996.

he opening of the India market in the early 90’s gave a boost to various industries. With the economic liberalisation the country witnessed the dawn of a new chapter and ushered in remarkable changes in the economy. One such sector has been Telecom, which was unshackled from the old monopoly market concept, and has since then contributed significantly to the overall growth of the Indian economy. Founded in the year 1996, Paras Telecom Pvt. Ltd. has grown over the years as telecom sector evolved. The Company was started by two telecom professionals and management graduates from Pune who wanted to make their presence felt in the emerging telecom market. Being one of the first few professionals in the telecom sector, the promoters made best use of their credentials to take the Company to a leading position. With a headcount of 25, the Company caters to almost more than 2,000 customers. One of the key reasons which helped the Company to achieve good reputation with the customers was the prompt and professional after sales support offered to the customers. Ramlu C Reddy, Director, Paras Telecom, explains, “Our approach to treat partners as partners and not as dealers has kept us as a loyal bunch of associates for continuous business. We also deal in technology products. So

our approach is not towards pushing boxes. This has helped in reaching out to more people and assuring them in providing solution to end clients.” Being a one stop solution the Company specializes in low voltage solutions, Paras designed optimal solutions, identified suitable products supply, installed, tested, commissioned and documented security systems, audio visual products, IT infrastructure, telecom and power conditioning equipment. In addition, the Company offers products from Matrix, Siemens and other brands which include comprehensive portfolio of secure IP communication solutions and services for enterprise customers. Moreover, with the intention to help enterprise as well basic as service providers to optimize communication infrastructure, the Company has added wired, wireless and GSM products as convergent communication. As a part of telecom solutions, the company has also come up with PRI/ Gateways, VoIP, GSM, PA and other solutions and this year the company intends to offer solutions using various products in their portfolio. The Company further informs that Matrix products are robust, stable and feature rich as compared to other products in the market. From the channel’s point of view, Matrix was known as an Indian company selling technology solution in

telecom space. “We hardly faced any competition in the lower end. But it becomes a hard sell for the enterprise segment. So the potential is being able to increase brand awareness and tap this market.” says Reddy. Speaking on the telecom market in India, Reddy averrs, “Telecom market after the opening up of the sector by the Government almost two decades back, has been growing in leaps and bounds. We have had a good run in the market where the technology has transcended almost 50 years in a short time of 20 years.” “The resulting gap in user’s capabilities provided a huge market that could be tapped. However, the entry of telecom service provider and their sponsoring of PBX resulted in commoditizing of the premium brand the product became obscure. Now, unless manufacturers grab the control back from service providers, by whatever forcible means, this sector is proven to become low growth and low margin business.” Finally… With the aim to intensify the business share in the market, the Company plans to take control back from the service provider and also to make customers understand that communication system is a box that can give more strength if invested in rather than accepting a box from the service provider on rent. SME

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GREEN TEAM

PARTNER PROGRAM

Kaspersky Labyouinvites to join the

Green Team. Become a Kaspersky Lab SME/Large Enterprise Partner.

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LEADERS CORNER

POSITIONED WELL IN MID-LEVEL ENTERPRISES

UTM amalgamates all the security products into one appliance. This has eliminated many of the operational and management difficulties making it user friendly. The growth in capability has encouraged many UTM vendors including Cyberoam to set high revenue goals this year without even pressurising channel partners on number commitments. BY APARAJITA CHOUDHURY aparajita@smechannels.com

arlier the concept of security products was identified with antivirus only, but with the users indulging in sharing contents via social networking sites and enterprises allowing users to bring personal devices in work place triggered security issues. Hence the requirement of security broadened into different aspects - beyond antivirus products. Today, among the security products Unified Threat Managements (UTMs) are hot products- offering a 360 degree of security. As per IDC report, UTM market is growing by 35% year on year within the security framework in comparison to other security products like firewall which is growing by 20%. “The size of overall security market in India is 200 million US dollar, out of that UTM this year is 60 million which is approximately Rs.300 crore and next year it is expected to touch 80 million dollars. Overall security market will grow by double digit but still UTM will grow at the highest digit,” Sunil Sharma, VP -Sales - India & SAARC – Cyberoam. Speaking on the advantages that UTM offers Sharma says that the evolution of UTM minimizes the tension for people who are very fragile in monetary terms and want all the solutions in one appliance. “There are several companies

running short of money, bandwidth, skill set and other factors. They would like to go for UTM instead of spending money on many appliances, manageability and annual maintenance contract,” he says. Sharma further talks of the UTM market, three to four years back, when it was still an inceptive notion for the industry and UTM was a kind of a Firewall based product. “Today, everyone talks about Firewall and AV throughput but no one talks about UTM throughput because if UTM throughput comes then everything will be switched off,” he remarks. “Today by virtue of research and development and innovation we have found that UTM throughput in terms of IPS has gone two percent more and one can do the same thing one fifth of the cost.” Praising the UTM market he says that enterprise and corporate customers also appreciate the truth that UTM can do the job well after they are given the POC and demonstration. In addition, “UTM is the only security which can replace the network security and gateway security as device, appliance and the individual components at the gateway level are crucial for other security products to replace it,” claims Sharma. “In terms of market share UTM is expanding and it is only

for SME/SMB or SOHO. The market is increasing day by day as more innovations happen on UTM which takes care of the security issues.” Security as a service (SaaS) is a burgeoning market. However, he says that couples of players are propagating the delusion around SaaS that when it comes to execution is only antivirus. This, he says, sends wrong message to the people who think that security product market is either standstill or going down, rather than the service market. Starting from the individual home user to large enterprises desire to buy UTM products. With NetGenie, which has been recognised as the Top 10 Innovative Products by SME Channels, the company has taken the concept of UTM to the home users. It is a WiFi based on UTM capability. However, the USP of Cyberoam is that it is a strong player in the mid-tier enterprises. Keeping the momentum going, in the next six months, the company will announce a lot of innovation in different series.” The industry knows that Cyberoam is the darling of education sector. It’s UTMs provide protection in the institutions where typically a single PC is used by multiple users at different times. “Due to the exceptional characteristics and innovation, lots of institutional organizations consider

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LEADERS CORNER

Sunil Sharma is accepting the SME Channels award of Top 10 Innovative Products 2011-12

Cyberoam as their preferred vendor,” proudly states Sharma. With 50% of the market share in this vertical market, the company says, it is now progressing towards large enterprise segment, and hired very senior persons from the industry, who will be wholly focused on government, defense, education and BFSI vertical. Besides all the innovations, the company also plays the role of consultant to the large enterprise customers by offering platinum-class services which embraces quarterly report submission where the customers are given the feedback of attacks that occur.

“The market is increasing day by day as more innovations happen on UTM which takes care of the security issues.” SUNIL SHARMA, VP -SALES INDIA & SAARC – CYBEROAM

In terms of partner policy, Cyberoam has three categories of partners--platinum, gold and authorized. Apart from partners enabling programs and certification programs, there is also revenue attached to each category of programmes. “We also have lead generation engines set up in Ahmedabad where telesales marketing team who constantly call customers and those leads are passed on to those three categories of partners.” Earlier channel never adopted UTM as a business but for the last three to five years, they have realized that UTM has to be a part of their portfolio. Hence Cyberoam took a giant initiative to educate channel partners that one should identify the side security not as a cost center but as productivity. “After all channel partners help to reach to the customers so they should be aware of the potentiality of the market. Even SMEs who do not have CIOs and CTOs rely on the channel advice only,” informs Sharma. Part of its activities to empower the channel partners, Cyberoam organized its Channel Convention in Goa from 25- 27 October 2012. The company invited top 50 partners from across India and the SAARC region and provided them product roadmap in keeping with market transitions, strategy for expansion, etc. Besides, the company also awarded the channel partners for their outstanding performance. Also, Cyberoam’s MD and CEO, Hemal Patel infused inspiration and enlightened partners on the role of innovation in harnessing market insights towards greater growth and profitability. He said, “Working closely with partners in sharing our vision, goals and aspirations is our mantra for success. Together with our partners, we are geared up to face challenges brought out by globalization & ever changing market dynamics, effectively adapt and lead the market. This meet was a wonderful occasion to reflect, rethink and also rejoice in our success.” Support is also the key differentiator which Cyberoam gives to the channel partners, which does not restrict to the domain of security but across the industries. Sharma said, “We have a global support system based out of Ahmadabad, which reaches out to the entire 125 countries.” In a short span of time, Cyberoam is operational in 125 countries, which is a revelation. As per Sharma, out of these 125 countries, India, Middle East and Africa are yielding good revenue growth with India alone contributing about 35%. Finally… Cyberoam UTM solutions are watchful to all the security issues encompassing BYOD, social networking sites, B2B protocol or any kinds of problems and challenges.

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COVER STORY

UC MARKET

karma@smechannels.com

ith changing business models and the need to survive during these economic times companies are warming to the fact that they must be more agile and efficient than ever before. They are turning towards new technologies with vengeance which promises to improve business agility and communication and hence unified communication (UC) seems to be on the top of the minds of both enterprises and small businesses. UC is the convergence of all forms of audio, video, web, desktop and mobile communications on an IP network that breaks down all distance, time and media barriers. It improves business agility and improves communication. It allows users to access real time information thereby increasing efficiency, enhancing productivity and improving overall user experience. Arun Shetty, Head (Avaya Aura Sales & Consulting, India & SAARC), Avaya, defines Unified Communications simply as “the right people at the right time with the right information to

deliver business results.” “Flexibility is a key to the concept of UC and brings tremendous power to companies of all sizes because messages can be sent in one context (such as leaving a voicemail, video, text message) and retrieved elsewhere,” says Shetty. UC within the premises can run on customer LAN and outside the premises it can run on WAN/broadband and the specific internet bandwidth is required. UC is also possible using analog terminals/trunks. However, the lack of bandwidth can be a concern for an organization and hence it becomes crucial for firms to carefully evaluate the amount of bandwidth available for their business warns Shetty. “One of the technology barriers for video collaboration is high usage of bandwidth. So it is important for Organization to choose and deploy a network optimized intelligent collaboration solution that makes it easy on the network, that is responsive and optimized for the network.” One can get some idea on India’s UC market through Shetty’s remark, “Unified Communications market in India can be characterized with

steady growth and a cut-throat competition amongst players operating in the market space.” According to a study by Frost & Sullivan, India leads the SAARC region’s UC market in terms of total spending and better overall awareness of UC. India has a good potential for growth of UC applications as demonstrated by the CAGR of 7.9 percent in the period from 2008 and 2013. As per Netscribes, the UC market in India is currently growing at a CAGR of about 23.5%. An array of factors including rising enterprise mobility, availability of 3G and broadband services, abundance of smart portable devices is said to be propelling the market forward. Shweta Baidya, Senior Research Analyst, AMIPartners, says, “Consumerization of IT will trigger the adoption of UC to join the dots and integrate all the devices together as one unified piece. SIP technology is likely to act as a catalyst in reducing communication costs by integrating voice, video and data together under one platform, and the need to integrate social media within the enterprise framework is likely to enhance UC adoption in the near future.”

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UC MARKET

COVER STORY

AS PER NETSCRIBES, THE UC MARKET IN INDIA IS CURRENTLY GROWING AT A CAGR OF ABOUT 23.5%.

SME CHANNELS 29 NOVEMBER 2012

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COVER STORY

UC MARKET

“FLEXIBILITY IS A KEY TO THE CONCEPT OF UC AND BRINGS TREMENDOUS POWER TO COMPANIES OF ALL SIZES BECAUSE MESSAGES CAN BE SENT IN ONE CONTEXT (SUCH AS LEAVING A VOICEMAIL, VIDEO, TEXT MESSAGE) AND RETRIEVED ELSEWHERE.” ARUN SHETTY, HEAD (AVAYA AURA SALES & CONSULTING, INDIA & SAARC), AVAYA “While the IT and ITeS, BFSI segments were the primary adopters, we are also seeing a lot of interest in verticals beyond ITeS. There is an increased usage of UC solutions in the public sector, hospitality, judiciary, healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry. We are also seeing increased demand from SMBs to adopt UC technologies,” apprises Minhaj Zia, Director (Collaboration Sales), Cisco India & SAARC.

Mobility These days it’s hard to see any businesses not using mobile devices whether it’s smartphones, laptops, tablets etc. BOYD policy has further given a push to high growth of data services in the mobility market. And the penetration of 3G and broadband in India is going to fuel the adoption of UC applications in this market says AMI. Remarks Varun Mata, Divisional Head (Converged Technology Solutions), neoteric infomatique ltd., “One of the major factors influencing UC growth in the market is the proliferation of broadband and 3G services and rising enterprise mobility.” Ravinder Raina, Country Head, Private Network solutions (PNS), NEC India, says, “The rising

trend of flexible and fast-moving business environment is fueling the growth and acceptability of mobile UC solutions. With mobile devices rapidly becoming application devices using processors more powerful than what computers used earlier coupled with high speed wireless technology like 3G and the emergence of 4G networks, mobility is slated to become one common denominator in every UC initiative in the coming time.” NEC says that Mobility plays a vital role in lessening the unnecessary communication bottlenecks and improves employee as well as enterprise productivity. The coming years will see various mobility applications specially designed for providing easy access to many of the UC services of common use, apart from audio and Web conferencing, video conferencing, file and information sharing. “Till the time the adoption of any technology is low, its cost seems to be high. UC adoption is increasing in India. The effective functional usage cost for Unified Communication is much lower in comparison to using the various other technologies. As the adoption of UC speeds up and as companies start to reap its benefits, the rollout of the 3G and BWA would work as a catalyst in

“ONE OF THE MAJOR FACTORS INFLUENCING UC GROWTH IN THE MARKET IS THE PROLIFERATION OF BROADBAND AND 3G SERVICES AND RISING ENTERPRISE MOBILITY.” VARUN MATA, DIVISIONAL HEAD (CONVERGED TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS), NEOTERIC INFOMATIQUE LTD.

THERE IS AN INCREASED USAGE OF UC SOLUTIONS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR, HOSPITALITY, JUDICIARY, HEALTHCARE AND THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY. WE ARE ALSO SEEING INCREASED DEMAND FROM SMBS TO ADOPT UC TECHNOLOGIES,” MINHAJ ZIA, DIRECTOR (COLLABORATION SALES), CISCO INDIA & SAARC. promoting this at an affordable price,” adds Shetty.

UC on Cloud With cloud computing doing the rounds these days it’s not surprising to hear about Cloud UC or hosted UC. Analysts forecast the Global Hosted Unified Communications market to grow at a CAGR of 20.99 percent over the period 20112015. And unlike premises-based solutions, hosted UC solutions require no hardware to provision, no software to buy, install or configure, and no expensive training for in-house support staff informs NEC. With organisations facing the challenge to managing their existing communications environments and finding ways to migrate to new business-impacting technologies there is an increasing need for centralized management and add to this the continuous need to reduce costs. As Raina says, “Hosted UC services provide a

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UC MARKET

multitude of business benefits over premisesbased solutions. It lowers TCO by providing business scalability, fully distributed workforce and reliable business continuity.” Enterprises are looking for alternatives wherein they need not block their capital in equipments. “This is where various vendors or service providers come into picture. They offer an alternative to on-premise based solutions which is hosted by a service provider. Movement to cloud has been another milestone achieved in the past year by enterprises, in order to realise the operational benefits at optimum costs,” points Baidya. Even social networking is changing the way enterprises are working today. One of the most interesting trends in UC is integrating the communication networks of enterprise to Social Networking. “Many vendors are making the transition to software-based UC platforms, supporting virtualization and centralized implementations in a private cloud environment. Centralized management and multi-modal support eliminate many of the complexities associated with UC in these scenarios,” Shetty says.

UC and SMBs As UC adoption grows quickly, this market promises good opportunities for small businesses. As per AMI the SMB market is a very nascent market which remains to be explored by the vendors and presents tremendous potential. “As SMB/SME segment are struggling with their legacy infrastructure, vendors need to introduce solutions which are hybrid in nature and does not require ‘rip and replace’ infrastructure. Cost-effective solutions coupled with a bit of handholding on the part of the vendors/ channel partners is likely to result in huge growth opportunities within this segment,” says Baidya. She further says, “For SMB segment who are

always in need of cost-effective solution, this is a very appealing option without blocking their funds on on-premise products and solutions. SMB market is likely to deploy parts of UC such as IP telephony or conferencing and email solutions. However, it is yet to be seen how this segment moves towards deployment of end to end UC solutions.” And the minimum requirement, says NEC, for an organisation to adopt on premises UC solution, is to have the minimum basic IT infrastructure in place. While for hosted UC solution organization does not need the infrastructure as the same will be hosted on a data center and also the investment on IT skills is not needed. Raina elaborates that as cloud computing has become a significant part of the UC market wherein players hailing mostly from the small and medium business segment opt for hosted UC services and solutions. “This typical behavior is mainly because of the tendency to avoid the upfront capital costs associated with the deployment of UC solutions.” Hosted UC is also a flexible alternative for small businesses looking for a cost-effective, robust solution for all their communications needs says Shetty. Even though SMBs play a pivotal role in the growth of the Indian economy the adoption of UC among SMBs is still limited, mainly due to lack of awareness. “Adopting UC is an adaptive challenge, not a technical challenge,” says Raina. Sayed Naved Shafi, VP (SME & Channel Business), AGC Networks Limited, says, “SMBs are keen on exploring these technologies as means to deliver value to their businesses, their customers. Today Indian SMBs are aggressively adopting newer & fresher business models and strategies. They are incorporation the model of a mobile, work-from-home workforce. In such a scenario

“HOSTED UC SERVICES PROVIDE A MULTITUDE OF BUSINESS BENEFITS OVER PREMISES-BASED SOLUTIONS. IT LOWERS TCO BY PROVIDING BUSINESS SCALABILITY, FULLY DISTRIBUTED WORKFORCE AND RELIABLE BUSINESS CONTINUITY.” RAVINDER RAINA, COUNTRY HEAD, PRIVATE NETWORK SOLUTIONS (PNS), NEC INDIA.

“FOR SMB SEGMENT WHO ARE ALWAYS IN NEED OF COSTEFFECTIVE SOLUTION, THIS IS A VERY APPEALING OPTION.” SHWETA BAIDYA, SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST, AMI-PARTNERS.

UC delivered over wireless fits the bill right. The key challenge is to make technology simplified, easy to adopt & manage and most importantly affordable.”

UC and Channel In all this talk on UC and SMBs where does channel stand? What is the scope for them in this vast, fast emerging space? Baidya sees tremendous scope for channel partners in this space. Shafi too hails the pivotal role played by channel partners in helping UC find a strong foothold across various levels in India Inc. Shafi educates on how channels have helped SMBs realize that UC solutions are helping businesses reduce product development cycles, enhance team communications and move products to the market sooner, resulting in higher productivity, shorter time to revenue and improved customer satisfaction. “The UC market is sure to proliferate further and thrive largely due to Channel partners as India continues to experience immense growth in the SMB sector,” he says. Baidya adds, “All the major vendors have tied up with leading channel partners to market and sell their products to the end user. This market is pretty dynamic and hence needs stakeholders like system integrators, ISVs, ISP, etc to take the products and solutions to the customers. Channel partners contribute to the majority of the revenues of vendors. Going forward, as channel

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UC MARKET

“THE UC MARKET IS SURE TO PROLIFERATE FURTHER AND THRIVE LARGELY DUE TO CHANNEL PARTNERS AS INDIA CONTINUES TO EXPERIENCE IMMENSE GROWTH IN THE SMB SECTOR.” SAYED NAVED SHAFI, VP (SME & CHANNEL BUSINESS), AGC NETWORKS LIMITED

partners start wearing different hats from being a simple system integrator to consulting the enterprises on the best solution for them to offering customised solutions, the scope of growth for UC through channel partners is immense.”

Challenges Though the uptake of UC is reported to be exponential but it’s also filled with challenges. “Interoperability”, vendors say, remains a nagging issue. Raina remarks, “The lack of interoperability between multi-vendor UC platforms that exist within an enterprise is a major challenge in the

widespread adoption of UC solutions.” On this issue Zia maintains, “The usage of open standards can tackle this issue. With the advent of cloud based UC solutions such as Cisco’s managed and hosted Telepresence service which offers end-to-end solutions, with simplified provisioning and scheduling as well as proactive monitoring and management, Cisco is moving in the right direction and is focused on solving interoperability concerns.” Zia further points to the fact that traditional IP networks are not well-equipped to deal with interactive and real-time requirements. “This makes

COVER STORY

delivery and quality of media unpredictable and increasing complexity for network operators and managers. Hence, traditional IP networks need to evolve to accommodate these changes and customers need to take a comprehensive, architectural approach to their video strategy.” Further vendors say that Govt. restrictions pertaining to connection of PSTN lines with other networks limits usage of UC and the lack of clarity on the regulatory framework inhibits business enterprises from implementing UC solutions. Limited knowledge and required expertise is cited as another reason as to why SMBs and enterprises are averse to deploying UC in their premises. “Often there is a lack of communication enabled business processes and know-how as to how it can benefit enterprises. Enterprises are concerned that adoption of unified communication may entail huge costs,” Raina adds.

Conclusion… UC is beyond doubt an amazing technology in these times to stay connected at minimal cost. It holds as much promises to enterprises as SMBs but like any other technology there are bottlenecks that exist. However, it seems that the market is opening up to realize the operational benefits of having all the pieces of UC together.

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FEATURE

PARALLEL IMPORTING

PARALLEL IMPORTING:

WHO IS THE LOSER? While the channel community basks in its recent victory with respect to parallel importation, but the fact of the matter is that it still remains a contentious issue with nothing still clear. And everyone, be it the IT vendors or the businessmen, is furiously trying to preserve their territory with vengeance. BY KARMA NEGI AND APARAJITA CHOUDHURY aparajita@smechannels.com

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FEATURE

he subject of parallel importation is a highly controversial issue and this can be gauged from the recent tug-of-war that occurred between vendors and parallel importers. While vendors cry hoarse that these are illegal imports the importers say that they pay taxes and hence the import of these products is legal. The former say that parallel importation hurt its business and brand while the importers counter argue that it’s the vendors who are the wrongdoers as they sell the same products in India at a much higher cost and thus hurts the interest of the end consumers and the country. And it seems the law may be on the importers side, at least for the time being. On Oct 3 a ruling was passed by the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court clearing all the ambiguities with respect to parallel importation. The division bench in the case of Kapil Wadhwa, Director, Champion Computers; v/s Samsung Electronics passed a ruling that parallel importation is authorized under Indian trademark laws and does not infringe the trademark of the rights-holder. The Bench of Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Siddharth Mridul overruled the findings of a Single Judge, who had gone against Champion Computers in February 2012. This was hailed as a landmark judgment by the channel community and it sure was a sweet Diwali gift for Wadhwa. A jubilant Wadhwa says, “This judgement will be a great boon to Indian consumers who will derive the benefit of competitive pricing. Moreover it will reduce the outflow of foreign exchange for the country.” The court recognized the principle of international exhaustion under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, and held that the expression in any geographical area, in the Act “clearly envisages that the legislative intent was to recognize the principle of international exhaustion of rights to control further sale of goods once they were put on the market by the registered proprietor of the trade mark.” Overruling Samsung’s stand that national exhaustion was in the country’s best interest, the judges said that India does not follow the policy of national exhaustion in its trademark statute. “This is a matter of policy, and it is for the legislature to take a call. We must note that the adoption of the principle of national exhaustion may not necessarily encourage industry to be set up in that country. Dual pricing may cause injury to the consumer.” Before this Dell too had to bite the dust as its efforts to curb parallel importing fell flat after the customs department issued a notice to Dell to pay damages to Mumbai based three parallel import-

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ers—Sapphire Micro Systems, Momentum Technologies and Venktron Digital Systems. Howeve, later Dell won an order from the Delhi High Court which protects it from unauthorized parallel imports. The order, CS (OS) No 1641/2012, also resulted in an ex-parte injunction against a parallel importer of Dell products.

Channel Speak The anger among the channel partners is quite palpable on the issue of parallel importing which they say is referred to as grey by the vendors, even though the products are genuine. They say that the game is all about margins. Importers opine that vendors sell products in India at much higher price as compared to the prices in international market, whereas importers who import the products by paying all the duties, taxes and levies which are very high sell the products at 10% lower than those MNCs. “Besides, channel partners who work for the MNCs (who dictate channel partners lives) are being restricted over gaining 6% margin instead of 3% and incase if they try to earn better margin than they will fall under risk of losing customers. So, concisely partners are employers of those principal companies, who control government, customs,” reveals an importer on the condition of anonymity. “Vendors want to have the higher margin so they oppose parallel importing and they do not want to reduce the pricing in the benefit of the

“THIS JUDGEMENT WILL BE A GREAT BOON TO INDIAN CONSUMERS WHO WILL DERIVE THE BENEFIT OF COMPETITIVE PRICING. MOREOVER IT WILL REDUCE THE OUTFLOW OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE FROM THE COUNTRY.”

Indian consumer and they are taking advantage of the public mindset and they are enjoying it very much,” remarks Ajay Singhania, MD, Venktron, . “By comparing legitimate goods directly imported into the country with counterfeit and fake goods, brand owners have created immense confusion in the minds of consumers,” says Wadhwa. The channel community is up in arms against what they say is deliberately maligning of parallel importing as a grey market by the vendors. They vociferously argue that grey markets and parallel importing are not similar because parallel importing is 100% legal as duties are paid while grey products are being imported without paying government duties. Retorts Swarn Singh, Jt Secretary, ADCTA, “At the customs the importers goods are delayed from releasing with one or the other reason being cited. And as per the law the products can be kept for not beyond three days or 24 hours, for which there is no penalty but beyond the stipulated time penalty has to be paid. And who is paying this ‘us’, not the companies.” “This is just a way of harassing importers so as to discourage them from importing,” he laments. “We are against duplicate products and not against any company,” clarifies Mahinder Aggarwal, President, ADCTA, “however these companies are behaving like the erstwhile East India

“WE ARE AGAINST DUPLICATE PRODUCTS AND NOT AGAINST ANY COMPANY. HOWEVER, THESE COMPANIES ARE BEHAVING LIKE THE ERSTWHILE EAST INDIA COMPANY.” MAHINDER AGGARWAL, PRESIDENT, ADCTA

Company.” “While the importer pays around 50-55% in taxes the foreign companies pay around 17%. The vendors make a net profit of 35%. Our country’s hard earned foreign saving is being sent out without giving any revenue,” claims Singh. However, the issue of warranty still leaves its sting in the victory. It was and still remains a big issue with vendors refusing to give international warranty on importers’ products. Even a prominent Dell distributor admits on condition of anonymity that “warranty is a big issue”. “Warranty has to be given not by us but by vendors, but they delay it,” he says. Even Champion Computers has been instructed by the court to carry prominent signage in their store for the benefit of customers, indicating that the product sold by them have been imported from abroad and that Samsung does not give any warranty on the quality of the goods and after sales service; further they will not meta tag or hyperlink their websites with Samsung’s site. Partners argue that in the name of warranty the vendors are raking in the moolah. “When an individual buys a product from a foreign land it comes with international warranty but when the same products are bought by the importers, it’s refused. Why?,” asks Aggarwal. Singhania avers, “As per law, the Indian government has signed with World Trade Organization, wherever the vendors have service center they

“WHILE THE IMPORTER PAYS AROUND 50-55% IN TAXES THE FOREIGN COMPANIES PAY AROUND 17%. THE VENDORS MAKE A NET PROFIT OF 35%.” SWARN SINGH, JT SECRETARY, ADCTA

KAPIL WADHWA, DIRECTOR, CHAMPION COMPUTERS

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PARALLEL IMPORTING

have to provide the warranty for the genuine products annd parallel importer’s products are genuine.” Citing the reason behind this another Delhi based importer Sunil Jain says, “The vendors are told by their dealer channels that when anyone who buys from outside can sell here then how will they sell. The problem is this. They get more than 10% margins.” But here comes the shocker as ViewSonic declares “Parallel imports are legal and fair as they are done in accordance with regulations”. “Vendors are free to control supply sources and maintain uniformity in price and service levels. After all if there is importation by individual customers who travel from abroad and who get VAT refunds in country of origin do not actually pay up duty (free allowance ) at arrival import. Vendors are free to regulate after sales service to such units and make them devoid of any warranty or make the customer pay for a bridge warranty at the time of purchase,” briefs Girish Mamtani, NSM, ViewSonic.

Against parallel importing With parallel importing been given the green signal what does it spell for vendors and the authorized distributors. Will they be the losers here? Lashing out at the parallel importers vendors argue that it hurts the efforts they have put in

“AS PER LAW WHEREVER THE VENDORS HAVE SERVICE CENTERS THEY HAVE TO PROVIDE THE WARRANTY FOR THE GENUINE PRODUCTS AND PARALLEL IMPORTER’S PRODUCTS ARE GENUINE.” AJAY SINGHANIA, MD, VENKTRON

from to develop the brand and then an opportunist takes advantage of it. They argue that when customers face problems due to warranty it adversely impacts the brand equity too. As S Sudhir, MD, Inspan Infotech says, “It interrupts the vendors and distributors, in all market aspects.” He further says, “Parallel importers are not having any alliance with the vendors. Their landing cost is lesser than the actual imports, as they may select goods from unauthorized channels, and might give way to repaired and refurbished goods. Due to such unprofessional conduct the goods may be of low-cost in the market.” Agrees Khwaja Saifuddin, Sr. Sales Director (South Asia, Middle East and Africa), Western Digital, “Parallel importing allows an entity engaging in these illegal imports to benefit from a sanctioned dealer’s advertising and/or promotions. This impacts the sanctioned dealer because the benefits of his advertising/promotions will have less of an impact on his sales figures, which will then make the authorized dealer think twice about running these activities in the future. End users also suffer as a result because promotions will become few and far between. Parallel importing also increases the likelihood of counterfeit products appearing in the market...and can also be of inferior quality, as the means of entry into the market is likely harsher than if it were to enter the market via sanctioned channels.”

“PARALLEL IMPORTING ALLOWS AN ENTITY ENGAGING IN THESE ILLEGAL IMPORTS TO BENEFIT FROM A SANCTIONED DEALER’S ADVERTISING AND/OR PROMOTIONS.” AGREES KHWAJA SAIFUDDIN, SR SALES DIRECTOR (SOUTH ASIA, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA), WESTERN DIGITAL

Adding to this argument M A Mannan, Country Manager, Corsair Memory India, says, “Every vendor has a specific target for his territory which will not be hit due to parallel imports and those numbers wouldn’t be accounted in his account, which is another major reason for opposing it.” “Variation in prices of products in India and abroad is considered as one of the key issue which differentiates the importers from the Indian distributors,” explains Kolkata based distributor Rajendra Seksaria, Founder Chairman, Balaji Solutions Ltd.. Ajay Kumar Gupta, MD, Park Network Pvt Ltd, seconds him, “The pricing difference is due to the service commitment, the service creation and the marketing of their product. So these three components are imposed only on Indian partners not on importers because importers import products without investing in any of them.” “All these efforts are marred when the final landed cost of the product with an official distributor and a parallel importer has big difference. It creates price parity in the market which affects all tiers of distribution,” says Sushmita Das, Country Manager- India, Kobian Pte Ltd. On the issue of warranty she says, “We support Official imports only and we offer warranty support for all our products across the country.” And this is where vendors might have an upper hand as customers usually prefer to buy products

“EVERY VENDOR HAS A SPECIFIC TARGET FOR HIS TERRITORY WHICH WILL NOT BE HIT DUE TO PARALLEL IMPORTS AND THOSE NUMBERS WOULDN’T BE ACCOUNTED IN HIS ACCOUNT, WHICH IS ANOTHER MAJOR REASON FOR OPPOSING IT.” M A MANNAN, COUNTRY MANAGER, CORSAIR MEMORY INDIA

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FEATURE

PARALLEL IMPORTING

“VARIATION IN PRICES OF PRODUCTS IN INDIA AND ABROAD DIFFERENTIATES THE IMPORTERS FROM THE INDIAN DISTYS.” RAJENDRA SEKSARIA, FOUNDER CHAIRMAN, BALAJI SOLUTIONS LTD.

from authorized channel partners who give them warranty. And the recent instruction to Champion Computers on warranty might have only strengthened their stand. “At the end it’s the consumer’s choice whether they want to pay 10% more for the same product or not,” says the industry. In a sort of twist to the whole parallel imports vs. authorized products drama Singhania reveals that channel partners not only buy products from vendors and distributors but also from importers for additional margins but hide these from the vendors as they do not get reasonable margin on the vendors’ goods. “The importers do not sell their products directly to the end users rather they sell it to the channel partners and the partners sell it to the customers. Partners enjoy the benefits of selling importers’ good as they are free from any sort of target which the vendors’ impose on them in the name of scheme and all.” Gupta contradicts him, “The partners do not buy the products from the importers because if caught, the principal community kicks them out.”

Gainers and Losers Ultimately, in this whole saga that has been played out begs the question, who are at the winning and at the receiving ends? Are these the end-users depending on whose side they are; or is it the parallel importers who say they are being harassed by the vendors; or still is it the Vendors who might see a dip in profit if parallel importing becomes more ubiquitous? For Mannan of Corsair it’s the end-customers who is the ultimate gainer as well as the people involved in the imports and the channels pushing

“WE SUPPORT OFFICIAL IMPORTS ONLY AND WE OFFER WARRANTY SUPPORT FOR ALL OUR PRODUCTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY.” SUSHMITA DAS, COUNTRY MANAGER- INDIA, KOBIAN PTE LTD

it, and the losers are the vendors, local sales guys who lose their targets assigned for the year. Das agrees that the end customer does get the benefit as vendors make cautious effort of stabilizing the price between official and parallel import price. “The official distributors face challenge when they approach the market with same product which has a higher landed cost than others.” She further adds, “It only benefits the importers who are evading the custom duties. Though, some

“THEIR LANDING COST IS LESSER THAN THE ACTUAL IMPORTS, AS THEY MAY SELECT GOODS FROM UNAUTHORIZED CHANNELS. AND MIGHT GIVE WAY TO REPAIRED AND REFURBISHED GOODS.” S SUDHIR, MD, INSPAN INFOTECH

“GAINER IS THE IMPORTER AND THE VENDORS ARE THE LOOSERS AND ALL AUTHORIZED CHANNEL PARTNERS.” AJAY KUMAR GUPTA, MD, PARK NETWORK PVT LTD

vendors do feel that parallel imports increase the total volume of the sales in the country with both official and parallel imports happening.” While still others think that the biggest looser are the end-user customers because they are not aware that the products are imported from grey market and when they go for services, they are refused by the authorized service provider. “A world class warranty cannot be expected from an importer because they have only three or four set up where a company has hundreds or thousands service centers and they deploy such a big team and also have a support of space and all which importer cannot provide,” alludes Seksaria. Then of course there are those who say that it is the parallel importers and the middle man trader are the gainers. “Gainer is the importer and the vendors are the looser and all authorized channel partners,” says Gupta of Park. As for the importers they see vendors gaining everything from this only and the end customer being at the losing end.

Finally… While the smell of victory is still fresh, but the channel is still miffed on the issue of warranty They still can’t understand why they can’t be given international warranty when the products are genuine and parallel import has been authorized under Indian trademark laws and does not infringew the trademark of the rights-holder. The market says Samsung may approach the Supreme Court against the recent ruling but the channel community is also ready to fight it out. However, the slugfest continues and it doesn’t seem to fade away anytime soon.

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multiple Types of reports l Easy to use and upgrade

MR. HO KEUN KANG PRESIDENT, KWANG JIN INDIA AUTOSYSTEMS PVT. LTD.

day. And it required only 30 minutes to implement the solution. This is the ease and comfort the solution offers.” “The best part is that the customization is very easy. Tiara India, the Tally Integrator customized the solution very easily doing away with our pain point of separate invoice and 2D barcode. After our formal sign up with Tiara India, they are taking care of whatever upgrades or customizations we need,” adds Mr. Viswanathan. Mr. Venkatesh Babu, MD & CEO, Tiara Consulting Services India Private Limited, says, “Ever since we got introduced to this company through HMIL reference, we are happy with Kwang Jin India. Before 2010, Kwang Jin had a lot of problem in keeping track of accounts, inventory management, tax filing, etc. but now they are very happy. Earlier the invoice and 2D barcode were

printed separately and attached together during the delivery to the customers like HMIL. This used to create difficulties in handling both the copies. To overcome these difficulties, we customized the enterprise solution – Tally.ERP 9 to print the invoice with 2D barcode - embedded in it.” “Accounting and inventory management modules are the best in Tally.ERP 9 but we started with excise invoice customization with 2D barcode generation using Tally.ERP 9 because our type of business needs that most earnestly. It was ,of course, the biggest business challenge for us but is very useful for our customers,” added Mr. Viswanthan. From the benefits’ perspective, Tally. ERP 9 offers a lot of time saving for the client as well as the supplier. It offers a lot of benefits to the finance department by generating various kinds of reports.

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PARTNER CORNER

TALLY HAS HELPED US GROW IN INDIA IN A BIG WAY MR. VENKATESH BABU, MD & CEO, TIARA CONSULTING SERVICES INDIA PVT. LTD.

“WE CAN LEVERAGE OUR CORE STRENGTH OF IT DELIVERY SKILLS ALONG WITH THE MARKET PRESENCE OF TALLY.”

iara Consulting Services India Private Limited (Tiara India) is the India operations of Tiara Consulting Services Inc. California, USA. This California based company entered India in Dec 2006 and after two years in June 2008, Tiara India started its business formally. The forte of Tiara Consulting is delivering project/scope based value-added solutions and services in BI, CRM and ERP space. The Company deals with all the large brands like Salesforce.com, Oracle CRM On-Demand, MS Dynamics CRM, SAP ERP, Oracle EBS, MS Dynamics and web solutions including MS .NET, Java/J2EE, PHP etc. However, the company found great value in Tally and hence has adopted it since 2010. Tiara Consulting Services India Private Limited’s MD & CEO Mr.Venkatesh Babu, says, “Tiara India has been building IT solutions for Tiara US but that does not mean we won‘t service Indian customers at all. Hence we became Tally partner in 2010. The objective was to serve customers in India better.” Today, Tiara India is present only in Chennai but it has a strong team of 50 people out of which 15 people are dedicated to Tally based solutions. The core strength of our Tally team is their profound experience and expertise in TDL. Tiara India offers end-to-end services around Tally including integration, customization, mobile application, data connectivity, Tally AMC, remote

support, Tally synchronization and implementation, readymade integration solution (TITAN), etc. The USP of the company is that it considers every opportunity that comes in its way as a way to build a long term relationship with the customers. Mr. Babu adds, “Our offerings are not only focused on providing immediate solutions. In addition to that we provide value added service to the customers so that we can have a long term relationship with them.” Tiara India provides customized solutions specific to manufacturing, logistics, schools management, transport management, builders’ vertical, etc. Tiara India has created customized solutions around Tally. For example, the Company has developed solution wherein data from different Tally locations (supply chain end points) can be monitored in a centralized Web application (supply chain Head office). The data can be uploaded and downloaded from Tally.ERP 9 to Web application and vice versa. Based on the retrieved data from Tally, inventory and accounts can be maintained. MIS (Management Information System) reports can also be generated in suitable formats with applicable charts. Similarly, it has integrated Tally.ERP 9 with mobile application ( J2ME/Android). The Company has also developed Web based applications around Tally. ERP 9. For example, it has integrated Tally.ERP 9 with Web based Customer Relationship Application (.Net), with Web based Tourism Manage-

ment System (.Net), with Web based Used Cars Management System (.Net) and also have developed Web based transaction/front end application for Tally (E-Tally). Mr. Babu maintains, “We have incorporated 2D Barcode in Tally invoice and it’s one of the unique solutions given by us which helps the customer in saving time, manpower consumption, cost consumption, systematically increase the revenue and quality of the business.” For the last three years, Tiara India has grown steadily and expects to grow 150% this year in terms of sales. The company’s objective is to be one of the major Tally integrators and solution providers by providing reliable and value added services to its customers not only in India but also in the overseas market. Finally… Mr.Venkatesh Babu attributes Tiara India’s success in India to Tally as the latter has helped them grow in the Indian market in a big way. He concludes, “We can leverage our core strength of IT delivery skills along with the market presence of Tally. It will grow our business in a significant way in Indian market.”

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TREND SETTER

IBM

IBM PRODUCTS’ ROAD MAP IS BASED ON THREE PILLARS

Efficiency by design, optimization, and cloud agility are the three pillars that IBM announced this year as a vision for its storage line. To keep up with the demands and expectations of the evolving and maturing SMB market IBM is coming out with products for the mid-market segment which incorporate these three pillars. BY KARMA NEGI karma@smechannels.com

echnology giant IBM, like other IT enterprises, knows that SMB is where the money is. It says that the market will grow double digit for the next three years. Last year, IBM opened up $1 billion in credit for approved small businesses with low financing rates and a portfolio of SMB-focused technology solutions. And in the recent months it also launched products aimed at the mid-market segment. The latest entrant to the Storwize family of disk systems, Storwize V7000, is IBM’s first mid-range storage virtualization platform that’s entirely its own creation. It’s packed with features of enterprise level storage to deliver to mid-sized business. IBM says that V7000 offers advanced software capabilities to provide a clusterd, storage virtualization platform which is affordable and extremely easy to use and deploy. It provides a simple, efficient and affordable storage system designed to address customer performance requirements and infrastructure consolidation needs.” In the month of July IBM came out with an entire vision for its storage product line to be governed by three main pillars. First, efficient by design that means to manage capacity and to

manage cost whatever storage we have in lower, mid and high range should be efficient by design so they should have the necessary software which provide customers with efficiency right from day one and not something he gets later as an add on. Second, it said that storage should be optimized. It should have the ability to analyze the data which is stored into it. And third, it should be cloud agile. “Hence one of the key things on our cloud agile is our virtualization framework. We are one of the largest players on storage virtualization and our entire storage infrastructure is designed keeping this in mind,” explains Akhil Kamat, Country Manager (Storage, Systems & Technology Group), IBM India/SA. IBM’s 3500, 3700 and recently launched V7000 are targeted at the SMBs. “The 3700 is a very much like a V7000, a smaller version of V7000. V7000 is a single product and is for the lower end of the SMEs. It’s specifically meant for the entry level segments and the best part is it addresses all the pillars that we spoke about. So, whatever launches we are going to see ahead from IBM will be based on these three pillars.” “Storage is not new to SMBs. They have already tested it and hence some of the users that IBM is seeing are second timers,” says Kamat on the

changing scenario of the storage segment among SMBs. “Their questions around storage are much more intelligent now. They now talk of software features, tiering, if it supports flash cache, the performance benchmark we have, and the integration with applications.” Speaking further on storage Kamat says in terms of storage virtualization most of these guys have deployed them and seen its benefits. They know that underlying hardware server layer doesn’t make a difference, data mobility is easy, and overall life is much easier when you have server virtualization. The same benefits he is now able to do on storage too. “So now people are asking if we support storage virtualization and if it’s scalable.” The last change, he says, has been in terms of increase in the performance requirement. “These are the changes we have witnessed in the SME sector in the past 5-6 years.” He says that gone are the days where SMBs asked for scalability and the IOPS they were going to get. Today, they demand lot of performance. “Some of the entry level SMEs ask for 2500030,000 IOPS. So in a 0 to 5 lakh kind of a range we would see 3500, 5-10 lakh is 3700, and 10-15 kind of range is V7000. The price will be set depending

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IBM

AKHIL KAMAT, COUNTRY MANAGER (STORAGE, SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY GROUP), IBM INDIA/SA.

“AS AN ORGANIZATION WE ARE ADDRESSING THE ENTIRE NEEDS OF A CUSTOMER.” on the performance,” Kamat informs. Organizations change as per the market. Cloud has been incorporated by most as a part of their strategy. It’s difficult to find anyone who doesn’t have a cloud strategy. “And it could be in two ways: either sell and work along the cloud providers or set up your own cloud. Even in our case we have our own internal cloud set up for SMEs, we work with cloud providers, we have cloud programs. As an organization we are addressing the entire needs of a customer,” remarks Kamat. IBM is seeing a lot of traction from manufacturing and service segment. “Banking is one segment after manufacturing which is very hot. We work with cooperative banks and as well as with ISP providers. A lot of our partners address this segment. We have seen good traction in IT/ITeS too,” he adds.

The importance of channels for IBM can be gauged from Kamat’s saying “We can’t survive without channels.” About two quarters back IBM started ‘Channel Yatra’. All its senior executives, business unit heads visited all the channels partners business heads, discussed the business plans for the quarter and came back to them with offering from solutions sets we have. “So we are spending a lot of our senior time on the channel. We have already completed two such rounds and second one is already on the way. This is something we do religiously.” Realizing that it was long since it partied with its partners, IBM kicked of another program called the “Blue Waves”. Under this it called in all its partners across eight key locations and rewarded them for their business performance they have put in. “We had very good participation.”

TREND SETTER

IBM also announced another offer for its partners called ‘Diwali Dhamaka’ under which if one bought 10 TBs they get 50% more. “Using our technology on compression, we are able to do this and best part is we are guaranteeing them compression rights. On same machines we have put additional software that compresses the data. If the customer or the partner says I am not quite sure of that we have a guarantee program where we tell them that based on your set up right now I am guaranteeing you 50% compression.” As for the positioning of the product in comparison to its rivals Kamat says, “Our product is positioned in comparison with the VNX series of EMC: VNX 5100 and 5300. For the AX series of EMC we have the DL3500 and for the VNX 5500 we have the V7000. Against HP, it is comparable to their LHN, EVA44-4500s.” IBM has incorporated all the enterprise class features into V7000, which Kamat says roughly gives about twice the performance as compared to 3500. He further says that its GUI is extremely easy to use. “Most SMEs lack IT administrators who are technically trained. Here this is just a GUI drag and drop and your storage is installed in a couple of minutes. That’s how simple we have made it.” From channel perspective with its ISP partners IBM has created bundles with software server and storage for its partners and provided training too. Bundles have been created around disaster recovery, VDI, SAP etc. “So this is what we have done differently with our partners and we have seen good response.”

Finally IBM describes the channel participation witnessed this year as ‘very good’. It also has a program called ‘Storage Speciality Program’ for its partners. Under the program partners who want to invest on IBM storage and skillsets are rewarded with particular program like rebates, funding programs etc. “This is a very interesting program and next year we really want to have many more partners joining in. There are various cap levels. Based on his business, his willingness to do business around IBM storage, he is given additional incentives, there is funding for him in terms of market generation, we also provide him with tools by which he can do customers’ studies. We call it storage infrastructure optimization which means that we equip the partner with the tools and skillsets and he goes to the customers’ place, he does assessment and comes back. So this is something we have seen good traction for. We started this about six months back. We have already enrolled a good amount of partners on this,” concludes Kamat.

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PERSONA

DR.

BHA

E R A S DS TRE R N O E C W E D C O I O V G R SE HE E T .” . S M S E O D R T T R “ O EN W C D E A C B AN R U S AS E R E AR

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PERSONA

BRINGING VALUE: THE MOST IMPORTANT TASK OF LEADERSHIP

R. ALOK

ARADWAJ S E N I O R V I C E P R E S I D E N T, C A N O N I N D I A

People say no individual is greater than the organization. However, it is also true that without a leader (individual) no organization can grow big for a leader is like captain of a ship giving directions. BY Sanjib Mohapatra info@smechannels.com

rowth of Canon India in the last 10-12 years can be clearly attributed to the positive ideation of a single man named Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice President, Canon India, who has been at the helms for the last 12 years and has been driving the company on the high growth direction. His ideas have been always appreciated and supported by the global leadership of Canon and has helped the company become one of the fastest growing IT companies in India with a turnover of Rs.1,525 crores in FY 2011 and with an ambition to touch US$ 1 billion turnover mark in 2015. In a career spanning almost 12 years in Canon India, he has brought transformation to company-- adapting to the changing dynamics of consumer and industry behaviour. Today, Canon India is recognized as one of the top 25 employers in India. For his leadership, Dr. Bharadwaj has been conferred with many accolades including “The Best CMO of the Year” by CMO Council USA and “Brand Builder of the Year”

conferred by CMO Asia, “The Most Influential Person in Photography” and “Pride of the Industry Award for organization leadership”, “Corporate Executive of the Year” and the “Most Favourite Country Manager” etc. Asked about what changes he has brought into the operations of Canon India that has helped it to growth sustainably, Dr. Bharadwaj lays down his thoughts around four key areas: value creation, right marketing activities, processes in place and nurturing talents.

Value Creation As per him bringing value is the most important task of a leadership. Any success of a company, brand or product can be attributed to ‘value’. If the value created is differentiated, unique, relevant and highly meaningful for the customers, then it reflects in the performance of the product in terms of faster growth, high-market shares, more profits, better organizations, motivated staff and happy customers. So, everything can be boiled down to how

leadership creates value creation platforms for the workforce. This has been the demand and the course of pursuit for Canon Indian for the last 15 years. Value is created for ‘customers’ only. Therefore, customer centricity becomes core purpose of value. And this has been the effort for the last 15 years--through strategy, creating organization structure, continuously revising processes, bringing innovation in marketing proposition and offering excellent customer services. Dr. Bharadwaj adds, “In fact, of late I am tempted to ban the word called ‘service centre’. To me service centres are bad words. The good words are ‘reassurance centres’. When a customer enters a service centre, he enters with a complaint and some degree of unhappiness and he wants his problems to be resolved and the product should be repaired. But there is something else he should be given, which he is not able to articulate that is reassurance. When he meets any engineer of the company for service, he should be reassured that his decision of

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PERSONA

buying the product from Canon is right and the product he bought is one of the best in the world and that he does face the problem can be handled by Canon with the best of its efficiency.” He maintains, “Products will have issues but the way one handles these issues will create the difference between one company and another and this is how we build relationships and trusts with the customers. I am happy that Canon for the last 15 years has handled that area decently well.”

Marketing Marketing is nothing but communication between a company and the audience which has not yet become your customer or may be your customer but wants to know more about you all the time. And marketing communication is a great opportunity for the companies or brands to build trust. It is a pre-purchased trust. He says, “If you trust me you would like to buy from me – it creates intent to buy. So marketing has to be very affective but you have to do marketing communications keeping customers in mind. Cus-

tomer changes every 15 years. A boy becomes a middle-aged man and then an old person; so does the mind of the person which becomes 15 years older. Thus your communications cannot remain the same because human minds and brands look at communications from different perspectives, depending upon their ages and education. Therefore, there is a very strong need to evolve different marketing communications.” “It is funny when I look back at our marketing communications 15 years or even 10 years ago. I say – Oh! How different was it? And I am glad that it was different. It reassures me that our marketing people are constantly evolving newer ways and techniques of connecting with newer customers or connecting with the same customers having a different mind-set. I think it is making the difference,” he adds.

Process When the organizations grow or the businesses evolve, they have to create replicated and repeated patterns of successful and effective steps. But once

the company becomes process driven with all the repeated patterns, it fails to produce surprises. For example, the service oriented business like successful food chains or large retail stores. Similar things happen every day: the way you greet the customers, the way the products get delivered and the way they clean the table. Dr. Bharadwaj states, “One can’t but notice that organizations which have evolved and matured have learnt effective ways of doing business and have assimilated this into their culture by repeating them. This is the difficult part. So I am happy to say that in the last 15 years, we have learnt effective and various steps of creating value and have been able to integrate them into the part of process of our organization.”

Talent When competition, market dynamics and requirement changes and the organization becomes bigger, more people come into the the organisation. Therefore, people management becomes an important part: it’s almost becomes a purpose for the organization though the final

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PERSONA

HIGHLIGHT OF CANON INDIA Canon India is a 100% subsidiary of Canon Singapore Pte. Ltd. Incorporated in 1997, it has offices across 10 cities in India with an employee’s strength of over 1100 people and markets 140 comprehensive range of sophisticated and contemporary digital imaging products in the country. These include digital copiers, multi-functional peripherals, faxmachines, inkjet and laser printers, scanners, All-in-ones, digital cameras, digital camcorders, dye sub photo printers and multimedia projectors semiconductors, card printers & cable ID printers. Canon has pioneered five technology ‘imaging’ engines i.e. Optical Engine, Electrophotography, Bubble Jet, Semiconductors and Display which drives Canon’s cutting-edge technology products. Canon India forayed into retail space with the launch of its exclusive brand retail store called “Canon Image Square”. Canon inaugurated 50 retail stores in 2011, and targets to inaugurate another 50 by the end of 2012 taking the count to 300 stores in the next three years. Canon’s unique initiative to tap B, C and D-class cities of the country, Image Express, reached 38 cities in tier II and tier III towns. With the acquisition of Océ Canon was positioned as the undisputed leader in professional and display graphics printing domain in 2010. Canon has around 100 primary channel partners 14 national retail chain partners, 7 Canon owned service centres and 37 Canon care centres, over 6,000 secondary retail points including 270 national retail chain store partners. Canon products are available in over 400 towns in India. By end of 2010, Canon has acquired a customer base of over 30 lakh customers in India. As part of the company’s promise to enhance digital experience for consumers, Canon Image Lounge was launched in 2008 in Gurgaon for customers to get a touch and feel of Canon products. The lounges provide a comprehensive display of Canon’s vast range of offerings and display over 101 consumer imaging products for consumers to simply look, feel and experience without the compulsion on buying. Special photography workshops and other customer engagement programmes are being held in these lounges. Canon also has Business Solutions Lounge for B2B customers in Gurgaon showcasing business applications along with seminar rooms for business workshops. Marketing Budget for the year 2011 was INR 130 crores. Canon roped in Bollywood actress Anuskha Sharma, a youth icon, as the brand endorser for its ICP Division and for a new Campaign for PIXMA Printers. Canon India’s presence in the retail space is through its exclusive brand retail store called “Canon Image Square” and has inaugurated 70 stores. Five percent revenue comes from retail division for Canon India

purpose still remains taking care of the customers. There is a saying: “Keep your people happy and purpose of your organization is solved”. Dr. Bharadwaj says, “For the readers it is sometimes a good idea to repeat saying that the end-customers is the purpose of your organization but at the end of it you do realise that it gets translated into redefined purpose which is to keep your people strong and talented, developed, motivated and inspired. That is the fourth very important piece that evolves with time. So Canon 15 years ago and Canon today has new generation of people, new energy with very different passion, which you can see when you come to this office. This is called the smell of the place. Actually, every organization has a smell of the place and that works as the invisible energy for the people working there. I am happy to see that Canon is able to create that enormous energy among thousand people – soon to be 1,100 people. And these 1,100 people along with a few other people are going to deliver our goal of making this company US$ 1 billion company by 2015. Rupee devaluation may have changed the goal from 2015 to 2016 but for us but ‘US$ 1 billion goal’ still remains.”

A Billion Dollar Goal As per Dr. Bharadwaj, Canon India looks at its growth trajectory through new opportunities that come in three ways. First, the opportunity of nibbling othes’ marker share, second is to is to enter into new domains. He adds, “We are entering into new domains like cinematography imaging, where we will give cameras at less cost and with much smaller footprints. We are also announcing a 4K cinema video camera this year. Similarly, sometime later, we will enter into medical imaging.” Third, the company wants to grow by finding new customers in smaller cities, new towns, various vertical segments, social economic segments, etc. In social economic segments, IT has penetrated in Sec A and Sec B class people, which are the college graduates from middle class and upper middle class societies. But the industry is seeing highest contribution coming from the Sec C people. These are mostly 10th-or 12th-pass students. And reasonably middle class but not like Sec A and Sec B, where Canon India is looking at high growth oportunity. Dr. Bharadwaj believes this will ensure the company grow at 30% per year.

In order to reach out to digital photography enthusiast, Canon organized over 40 photography workshops across India in 2011

Finally…

Canon launched a variety of technologies for digital cameras, camcorders,

With so many embodiments of principles with the leader, Canon India cannot but grow on a positive direction and its ambition of touching US$ 1 billion turnover should be perceived as a small target as it can achieve much larger goals in times to come.

lenses, printers and MFDs in 2011. Canon has a software centre in India in Noida and Bangalore. It works for global operation of Canon in terms of developing firmware, middleware and various digital applications involving printing, scanning and image capturing – even for moving capturing and medical imaging applications.

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SME BIZ

BUFFALO

BUFFALO INDIA TO LAUNCH PARTNERS’ CLUB

With its prime focus still on retail business but nevertheless realizing the need to have focused set of partners to further the consumer business, for the first time Buffalo India is all set to launch a “Buffalo Premier Partner Club” in the coming quarters. BY KARMA NEGI

karma@smechannels.com

FACTS ABOUT Year of Operation in India

2005

Head Quarter in India

Delhi

Key people

Corporate Manager - B Rajesh Head-Retail & Consumer Business - Deepak Deveshwar

Geographic Presence in India

Strong presence in over 25 towns, with focus on top 200 cities

Number of partners in India

40 + partners

Key Products and Solution

Storage, Wireless and NAS

agoya based Japanese company Buffalo recently launched a series of products with the aim to tap the small and medium sized business in India. Though its prime focus remains Retail, it also remains keen on augmenting its Channel partner base in India. Channel which falls under its ‘Consumer

Business’ category is a separate vertical that it targets and has currently around 80-100 partners across India and the billing to these tier 2 partners is done through its distributors Ingram Micro and Supertron.” For this vertical Buffalo have plans to come out with a “Buffalo Premium Partners’ Club” of these partners, wherein these partners would be categorized into Platinum partners, Gold

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FINAL QUESTION

BUFFALO

DEEPAK DEVESHWAR, HEAD (RETAIL & CONSUMER BUSINESS), BUFFALO INC., INDIA

WHAT ARE THE CHALLLENGES IN THE MARKET? The first and foremost challenge in the makrket is the price correction happening globally partners, channel partners and customers are afraid of stocking the material. This is the first challenge, I would say, is there in the current sales side and the rest of the challenges are very regular challenges like having the right kind of partners or the right kind of strategy in place. Challenges are always there but they are routine challenges. The challenge we have been witnessing for the last three months is of global price getting corrected for the drives and other products which is creating a little bit of impact on the market.

HOW MANY PARTNERS DO YOU HAVE IN INDIA? At present Buffalo India has around 45-50 partners but these are not that committed and focused. We are also looking at adding more than 100 committed partners at the initial stage.

partners and silver partners. Platinum partners will be partners who will be exclusive to Buffalo. “In fact these partners give us more revenue in terms of business and there are few benefits that they will be entitled to, which Gold partners may not get. Then for Gold partners too we will fix x amount of revenue so he will also have some benefits and then finally we will have the Silver partners,” Deepak Deveshwar, Head (Retail & Consumer Business), Buffalo Inc, India. Buffalo will ensure that partners who commits to the business comes into this category and will be given some targets. To take forward this plan Buffalo is in the midst of identifying set of partners across India and by the end of this quarter (which ends in December) or by the the first quarter of next

year it will put in place its own “Buffalo Premier Partners Club” and the partners will be categorized in Platinum, Gold and Silver. “So this is what we are working on and we are driving our products through these consumer channels.” Elaborating on the rationale behind the launch of the Club Deveshwar said, “I have joined only few months back. The reason for coming out with Club is that for any business we need to have a focused approach for which we need to have some set of partners with focus towards our business. We simply can’t go for a broad billing. Broad billing is a good technique where you can address the market very well but with broad billing you should have some set of partners who are loyal to you and does regular business for you. This strategy has not been

SME BIZ

there in Buffalo in the past. With the adoption of this strategy by next year definitely we will have some focused partners who will be doing business regularly with us. This will give us good amount of revenue and for next year we expect it be double of this year.” Buffalo has some set of partners with it, has identified some partners and is also looking for some more. It has launched some programs in the market. “We are looking and watching as to how many partners have approached these programs and out of these it will identify some partners for the first quarter with better benefits. In terms of revenue both the retail business and the consumer business contribute 50:50. But Deveshwar sees the retail business going up in the coming quarters. “My gut feeling says that retail will go up by at least 10% in the next quarter. Maybe for us in India it will be 60:40. For Buffalo India it will be 60% and up for the retail and we expect 40% for channel.” Buffalo India is also driving aggressive plans to enhance its retail channel outlets in India and intends to increase retail channel presence through shop in shop concept with leading stores. As far as current business scenario for Buffalo India is concerned its focus is on LFRs i.e. the retail business wherein it has tie-ups with big LFRs like Reliance Digital and Croma. It also has its own two brand stores in India, one in Nehru place, Delhi and other one in Kolkata, and plans to have few more in some other locations. Deveshwar says, “We have plans for expansion for few more stores in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. However, in Ahmedabad and Hyderabad we will have shop in shop concept, wherein we will not have exclusive brand stores but will have a place where we will showcase our product in one of the corner of the renowned stores in these two locations. Discussions are going on with partners in these two locations and once it is through we will disclose.” Explaining on the focus on retail Deveshwar points out that the entire industry is heading towards retail and mostly the sales and revenue generation is happening out of retail. This is why its prime focus is on the retail.

Finally… Buffalo India’s focus is mainly on tier one cities and plans are not only to establish it in these tier I cities but also to have a stronger foothold there. And once this is done maybe in phase two, tier 2 and 3 cities would be its target.

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PRODUCT

REVIEW

DELL XPS 12 CONVERTIBLE

OCZ AGILITY 4 128G 2.5” SSD BY MANAS RANJAN / SATYA SAGAR SINHA

DELL XPS 12 CONVERTIBLE bridges

info@smechannels.com

EVEN smaller than a standard kangaroo HD-1D stapler, the Agility 4 SSD provides performance over a broad spectrum of applications, making use of asynchronous MLC NAND. Taking full advantage of the SATA III interface, the Agility 4 unleashes ultimate productivity, gaming, and multimedia applications for users seeking both standout speeds and exceptional value. With OCZ’s own Indilinx Everest 2 controller, Agility 4 is optimized for consistent, high speeds with the complete spectrum of file types and sizes including both compressible and incompressible data for balanced performance like no other drive you’ve experienced. It provides better performance with “real world” data streams of varying “compressibility” as well as fully incompressible data such as videos and multimedia files, encrypted data, archive files such as .ZIP files and software. The dual-ARM controller architecture enables faster performance. The boots up in as little as 9 seconds, and industry-low latencies of .04 reads and .02 writes enable superior multitasking and flawless performance. As per our test, Agility 4 offers 400MB/s and 58K IOPS. It sequentially writes at speed of up to 475MB/s. it uses a SATA 6Gb/s interface and comes in a 2.5” 9.5mm form factor. The product comes in attractive black colour with all specifications on both the sides. Further, it weighs 77g, Shock Resistant 1500G, RAID Support, MTBF: 2 million hours, 256-bit AES-compliant Further, the Indilinx Everest 2 controller features a dualcore ASIC processor operating at 400MHz and is coupled with a 1GB DRAM cache. OCZ used a pair of Micron DDR3-800 512MB chips, one on either side of the PCB.

FEATURES n SATA 6Gbps interface n Best-in-class Indilinx controller

technology n Up to 85, 000 Random 4K write IO/s n Access Latency as low as 0.02ms n Strong performance at lower que

depths n TRIM Support

PRICE Rs.8,499 as per http://www.findprice. co.in

WARRANTY 5 years

CONTACT Ankur Sarkar, Sales Manager - South Asia, OCZ Technology Group, INC. Email: asarkar@ocztechnology.com

OVERALL RATING

the divide between work and play. Based on Windows 8, this unique product is specially designed to provide the next wave of computing experience and addresses customer’s desires. This frees customers from carrying multiple devices, helping them save time and be more productive. XPS 12 comes equipped with enterprise ready features, an intuitive touch experience, the security and manageability required by today’s always-on pace and with the design aesthetic, style and precision workmanship customers’ demand. With BYOD becoming a by word for the enterprises, this new product will to a great extent solve the dilemmas for the CIOs. It is a synergy of two products in one, providing the full functionality of an ultraportable laptop with keyboard plus the convenience of a tablet. As far as dimension is concerned, it is 32cm (12.5) in size and weighs only 1.54kg. It comes with 3rd Generation Intel Core processors and 6 cell battery for long hours of operations and 256 GB SSD. The innovative flip hinge design can easily transition from laptop to tablet to laptop and features a Full HD screen that provides 97 percent more pixels than a standard HD display. The result is an exceptionally crisp reading and photo and video viewing experience. The XPS 12 convertible features thoughtful design, attractive aesthetics, and is crafted from premium materials such as machined aluminum and carbon fiber, as well as Corning Gorilla Glass for durability.

n Price: Rs. 90,490 + taxes Warranty: 1 Years Contact: Dell India Phone: 800-4254026 / 080-2506-8026

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NEW ARRIVALS

PRODUCT

PORTRONICS

PORTRONICS ILUME PROJECTOR PORTRONICS ILUME PROJECTOR is one of the smallest and brightest multimedia pocket projectors. This powerful LED illuminated projector comes with built-in speakers and requires no additional sound magnification device for home entertainment use. iLume is at the cutting edge of imaging innovation and promises to take projectors to a whole new level of portability. It is based on DLP technology by Texas Instruments and presents an array of endless uses. iLume weighs just around 650gm and can be easily accommodated in the Blazer pocket or Laptop bag. It comes with an unmatched brightness of 400 Lumens. It can project an image of more than 120 inches on the wall with a projection distance ranging from 0.5 m to 5 m. It has a resolution of 1280 X 800 and can support 1080p/720p formats. The life of iLume LED Engine is more than 20,000 hours, good enough to last many projection years. Get ready for the smart viewing experience! n Price: Rs. 39,900 Contact: Portronics Digital Pvt. Ltd. (India) Phone: +91-9810610088, +91-9971833777 Email: sales@portronics. com Website: www.portronics.com

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LOGITECH

LOGITECH WIRELESS COMBO MK240 EVEN THOUGH WE do not take or review keyboard and mouse anymore but Logitech wireless mouse and keyboard combo - the MK240 is a different case. The combo makes a bold statement with color, contours and minimalist spacesaving design. Featuring a durable, spill-resistant design that is built to last, the combo comes equipped with a powerful and reliable wireless connection from up to 10 meters virtually eliminating the possibility of interference or dropouts. Adding a pop of color to any stylish setup, the plug-and-play combo is the perfect accessory for even the most pressed-forspace workstations. Its minimalist and space-saving design makes it the perfect travel companion for work and play. The benefit of the products is that you do not need to change the batteries of both the products as the keyboard offers two-year battery life and mouser offers one-year battery life. n Price: Rs. 1,895 Warranty: 3-year limited hardware warranty Contact: Logitech Electronic India Pvt Ltd. Phone: 022 33416111 Website: www.logitech.com/ en-in

DIGISOL

DIGISOL 300MBPS WIRELESS ACCESS POINT WITH POE

y d er.

DIGISOL WIRELESS ACCESS Point DG-WA3002NP is an advance ceiling mounted wireless Access Point based on IEEE 802.11n standard and is backward compatible with IEEE 802.11b/g standard. DG-WA3002NP can provide wireless data transmission rate up to 300Mbps which enhances the sharing of files, photo, audio, video and gaming experience over wireless network. The DG-WA3002NP supports PoE, which helps in easy installation by eliminating the need of a dedicated power source for the Access Point. The WDS (Wireless Distributed System) function allows the access point to act as an Access Point and wireless repeater at the same time. This feature is useful when users want to bridge networks between buildings, where it is not possible to deploy any wired connections. This feature is useful typically in sites like airports, hotels and schools, etc. DG-WA3002NP supports WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) function, it simplifies the procedure to setup a secured wireless network.

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n Price: INR 4,499 Warranty: Lifetime Contact: Toll free number- 1800-209-3444 Email: helpdesk@digisol.com

SME CHANNELS 53 NOVEMBER 2012

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SME CHAT

GUNA SEKARAN R, COUNTRY MANAGER, QUANTUM INDIA & SRI LANKA

“MARKET CONFUSED OVER BIG DATA DEFINITION” In the rapidly increasing India storage market data protection and big data management company Quantum sees substantial opportunities. In an e-mail chat with SME Channels Guna Sekaran R, Country Manager, Quantum India & Sri Lanka, provides insight into the company’s solutions.

What is Quantum’s position in the field of big data management? Quantum has been leading the industry with the introduction of purpose-built appliances which are designed for easy backup and restoration of data. These appliances are easier to install and operate and are designed to maximize performance. Further these solutions meet the stringent reliability standards and provide lower TCO. It has an existing large customer base in the region, there is potential to grow this more significantly in Quantum’s fiscal 2013. We provide customers with industry-leading solutions for storing and protecting information across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. We will be tapping the growing market with our incredibly successful StorNext solution. What are the opportunities in this market for vendors like Quantum? Which markets are you targeting? The storage market in India is growing rapidly and we see a substantial opportunity for data protection and big data solutions across government sectors, large corporations and fast emerging small and medium business segment. Quantum India’s target market includes large enterprises (entertainment, financial services, healthcare, media), mid-market enterprises, public sector (state and local government), ITeS, manufacturing, seismic data processing, oil & gas, and HPC.

Brief us on new innovations and your products’ USPs. Quantum is one of the pioneers in the field of disaster recovery, archiving and big data management. In today’s market scenario, customers can have unique environments where data may need to be protected along with real-time access. An organization which offers the latest, most sophisticated technologies along with highly customizable and dependable solutions without compromising with either quality or service to enable its customers derive maximum from their investment is considered a leader in its domain. And Quantum has over 100,000 plus customer deployments worldwide. One of the most confusing parts of understanding Big Data and identifying customer needs in this space is that there is no consistent definition of the term. With numerous interpretations of “Big Data” and vendors using the term as a part of their offering things become even more unclear. At Quantum, we have been helping organizations manage huge data repositories for over 13 years. StorNext is the preferred end-to-end data management solution for the most demanding Big Data needs. With the flexible scaling performance and capacity, StorNext already offers enterprise data management features, such as Storage Manager for tiered storage architecture, Distributed Data Movers, Partial File Retrieval, and more. What are the key customer implementations in India? Quantum is a trusted partner for over 85 For-

tune100 companies apart from the other leading global names. Most of these fortune 100 companies have operations in more than one country including India. We have over 1000 successful deployments till date in India. Our wide range of solutions along with superior technology allows us to offer and seamlessly implement our solutions and product to customers from SMB industries to large multi regional enterprise businesses spread across the globe. Be it a media or research organization handling petabytes of data or a single location office having a few terabytes of data with Quantum they are certain. What is Quantum’s new India business strategy? We will be tapping the growing market with our incredibly successful StorNext solution. Proven in some of the world’s most data intensive industries such as media and entertainment, oil and gas exploration, satellite imaging, government research, and genome research, Quantum StorNext scale-out storage virtualization software provides high-performance file sharing as well as enterprise data management and integrated data protection and archiving for Big Data environments. Quantum is simultaneously addressing the India market’s needs via direct marketing to customers and via our channel partners. As a channel-centric vendor, our channel partners are critical to our success. Therefore, we provide them substantial training (predominantly at no charge) and offer valuable incentives to generate and close new opportunities.

54 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2012

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NetKey ™ ...Provides a complete, cost effective range of copper and fibre infrastructure solution for voice, data and video applications. The NetKey™ Flexible Networking System, based on the universal keystone opening, covers all your copper and fibre infrastructure communication needs from the telecommunications room to the work area with the proven quality and reliability you depend on from Panduit. NetKey™ Copper RJ45 Modules, Cable, and Patch Cords NetKey™ Fibre Modules and Patch Cords Media Distribution System NetKey™ Fibre Trays NetKey™ Audio/Video Modules NetKey Modular Patch Panels ™

NetKey™ Faceplates and Surface Mount Boxes

NetKey™ Copper Cable ■ Category 6 and 5e ■ LSZH and PVC Flame Rating

NetKey™ Termination Tool ■ Fast termination ■ Available from Fluke Networks

Warranty available through PCI Programme.

Visit us at www.panduit.com/ Jayakanthi Kanthraj email: ind-jk@panduit.com Tel No : +91 80 49122106 Bangalore Office: 3rd Floor, Onyx Center # 5, Museum Road Bangalore – 560001 Karnataka. India Tel No : +91 80 49122106 Fax No : +91 80 41464155

Advts.indd 4

Chennai Office: #400, Hot Desk, 3rd Floor, Apeejay Business Centre, Apeejay House. 39/12 Haddows Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai – 600006. India Tel No: +91 44 28238662 / +91 44 28224949 Fax No: +91 44 28262447

Delhi Office: Office No 103, U&I Centre F 41, N. D. South Extension 1, Ring Road, New Delhi -110049. India Tel No : +91 11 40167060 Fax No : +91 11 40167059

Mumbai Office: 312/313, Dynasty Business Park, J.B. Nagar, Andheri Kurla Road, Andheri East, Mumbai - 400059. India Tel No : +91 22 40917106 Fax No : +91 22 40054746

20/02/12 8:37 PM

SMEChannel 151112 Size:22x31(bleed) 21x30 (Trim) 19x28 (Type)

RNI NO: DEL ENG/ 2010/ 31962 Postal Reg. No.: DL-SW-1/4145/10-12

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Advts.indd 6

22/11/12 8:42 PM