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Union Budget 2014 36pg VOLUME 15

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Let’s get Back to School…… …..opportunity beckons

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IBM to open new data centre in India

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s part of its $1.2-billion investment and in line with its expansion of its global cloud footprint, IBM will be setting up a new data centre in India by the end of this year. This comes on the back of its $2-billion acquisition of cloud computer player Softlayer last year.

“We are yet to finalise the location for the Indian data centre, but it will certainly come up by 2014-end.

The growing demand in Data Centre opportunity the new cloud products and services to suit the Indian market,” Vamsicharan Mudiam, Country Manager, Cloud Solutions, IBM India/ South Asia, said.

Cisco and Microsoft to modernize Data Center

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t the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, the networking giant Cisco has announced a multi-year sales and go-to-market agreement with Microsoft designed to modernize data centers through the delivery and acceleration of integrated solutions.

Cisco and Microsoft will both invest in sales, marketing and engineering resources to drive global alignment, while delivering deeper technology integration across cloud and data center markets. The companies will focus on integrating market-leading technologies, including Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), Cisco Nexus switching and Microsoft Cloud OS solutions, including Windows Server, System Center, SQL Server and Microsoft Azure.

Cisco and Microsoft have agreed to a three-year go-to-market plan focussed on transforming data centers through the delivery of integrated solutions.

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HELLO INDIA

Indian Union Budget 2014-15

‌. boost indigenous manufacturing

T

he Union Budget for 2014-15 presented by the Union Government promises growth and development. Indian entrepreneurs can have a sigh of relief with the announcement of Rs.10,000crore fund which provides equity and soft loans for start-ups. The fund would encourage development of products and innovations in the IT industry. The Government's decision of allocating Rs.7,060 crore for development of 100 smart cities and modernization of satellite towns in the country, industrial clusters will help the ESDM industry achieve great heights by developing technology solutions for these initiatives and boost the confidence of the investor community. It will be pertinent for the government to devise measures which will help in "ease of doing business" with the government. Government to boost domestic production of electronic items and reducing dependence on imports. Rationalisation of Inverted duty structure by exempting 4% special additional duty on laptops and tablets is appreciated by the IT hardware Industry.

It is a fact that technology acts as an enabler that can pave the way for being competitive. Small and medium businesses across all verticals play a critical role in the resurgence of the Indian economy. SMBs face tough challenges in the volatile business environment and global competition. Various innovative solutions leveraging the SMAC (Social Mobile Analytics and Cloud) stack support SMB customers in India in the successful adoption of IT to build a comprehensive marketing strategy and drive higher customer engagement.

With the consumerization of IT and explosion of social media, it is estimated that 2.5 exabytes of new data is being created every day and the volume of new data is doubling every 12 to 18 months. Social media has rapidly emerged as an ideal marketing tool. Companies have to adapt quickly and need to feel secure, as cybercriminals are working in a much organized manner and their network is growing stronger day by day, and they have cost India a whopping Rs.24,630 crore ($4 billion) in 2013 alone as criminals have started using sophisticated means.

Organizations are under increasing pressure to respond to this rapid shift and take advantage of the New Style of IT to transform their operations, improve their competitiveness and enhance customer interactions. As a bonus, budget has provided individual tax-payers a big relief to combat inflation. The Government has provided a huge boost for personal savings by enhancing investment from Rs.1 to Rs.1.5 lakh. Initiatives for boosting the manufacturing industry and enabling a good industry network between states will have a tremendous impact.

With all the positive measures in the Budget for promoting indigenous manufacturing of hardware and software mohini@varindia.com products, it is hoped that India will continue to a be strategic hub for IT MNCs.

In the last 21 years of your stint, from the point when partners started to what kind of changes have you seen move from client server computing to embracing the internet. The world has taking place in the industry?

When I joined the company way back in 1993, which was just about the time when IBM has come back to India, internet revolution has not even taken place. We used to talk about client server computing and the PC era at that time was still at its nascent stage.

However, now things have changed to a great extent. While today we are in a completely interconnected world, where we are talking not only about computing devices but every device or every object that we use are connected with a huge amount of data and analysis. There has been a significant change in the way people interact, businesses operate or take decisions and deliver services to customers. So we are seeing these massive changes around us.

How has the channel evolution been like?

Change has become inevitable now.

Given that I have associated myself with the Channel and business partners, I find the channel has evolved and changed with every change that has come in, right

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become interconnected and the web technologies available today to build and connect new technologies have further helped partners to introduce new service models as per their business and customer requirements. I feel glad to see such a positive change in the channel.

What kind of an industry do you foresee in the coming years?

While there have been some changes in the last 21 years, we are at a point now where change is far more rapid and far more disruptive. We are seeing a change in the products and technologies and the way these products and technologies are delivered through cloud and other payper-use services; we are seeing a change to whom they are getting delivered; we are seeing a change in how they are getting consumed; instead of just an information customers are seeking for more predictive analysis of the information and this is another change we are seeing. So, I personally think the industry and partners are going to see a huge change at a very rapid pace as we go forward. n

Mukul Mathur Vice-President – Global Business Partners and CSI, IBM India/ South Asia

Mukul Mathur has been associated with the industry for close-to 23 years now, of which 21 years have been spent with IBM. At IBM, he has worked in different capacities and areas, be it in the technology sales area or managed system and technology business systems. Mukul has worked with clients across different segments and in many significant global roles. Across his 21-plus years’ stint with IBM, Mukul has worked in almost every major role with business partners in India and abroad.

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CONTENTS Website: www.varindia.com

Publisher: Deepak Kumar Sahu Editor: S Mohini Ratna Executive Editor: Dr. Vijay Anand Assistant Editor: Samrita Baruah Sr. Correspondent: Satinder Kaur Copy Editor: C. M. Dutta Correspondent: Aparna Mullick Art Director: Rakesh Kumar Network Administrator: Ashok Kumar Singh Manager-IT: Subhash Mohanta Manager-SEO: Bidyadhar Behera BUSINESS: Commercial Manager: Amit Ku. Jha Circulation Manager: L G Swami Regional Manager (North): Ashok Ranjan Dash Marketing Manager: Dipendra Kumar CORPORATE OFFICE: VAR House, A-84A/3 Rose Apartment, Paryavaran complex, Ignou Road, New Delhi - 110030 Tel: 011-41656383, 46061809 Email: edit@varindia.com Bangalore: Bureau office Branch Manager: L. G. Swami Marketing Manager: Shubhendu Nanda Correspondent: Aswini Kumar Panda #97,IInd Floor,16th Main, 4th ‘T’ Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore- 560041, Tel: 91-80-40939454 Mobile:09916242600/9916134482 E-mail: aswini@varindia.com, swami@varindia.com Mumbai: Bureau office Regional Manager (West): Anil Kumar Sr. Correspondent: Mamta S. Anurag Residency, 204 - “B” Wing, Plot No-5, Sector-9, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai-410 209 Tel: 022-65561292, Mobile: 08108017479 E-mail: anil@varindia.com, mamta@varindia.com Chennai: Bureau office Branch Manager: Parthiban K A2, R.C.Residency, Cholambedu Road, Thiruvenkada nagar, Ambathur, Chennai - 600 053 Mobile: 098400 55626 E-mail: parthiban@varindia.com Hyderabad: Bureau office Branch Manager: L.G. Swami Correspondent: S.M. Choudhury Plot No. 103, Sagacity Apartments, Street No. 10 Himayat Nagar, Hyderabad - 500029 Tel: 040-32989844/ Cell No. 08374935692 E-mail: swami@varindia.com Kolkata: Bureau office Marketing Officer: Sunil Kumar Correspondent: Kiran Kumar New Korola, Near Alampur, Land Mark Asian International School, Howrah - 711302 Mobile: 08100298033, E-mail: sunil@varindia.com Printed and Published by Deepak Kumar Sahu on behalf of M/s. Kalinga Digital Media Pvt. Ltd. and Printed at Pushpak Press Pvt. Ltd. 153, DSIDC Complex, Okhla Industrial Are ,Phase-I, New Delhi-110020 and Published at A-84A/3 Rose Apartment, Paryavaran complex, Ignou Road, New Delhi 110030, Editor - S Mohini Ratna.

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A new innings for Trend Micro’s Channel Partners

Message to the Partners “Partners, who think of doing a profitable business, where they see long-term customer loyalty, can come ahead and join hands with Trend Micro. We are not only designing products fitting into our next-gen technology but also designing channel programmes which will make our channel evenly profitable.

Any partner who brings a deal to us, we will ensure that the deal becomes profitable and partners can make maximum money out of that.”

Dhanya Thakkar MD, Trend Micro (India & SEA) With a revamped Channel programme in place, Trend Micro has a lot in store for its Channel. Dhanya Thakkar, Managing Director, Trend Micro (India & SEA), discusses at length with VARINDIA about the new channel strategies and policies that are instrumental in making the channel ecosystem even stronger than before

C

hannel is a very integral structure for Trend Micro and a critical one for all its strategies. Whenever it designs any product or any go-to-market strategy, it is done by keeping the Channel in mind so that partners are at ease to sell them irrespective of market conditions.

“Earlier when it was just a physical product that we had to sell, we would ask our partners to go and sell it and give adequate support.

But with the coming in of the Cloud era (SaaS & PaaS), Channel is starting to feel insecure that they might not have a very important role to play as far as such solutions are concerned. However, to allay this fear, we have designed the solutions in such a way that a partner can go and sell them. They can always do a white-labelling and have their

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own pricing and thus do their own value addition,” asserts Dhanya Thakkar, Managing Director, Trend Micro (India & SEA).

Trend Micro has recently launched a new partner programme and revamped its tiers to address the channel more closely. It has primarily taken up three key things to make it even more interesting. Firstly, it is identifying all those new products which have come up as a result of technology evolution and assigning them to partners based on their skills. “We have built some technologies which are next generation for which we are doing a lot of concept-selling and also helping build different skill-sets for partners so that they can go and sell those products. Earlier, we used to have the same partner selling end-point security or firewall security or data center security. However, since different partners carry different set of skills, we have in this new programme segmentized the channel depending on the skill-set that they carry. For instance, one of the partners may be good in selling cloud technology and are cloud-enablers for customers. So, he will be our Cloud partner. So, accordingly, we have categorized them based on their skill-sets and also designed the training module, rewards and incentive programmes keeping these segments in mind,” explains Thakkar.

Secondly, Trend Micro has homogenized its channel partner programme globally by doing away with the Affinity Partner programme that it used to have earlier. Now the programme has become a more standardized one with having introduced different levels of gold, platinum and silver partners. These are the registered partners who then move on to become gold, silver and premium partners based on their abilities and performance. “We have made it simpler, just to understand their strengths and put specific product lines with skilled partners only,” justifies Thakkar. Trend Micro has currently 2,400 registered partners, out of which 65 are silver partners, 14 gold partners and 3 platinum partners.

The third is the launching of structural programmes and various initiatives. In one of the initiatives, partners who are registered with Trend Micro can come and lock in their opportunities with the principal vendor which will be tracked and given adequate assistance to pursue it. If the deal gets locked, the partner is given an award.

However, it becomes equally important to review a particular programme periodically to check its acceptance in the channel and the general consensus on its structure and format. “Definitely. Our marketing team keeps on reviewing our programmes from time to time on how well they are doing. Since there is scope for improvement, we keep on improvising and making changes to these programmes very often,” says Thakkar. He further explains, “Technology is changing.

If today we are talking about end-point security, then tomorrow it will be gateway security, then data center security and finally one day cloud security. In the same way, the profile and topology of a partner is going to change. The amount of resources you used to put in earlier is changing now. Hence, there is a core need to change the channel programme also.”

One of the best ways to help the partners in reducing the cost of selling is by giving more qualified leads to them for the product line that they are catering to. Trend Micro works closely with partners to achieve this for them and helps them in generating leads and remaining profitable all the way. n samrita@varindia.com

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CHANNEL CHIEF

“HP is committed to provide the most effective MPS offering” H

P has more than 15 years of leadership and expertise in Managed Print Services, and its global reach allows HP to provide services and solutions to businesses of all sizes around the world. In fact, Gartner has been positioning HP in the Leader Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services for six consecutive years, and HP has also been named a leader in the IDC MarketScape and The Forrester Wave. With more than 3,000 global direct enterprise MPS customers, and with an estimated 715,000 devices and $10 billion under contract globally, HP has a proven track record of success in Managed Print Services.

HP is committed to providing its customers with the most effective MPS offering, and this extension of multivendor support showcases HP’s latest step to achieve its goal.

Customers desire services, solutions and support to help them manage their print environment. More importantly, customers want long-term, strategic partnerships with a vendor who can provide a comprehensive solution. HP is committed to help channel partners succeed by making sure that they have the right program and tools. To help its partners to be future-ready and wellequipped to handle the transformation from products to solutions and services, HP introduced the Managed Print Specialist Resell Program in India last year. Due to the market sophistication and opportunity, India was chosen as the first country to launch the program in the Asia-Pacific region and, in fact, the company is pleased with the results.

The program was initially rolled out across two cities – Delhi and Mumbai. In a short span of time, HP increased the number of partners enrolled and expanded the offering to eight cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Ahmedabad.

Nitin Hiranandani, Director, Printing Systems, PPS, HP India, is confident that HP will continue to witness a momentum in this segment.

HP’s criterion for partners to participate in MPS program Although HP is identifying partners from its existing base, who have the capabilities to offer MPS to SMBs and enterprises in the identified cities, the program is not limited and is available for all HP partners. The partners current selling hardware only but with a vision for services business clubbed with investment interests in the domain may be the next set of target partnerships.

Verticals where HP maximum growth of MPS

sees

At present, the program engages partners with customers across verticals including

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Nitin Hiranandani Director, Printing Systems, PPS HP India telecom, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and Information Technology-enabled Services (ITeS). While HP is reaching out to all SMB and mid-market customers, the high document producing vertical markets are a major opportunity for it. These include: • Retail / online retail • Healthcare including hospitals, health insurance and large clinics • Finance including banks, credit unions, brokerages and insurance groups • Real Estate including large agent firms and mortgage companies • Legal including mid and large law firms

• Higher education institutes including colleges and universities

HP’s Express Decision Portal (EDP) The HP Express Decision Portal (EDP) is a cloud-based application that connects partners and HP together in one intuitive, easy-to-use portal for services, supplies and maintenance. The HP EDP platform provides partners with proposal and quote generation for cost-per-page pricing, client invoicing and reporting, device monitoring, and account and contract management. n satinder@varindia.com

Partner’s feedback for HP’s MPS Program “Participating in the HP Partner MPS program has allowed us to expand our portfolio offering. We can now expand our business with Managed Print Services and solutions offered by HP.” ~ S. K. Jain, CEO, Orbit Peripherals Pvt. Ltd The HP Partner MPS program is truly one of its kind in India, offering tremendous flexibility with HP’s extensive MPS coverage and support across the country.” ~ Kailash Baheti, Director, Powertechnics “There is a growing interest in Managed Print Services amongst Indian businesses. The HP Managed Print Specialist Program has enabled us to capture this growing opportunity in India.” ~ Shiv Modi, Director, Trisita Marketing “Leveraging the world-class services and leading solutions offered under the HP Managed Print Specialist Program, we could grow the number of contractual wins, thereby increasing our revenue and profitability.” ~ Jayessh Mehta, Managing Director, Future Biztech

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17

ROUND ABOUT

IT Reflections in the Midst of FIFA Frenzy

Asoke K. Laha

President & MD, Interra IT

W

hich is the biggest industry in the world? Many would say hydro carbon, electronics, IT, automobiles and the list goes on. I have a contrary view, many may share my view. What is that?

I might vouch for sports as the largest industry in the world. It is happening and it will reach larger proportions in future.

Some of you may ask me how? Not long ago, many who had dabbled in sports died in penury. I know of footballers in my childhood, who had played for Mohan Began, East Bengal or Mohammedan Sporting Club retired from their active playing tenure with no financial benefits, to lead a very ordinary life taking up menial works.

I am inclined to give some kudos to my home state for professionalizing sports at a time even the cricket was only a passionate game without much money to back it. During the football seasons, the three major clubs –Mohan Began, East Bengal and Mohammedan- used to bid for football players. Some of them were auctioned for as high as Rs 10 lakh per season, an astronomical sum having regard to the fact that it had happened three decades or more ago.

Cricket was also not a money spinner till one-day games were innovated with business in mind. It was considered to be a rich man’s game, since the cricket players and fans had to be rich enough spare six days, including the rest day, for watching a test series. Now the landscape is completely changed. IPL is raking in billions of dollars.

Players are auctioned for millions of dollars. Rights to telecast are fetching astronomical sums. Sponsorships are raking in mindboggling amounts both for the players and the organizers. Reams of stories are written about the players, their life styles, their girlfriends, marriage break-ups, scams they get involved and many more.

FIFA and Wimbledon are presently grabbing the headlines.

Australian open and the recently concluded IPL had remained in the limelight for some time. Once the cricketing season starts, they will continue to engage the media. Let us look at FIFA World Cup

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recently played in Brazil. If you want to see the frenzy created by the tournament, you have to visit remotest parts of West Bengal and Kerala. You ask a street vendor there, he will give you a lesson or two on the strengths and weaknesses of each team along with who won the world cup since it was started. Spectators are thronging to the community TV sets in hordes to witness the matches and cheer their favourite teams and players.

We have looked at only football. There are other money spinners like cricket, tennis, wrestling etc., which records mind-boggling gross revenues. Games like hockey, badminton, baseball etc. are in for greater attention of the business and soon these games will generate more businesses. An IPL like set up is coming for football also by next year. Corporations like Reliance and sports icons like Sachin Tendulkar have bid for their own teams and more interest in the game is expected in the coming years.

Can business and sports go together? The purists among sports lovers detest even sponsorship. They often quote money corrupts the world of sports and the joy of participation dissipates and the winning by hook or crook take over on account of the lure of money. They attribute betting and scams, rigging the results etc. to lure of money.

Bookies offer large amount of money to players and sports mangers to manipulate the results. IPL scams are still with us. In FIFA cup also the authorities are inquiring into the play between Cameron and Cost Rica for finding out whether the match was fixed.

Unlike in other careers and occupations, the active life of a player is limited; say five to ten years, with some honourable exceptions like Sachin Tendulkar. In yester years, some of the government departments like customs, railways, post and telegraph etc. were to hire the services of players. After their active life in the game or sports, they would be absorbed in other departments, which would not require much skill. Therefore, corporatization of sports has become imminent for the games to stay and the players and sportspersons to survive. The pertinent point is how much commercialization is tolerable. I have read a report that the sports and games put together can generate a business of more than two trillions in a year.

When a sport is getting corporatized and the same players are raking in tons of money, there are large contingents of players who go high and dry. Some people say that the game itself has suffered a great deal at the expense of corporatization. For instance, the football has deteriorated into a game of fouls and unfair play. What that has happened to Neymar of Brazil is a case in point. He was deliberately fouled to an extent that many people doubt whether he could return to his erstwhile form with the fracture on the vertebrae column. There was also a biting incident. Big money also brings in its wake scams and manipulations. IPL is a classic example.

Now many of you might ask me why I treated sports in this column, which is usually have a high dose on information technology. To them my answer is it is information technology that has brought the game, players and organizers into your drawing room. In my childhood, the only source of information about the games or sports was All India Radio and the running commentaries it used to have for important matches. Now sitting in your drawing room, millions of people are watching every player’s activities and what have you. Those who want to go further can go the net and download the details of the player. Also, the business dimension of sports is mainly triggered by the information technology. The share of sale of telecasting rights constitutes a major chunk of the income from the game, which in turn help the sports mangers to unitize them and sell as advertisement slots.

That way sports and information technology are intimately connected. Here also we have to draw a line. Our efforts should be balanced. We have to promote business but not at the expense of the interest in the game. n

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July 2014

19

HOT BYTES

D-Link introduces its own Service centres

I

n its bid to provide world-class customer experience,

D-Link has worked towards enhancing its existing support infrastructure PAN India.

In one of its recent move

D-Link (India) Ltd., has launched D-Link Service Centres across the country,

which will be further supported by D-Link Service Partners (DSP) & D-Link Collection Centres (DAC).

Savera spreads wings in Western India

S

avera Marketing has established its first branch office in Mumbai. With this direct presence, the company will enhance its deliveries, improve customer service and accelerate access for channel partners in and around Mumbai. Savera currently distributes products from the leading brands like ADATA, RAPOO, Gainward, HIS, Edimax, Thermaltake, Luxa2 and many more.

Gopal Pansari, Managing Director, Savera Marketing, said, "Mumbai is the heart of distribution business and the hub for the entire western region.

The thriving consumer market and arguably the densest channel business make it a place where we have to have direct presence. Mumbai will anchor our growth initiatives for the times to come."

TE Connectivity and FiberSpan join Forces TE, in collaboration with Fiber-Span, has developed a codecompliant, single DAS platform that supports the VHF/ UHF/700/800/900/ TETRA frequency bands used by public safety agencies.

This new DAS platform will offer customers a seamless and world-class commercial and public safety DAS solution for any environment.

TE Connectivity has announced a new public safety distributed antenna system (DAS) solution. The public safety DAS supports

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primary public safety and critical first responder frequencies in the VHF/ UHF/700/800/900/ TETRA bands on a single system and provides high-reliability coverage for public safety communications services for both inbuilding and outdoor applications.

Peter Wraight, president of TE’s Wireless Business Unit, said, "TE developed this solution to ensure life safety protection for the public as well as police, firefighters and other first responders.”

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Tech Mahindra signs MoU with WSU

T

ech Mahindra has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Wichita State University (WSU). Tech Mahindra will collaborate with WSU and its National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR), the largest academic aviation R&D institution in the United States, on multiple areas of engineering including composites, advanced materials and structural testing.

The company plans to invest in equipping the engineering talent available in the region to enhance their employability in the Wichita aerospace community.

This investment will enable Tech Mahindra to provide end-to-end solutions from design, to testing and certification for global aerospace & automotive customers and prospects in the region. The collaboration will facilitate cooperative initiatives in the area of innovation and R&D projects.

Quantum’s Secure SAFE deployed by GRU

G

u a r u l h o s International Airport (GRU) has implemented Quantum Secure’s SAFE for Aviation software suite. With the physical identity and access management software solution in place, the airport is better prepared to handle the spike in travellers Brazil experienced following the World Cup commencement on June 1, as well as the predicted surge ahead of the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics.

“SAFE is designed to the TSA paradigm, so

we have brought those concepts to GRU, which are meeting and exceeding ANAC’s current capabilities, making airport security more

traveller-friendly, secure and streamlined. With SAFE, GRU is able to streamline its security and credentialing operations, ensure compliance with TSA-level policies and future-proof its physical security infrastructure while also benefiting from significant cost reductions,” said Ajay Jain, President & CEO, Quantum Secure.

SAP Labs India partners with NLF

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AP Labs India and Native Lead Foundation (NLF) have announced that their partnership which began in July, 2013, has spurred over 200 business ideas from students in 19 engineering colleges across South Tamil Nadu.

NLF works with educational institutions, students, and aspiring entrepreneurs to create awareness, motivate, train, and prepare them

to become innovators and business leaders.

Under the partnership, SAP Labs India and NLF worked with colleges in Tamil Nadu under two programmes – SPARK, aimed to motivate and expose students on the concepts of innovation, intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship; and a Start-up Nursery, designed to give students and staff a real-time feel of a start-up incubation centre on the campus.

inaugurated at Rittal India HQ situated at Doddaballapur, Bangalore

by Chief Guest HansGünter Löffler, Deputy Consulate General of

conveyed that the training center has been conceived keeping in mind the need for training our customers, channel partners and employees and to keep

Germany in Bangalore and Helmut Binder, Executive Vice President, International Sales – Rittal GmbH & KG.

them updated of the latest innovations from Rittal, product and technical training seminars with high practical relevance.

Indian enterprises to upsurge their Rittal inaugurates Training Center Speaking at the Rittal Training ICT investments was occasion, Helmut Binder TheCenter

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ndian enterprises are set to increase their information and communications technology (ICT) spending in 2014.

According to Kable’s recent survey of 124 Indian enterprises, 27% of the respondents have expressed their intention to raise their ICT budgets in 2014, while 55% have plans to make slight increases over the same period. Investments in software are to remain on top of enterprises’ priority lists, with an average ICT budget allocation of 25% in 2014.

HOT BYTES

SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service rolled out by Pick n Pay

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USE has announced that Pick n Pay has completed a rollout of SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service systems at each of its 546 hypermarkets, supermarkets, pharmacies and convenience stores.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service is designed specifically for retail environments, combining the operating system base of SUSE Linux Enterprise with extensions that facilitate the creation of

a point-of-service (POS) managed client solution.

“We used to work quite blindly in the past, as we were never certain what software was installed where,” said Wesley Grisdale, systems manager point of sale for Pick n Pay. “We now have a guaranteed way of knowing exactly what version each terminal is running, which is a massive help when it comes to updates and maintenance.”

Small Businesses taking big risks with lack of IT Strategy focus

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ccording to a Kaspersky Lab survey of businesses worldwide, very small businesses (VSBs) with fewer than 25 employees are the least likely to view “IT Strategy” as a top strategic concern. Only 19% of VSBs worldwide reported IT Strategy as one of their top-two strategic concerns, compared to 30% of businesses with more than 100 employees, and 35% of enterprises with 5,000 employees or more. Alarmingly, this

often-neglected business category includes internet and data security policies.

These survey results, illustrate a key challenge for VSBs. An effective IT strategy is a vital component of any successful business, and if managed properly, can enable a small business to accomplish big things. But the reality is that VSBs most often don’t have the money or IT expertise to properly implement vital IT components like security software.

DataWind lists shares in Toronto Stock Exchange

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ataWind was honoured with initiating the siren to open trading at Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).

The event celebrated the company’s recent initial public offering, successfully completed on July 8, raising gross proceeds of CAN$30.0 million to expand the implementation of its patented and proprietary technology across emerging markets.

Suneet Singh Tuli, President & CEO, DataWind, said, “It is an absolute delight for DataWind to be part of the market opening ceremony today. Our IPO on the TSX represents a major

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milestone for DataWind and gives us the resources to implement the next stage of our vision to bring the internet to billions of unconnected people in the developing world.

The internet impacts nearly every aspect of modern society and serves as a powerful economic stimulator. Yet, only a small percentage of individuals in developing countries have internet access.”

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HID Global celebrates LEED Platinum Certification

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ID Global has announced that its World Headquarters and North American Operations Center in Austin has been LEED Platinum certified and is the only industrial manufacturing facility in the state of Texas. The USGBC LEED rating system is the foremost program for buildings, homes and communities that are designed, constructed, maintained and operated for improved environmental and human health performance.

“LEED Platinum certification for our World Headquarters further elevates our awardwinning facility as a leading Austin sustainability showcase and a Texas business success story.

This achievement signifies our ‘Green by Design’ philosophy,” said Kevin Teehan, senior director of strategic operations and corporate sustainability with HID Global.

Emerson announces new Programme

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merson Network Power has announced the launch of the “Rainbow Dazzle” programme for its channel partners in India.

Emerson has unveiled this unique programme to incentivize partners, thus enhancing demand for its uninterruptible power supply (UPS) (up to 20kVA), data center infrastructure management (DCIM), and rack data unit (RDU) range of products.

The company has partnered with PAYBACK, which will empower its NSPs and VARs to select their rewards from over 50 PAYBACK partner brands.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.4 offers new advancementstica

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ed Hat has announced the global availability of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.4, bringing enhancements for traditional virtualization infrastructure, guest support for the newly released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, as well as advanced OpenStack support across compute, storage and networking in tech preview.

This newest release of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization enables organizations to scale their traditional virtualization workloads to an enterprisescale level, while providing

an on-ramp to deploy cloud enabled workloads based on OpenStack.

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization has enabled global enterprise customers to streamline and optimize their traditional virtualization infrastructure while building a foundation for private cloud capabilities.

With Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.4, Red Hat is delivering virtualization enterprise features that enable organizations to build highly available and scalable IT infrastructures.

Lenovo India and HCL Infosystems signs partnership

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wo tech giants Lenovo India and HCL Infosystems have joined hands. The latest strategic alliance would strengthen Lenovo’s consumer retail and commercial business by leveraging HCL Infosystems’ strong sales, distribution and aftersales support network.

Under this partnership, HCL Infosystems will sell and support Lenovo’s entire portfolio of PCs and

tablets, as well as enhance their existing cooperation in the distribution of tablets, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Digilife Distribution and Marketing Services (DDMS), the distribution arm of the company with an exhaustive last-mile connect and support in rural and urban markets across India. The partnership is poised to trigger growth and extend businesses for both companies.

Tata Communications inaugurates its 44th data centre

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a

t

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Communications has inaugurated its 44th data centre in New Delhi. This data centre is located in the heart of the city and is an integral part of Tata Communications’ overall objective to strengthen its global data centre footprint.

Benoy CS, Director, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, says, "With an increase in the uptake of cloud services, datacentre has become a critical element in every

enterprises’ infrastructure strategy. The third party datacentre market is poised to grow very fast as many enterprises are now strategising to avail IT Infrastructure ‘as a service’ rather than investing in huge captive datacentres. Tata Communications has emerged as the Indian Third Party Datacentre Service Provider of the Year 2014 with its extensive product portfolio, channel strategy and presence across the country."

ON THE RAMP

ViewSonic introduces PJD5533w

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iewSonic has introduced PJD5533w, a highperformance 720p widescreen 3D Blu-rayready projector. This projector will bring widescreen imaging to business and professional environments and complement the latest presentation tools and laptops. With a 15000:1 contrast ratio, 3,000 lumens and Brilliant Color technology to produce more vibrant colours, the PJD5533w is the right choice for conference rooms, meeting rooms, boardrooms.

Max Hsu, PM Director, ViewSonic Asia-Pacific,

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said, “The latest PJD5533w 720p HD projector provides a good balance between price, portability, brightness, connectivity, and image quality for all kinds of corporate environments. With a native 1280x800 (WXGA) resolution, the PJD5533w wide format projector offers a tremendous degree of flexibility and compatibility to connect with a widescreen notebook in the conference room, or watching 720p / 1080p HD content in a boardroom.”

eScan introduces 3 new products for Enterprise Security eScan has introduced three new lines of corporate products, all of which have cloud integration and support for hybrid networks – eScan Corporate 360, New eScan Corporate Edition (with Hybrid Network Support) and eScan Endpoint Security (with Hybrid Network Support).

Govind Rammurthy, MD & CEO, eScan, said, "The newly-launched

eScan corporate product line not just ensures multilayered protection from evolving threats that are targeted and sophisticated in nature, but also protects the confidentiality and integrity of the Data in your Network as well as helps manage its availability.

These products will redefine a whole new level of endpoint and corporate protection in terms of speed, security, simplicity and value."

Intex launches new powerful headphones

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ntex Technologies has introduced two new variants of over the ear Headphones IT-400 and IT-213 to enhance customer’s music experience.

Unveiling the latest range, Nidhi Markanday, Business Head, Consumer Durables & IT Accessories, Intex Technologies, said, “These headphones are equipped with power bass and hi-fi stereo effect bringing clarity to the music you are listening and minimizing any external sound.”

Headphone IT-400 comes in vivid colours of grey and blue coupled

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Kingston's ADATA launches SH14 storage solutions Portable Hard Drive

with an adjustable microphone and volume control to boost stereo sound output. IT-213, on the other hand, is a smart headphone which can be easily plugged into your Ipod, MP3, CD and your laptop or desktop.

It is equipped with a power bass for excellent stereo voice and provides supreme quality sound experience for music aficionados.

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ingston has l a u n c h e d DataTraveler microDuo 3.0 and Class 10 UHS-I 90R/45W microSDHC/ SDXC card. The small form-factor combination USB 3.0 and microUSB Flash drive allows consumers to expand the storage of their Android tablets and smartphones by transferring files to and from PC. DataTraveler microDuo 3.0 expands the storage of Android devices up to 64GB. The USB 3.0 to microUSB dual interface drive can be used with any USB On-The-Go compatible device and allows users to transfer data without plugging into a computer.

Kingston’s Class 10 UHS-I microSDHC/ SDXC is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities.

The fast 90MB/s read and 45MB/s write speeds allow users to shoot full HD video, 3D video and real-time broadcasts.

HID Global announces new solutions

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ID Global has announced that its access control products, along with door-opening solutions from parent ASSA ABLOY, have been used in various solutions across six of the 12 stadiums in Brazil during the 2014 FIFA World Cup football matches.

“We are very excited to beplayingsuchanimportant role in protecting the safety and security of the fans, players and staff during this year’s FIFA championship matches,” said Gustavo Gassmann, Sales Director, Brazil with HID Global.

“Securing large-scale outdoor sporting venues is one of the industry’s most difficult security challenges, but HID Global and ASSA ABLOY have extensive experience in this area."

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D A T A Technology has announced the launch of ADATA SH14 500GB exclusively on e-commerce site Snapdeal.com. With this launch, the company aims to target the onthe-go crowd whose active lifestyle calls for shockproof performance.

ADATA SH14 portable hard drive is an upgraded version of the last year's industry-acclaimed pioneering water-resistant and shockproof SH93. It offers a new approach with the combination of modern style, super speed USB 3.0 interface, and military grade

shockproof and waterresistant construction.

Sudip De, VP, ADATA Technology, India, said, "We are pleased to announce the launch of SH14 exclusively on Snapdeal.com, India's largest online marketplace.

ADATA is known for their premium quality product that offers a wide range of storage devices.

The kind of response we have perceived from our existing line of portable hard drive."

NVIDIA announces GeForce GT 740 and GT 730 GPUs

NVIDIA has announced availability of two mainstream GPUs – GeForce GT 740 and GT 730 in India. With these new cards, customers now have a choice to upgrade from integrated graphics and get the performance boost needed for lightningfast web browsing, photo and video editing, and richer gaming. These new cards provide at least 3X faster gaming performance than integrated graphics, while delivering rocksolid reliability and stability with GeForce

Experience.

Both these products are available through NVIDIA’s partners – Asus, Galaxy, Gainward and Zotac. These new GPUs deliver enhanced multimedia options that support HD, Blu-ray, 3D Vision, 4K support and multi-monitor gaming.

Brocade launches Vyatta Platform for Service Providers

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rocade has unveiled the Brocade Vyatta Platform, the first phase of a multiyear strategy that delivers an open and modular networking platform for cloud and telecommunications service providers.

Supporting the build-out of both Application and Subscriber Clouds, the Brocade Vyatta Platform is the industry’s first articulation of this open strategy.

The Brocade Vyatta

Platform encompasses provenNetworkFunctions Virtualization (NFV) and emerging SoftwareDefined Networking (SDN) technologies based on open standards and open-source initiatives.

This Platform utilizes established core components, such as the Brocade Vyatta vRouter and Brocade vADX products, along with the opensource software projects such as OpenDaylight and OpenStack.

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July 2014

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ON THE RAMP

AMD launches FirePro W8100 Professional Graphics Card

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MD has launched the AMD FirePro W8100 professional graphics card, enabling new levels of workstation performance delivered by the company’s secondgeneration, industryleading AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. The AMD FirePro W8100 is designed for the next generation of 4K CAD (Computing Aided Design) and Media and Entertainment (M&E) workflows, engineering analysis and supercomputing

applications. Bolstering the AMD Professional Graphics product family with yet another productive workstation solution, the AMD FirePro W8100 features a best-in-class 8GB of GDDR5 memory, up to 4.2 TFLOPS of single precision compute performance, and unmatched double precision compute performance of up to 2.1 TFLOPS.

DIGILITE launches Motherboards Series

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IGILITE has introduced five new models of motherboards supporting Intel 4th generation Haswell CPU supported with H81/H87 chipset.

DIGILITE will be targeting channel & value segment with its motherboard DLH81-M4, performance segment with DL-H81M1, government segment with DL-H81M-GL and DL-H87M and have introduced DL-Q87MVPRO for high end segment core i5/i7.

Rajan Sharma, VP

-Sales, DIGILITE stated, “DIGILITE has been working closely with Intel and launching new models of Intel 4th Generation motherboards with the prime objective giving our customers the next generation motherboards.”

All the motherboards are available through Ingram Micro, Redington and Supertron.

Xerox expands Services Offering for Indian Market

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erox India has expanded its services offering with the launch of Next Generation MPS for the Indian market. The Next Generation MPS is designed to build a momentum and deliver new value that helps customers of all sizes realize cost savings up to 30% with increase in efficiencies, allowing them to focus on their core business. Xerox’s Next “As an enterprise’s knowledge capital grows – in both paper and

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electronic form – the challenge of unlocking it increases exponentially.

Without proper management it becomes lost, since it lives in so many places and formats.

Our three-stage strategy – assess and optimize, secure and integrate, and automate and simplify – continues to evolve with these new offerings. The enhancements help clients manage their information demands more effectively,” said Vishal Awal, Executive Director –Services, Xerox SA.

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Rackspace's Performance Cloud Servers

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ackspace Hosting has announced that its redesigned public cloud with Performance Cloud Servers will be available in India. This new offering creates a powerful hosting platform for a variety of workloads, ranging from web hosting, eCommerce applications to larger-scale NoSQL data stores like MongoDB and Cassandra.

The offering will be available to customers throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including Hong Kong, India, Singapore and Greater China.

Logitech reinforces its wireless portfolio in south India

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ogitech India has showcased their comprehensive line-up of wireless products, which comprises of wireless keyboards and mice, portable speakers, headsets and Bluetooth enabled speakers, in Chennai.

Ashok Jangra, Cluster Category Manager, India & South West Asia, Logitech said, “With the increasing consumer demand for devices that help people reduce the clutter in their lives, Logitech offers easy solutions across its wireless range of devices.

We are looking at making our wireless portfolio presence in India’s most mature market. Logitech is just not a technology brand but is an ultimate entertainment and productivity partner” He further added, “Witnessing the way Chennai market is evolving with changing consumer requirements, it offers a huge opportunity to Logitech to strengthen our presence here with our wireless portfolio.”

Dell unveils new laptop series

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ell has introduced its new Inspiron 3000 Series laptops, Inspiron 20 3000 Series and 23 5000 Series Allin-One (AIO) desktops in time for the Back to School season.

“Our endeavour remains to deliver the maximum potential that technology can possess in making both personal and educational pursuits more productive as well as engaging. The new Inspiron laptops and AIO desktops package all the right features into compact devices which are stylish, yet powerful to use thereby not compromising on quality

of the work performed.

Combined with special offers for back to school and college students in our “Learning meets doing” themed campaign, students and parents alike will find that these new Inspiron devices are a smart investment which brings a wholesome computing experience for the whole family,” said P. Krishnakumar, Executive Director & GM, Consumer & Small Business, Dell India.

Seagate redefines its storage portfolio with Wireless Plus External Storage

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eagate Wireless Plus mobile device storage now consists of a family of capacities at 1TB and 2TB versions to suit every need along with integration with cloud services, such as Dropbox and Google Drive.

The Seagate Wireless Plus storage is designed to expand beyond the limitations of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.

With capacities that are multiples beyond the highest storage available on these mobile devices, the Seagate Wireless

Plus provides an ideal solution to stream your favourite HD video while freeing up precious space on your Android Tablet, iPad, iPhone, Android Smartphone, Kindle Fire, Windows 8 computers and Windows RT tablets.

The Seagate Media app’s new capability to sync your files on the Seagate Wireless Plus storage with an existing cloud storage provider means that your files are always accessible even when you don’t have network access.

VMware expands VMware vCloud Hybrid Service

VMware has announced expansion of VMware vCloud Hybrid Service in Japan – the first Asian market and third in the world to deploy

premise IT infrastructure seamlessly to the public cloud. The resulting hybrid cloud is compatible with a customer’s existing IT assets and allows them

this Infrastructure-as-aService (IaaS) public cloud solution. vCloud Hybrid Service enables an organization to extend its private on-

to build new cloud-native applications, delivering agility and efficiency to the business in a secure, reliable and compliant manner.

GIGABYTE 9 Series

Motherboards

*Product features may vary by model. *Motherbaord models may vary based on local distribution.

www.gigabyte.com.au

GIGABYTE Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Tel: 022-40633222; Website: www.gigabyte.in; Toll-Free: 1800-22-0966; www.facebook.com/GIGABYTEindia Gujarat: 97250 59195; Mumbai, Goa, Vidarbha: 99677 18653; Rest of Maharashtra: 99221 13396; New Delhi & Uttar Pradesh: 99583 72672; Chhattisgarh 98269 92970; Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand: 99100 86976; Punjab, Chandigarh and Jammu & Kashmir: 97818 33433 Madhya Pradesh: 96695 45600; Rajasthan: 99100 86976; Bihar: 90075 45577; Jharkhand: 90405 06080; Orissa: 90405 06080; North East: 98642 30150;27 www.varindia.com July 2014 West Bengal: 97485 02710; Karnataka: 81236 86976; Andhra Pradesh: 90000 77671; Tamil Nadu: 74117 74666; Kerala: 98950 99231

VOICE-N-DATA

DEN Networks partners with Cisco over DOCSIS 3.0 Technology

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isco has partnered with DEN Networks, one of India’s cable TV multi-system operators (MSOs) to deploy DOCSIS 3.0 technology for the introduction of next-generation cable broadband services in the country. It is a key component of the Cisco IP NGN architecture, which promises speeds of up to 300 Mbps per subscriber. With the help of DOCSIS 3.0, DEN

Networks will be able to deliver ultra-high-speed Internet to deliver more content compared with existing telecom Internet service providers (ISPs).

Dinesh Malkani, President, Sales, Cisco India and SAARC said, “Cisco's vision is to be the leading enabler of ICT and broadband acceleration in India through innovative, scalable, high-value technology offerings and solutions."

Amazon Web Services announces launch of Amazon Zocalo

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mazon Web Services has announced Amazon Zocalo, a fully managed, secure enterprise storage and sharing service with strong administrative controls and feedback capabilities that improve user productivity.

With Amazon Zocalo, customers can store, share, and gather feedback on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, webpages, images, PDFs, or text files – from the device of their choice.

“Customers have told us that they’re fed up with

the cost, complexity, and performance of their existing old guard enterprise document and collaboration management tools.

AWS was increasingly being asked to provide enterprise storage and sharing tool that was easy to use, allowed users to quickly collaborate with others, and met the strict security needs of their organizations.

That’s what Amazon Zocalo was built to do,” said Noah Eisner, General Manager, Amazon Zocalo at Amazon Web Services.

Ericsson inaugurates Global Network Operations Center site

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ricsson is e x p a n d i n g its Global Network Operations Center in India by opening a fourth site in Kolkata, complementing

Amitabh Ray, MD of Ericsson India Global Services, said, “India’s large ICT talent pool and fast-growing economy makes it the ideal place

the existing sites in Noida, Gurgaon and Bangalore.

The new Global Network Operations Center site in Kolkata will help Ericsson meet growing customer demand and continue to attract and retain the best talent that India has to offer.

to base a Global Network Operations Center to serve Ericsson’s customers.

Kolkata’s standing as a center of commercial and educational excellence makes it a great location for Ericsson’s newest Global Network Operations Center site.”

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Nokia Networks ADVA 100G Core deployed to acquire SAC by Bluebird Network Optical partnership has helped Wireless Networking has to drive both rural and ADVA

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okia Networks is to acquire SAC Wireless. Based in Schaumburg, Illinois, SAC Wireless has a national footprint and proven performance track record working with major telecom operators.

It expects to close the transaction in the third quarter of 2014, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to bring clear revenue synergies.

“This acquisition builds on our existing strengths and continued investment in our customers’ success. It will help us increase market share in the network implementation space,” said Ricky Corker, Executive VP, North America, Nokia Networks.

Huawei teams up with Iris Computers

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ris Computers has joined hands with Huawei in a strategic distribution partnership to echo Huawei’s leadership in the IT Products and Solutions domain. Iris deals in providing IT hardware products and technological solutions to its channel partners across the country.

The companies will be foraying into the national distribution of Huawei’s vast enterprise ICT product portfolio inclusive of servers and storage range of products. This will focus specifically on Huawei’s flagship OceanStor storage solutions as well as its extensive convergent storage portfolio.

With this relationship, Iris will serve as a medium to ensure that Huawei’s customer-centric, dedicated and superior ICT expertise finds the appropriate channels in the server market.

announced that Bluebird Network has deployed the ADVA 100G Core to connect major urban areas within Missouri.

Primarily focusing upon a data expressway between Kansas City and St. Louis, Bluebird Network is using the ADVA 100G Core to respond to enormous bandwidth growth from its service provider and enterprise customers.

Deployment of the ADVA 100G Core is the latest in a seven-year partnership between ADVA Optical Networking and Bluebird Network. This

urban connectivity to new heights, ensuring Missouri's customers have access to the bandwidth they need.

"Our customers depend upon our network; depend upon our commitment to drive it forward. They trust us with their business, with their bottom line," said Michael Morey, CEO, Bluebird Network.

"This is something we never take for granted and underlines why our partnership with ADVA Optical Networking is so important."

Brightstar sings pact with with Bharti Group

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rightstar and Bharti Enterprises have entered into a definitive agreement to bring the latest mobile technologies and services to the Indian market. As part of the agreement, a Brightstar subsidiary will acquire a majority interest in Beetel Teletech Limited, a leading company in the distribution and sale of communication and media devices, enterprise solutions and IT products in India.

“The Indian mobile

market is entering the next phase of growth, which will be driven by data services on 3G and 4G technologies. The smartphone market in the country recorded tripledigit growth in 2013 and offers a huge opportunity going forward. The new mobile businesses and related technologies will help drive significant growth by leveraging our deep distribution strength,” said Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice-Chairman, Bharti Enterprises.

Alcatel-Lucent addresses Network Application Challenge in India

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he Enterprise d i v i s i o n of Alcatel-Lucent has launched new technologies to address the challenges created by pervasive mobility and the explosion of new applications being introduced within enterprises in India.

This comes amidst IDC predictions that the enterprise mobility sector in the Asia-Pacific region is set to boom, and is expected to reach a value of $2.3 billion by 2017.

Alcatel-Lucent

Enterprise has introduced an innovative access switch and additional network capabilities. This will give IT departments across India and the Asia-Pacific region more visibility and control of the network, while employees and customers will gain flexibility to use the applications they need. Fuelled by cloud services, the number and type of applications used in enterprises is growing, requiring IT teams to be armed with new tools and capabilities.

FACE TO FACE

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CHANNEL BUZZ

ISODA organizes Regional Meet

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he ISODA Regional Meet 2014 was held on 26th June, with a large number of members in attendance.

As the tenure of the current Regional committee was

forthcoming year.

Nityanand Shetty, Chairman, ISODA gave the members an insight in brief of the different activities done by the task force like TDAI/Tax

approaching to an end, the Regional Secretary, Jiten Mehta thanked the members and expressed his gratitude for supporting ISODA through the year, in spite of their busy schedules and invited members to come forward with just as much enthusiasm to take up posts for RS and committee posts for West Region in the

Committee. He then called on the President, Devesh Aggarwal and the General Secretary, Manish Tandon, to give more details to the members on the progress of engagement with TDAI and forthcoming AGM which would be conducted in a two day format unlike the previous AGMs, which was a one day affair.

Supertron Annual Business Meet at Bangkok

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upertron Electronics has organized an Annual Business Meet from 3rd May to 6th May at All Seasons Hotelsin Pattayato celebrate their continuous growth in

given an example of common areas in T20 cricket match with SEPL business functions specially in product selling.

He also highlighted the areas in optimization of resources

IT Industry and for achieving 1500 cr milestone. A total of 80 team members attended the meet to discuss future business strategy, planning and action points.

Supertron Annual Business Meet was organized around the theme “Towards A Quantum Leap.” V. K. Bhandari, CMD of SEPL gave a unique speech for future road map emphasizing on inter personalized skills, motivation and leadership qualities.He had

such as product, fund, human resources and network. SEPL has set up a target of 2000 crore in IT vertical only for the FY 14-15 with a 33% growth and entire team has taken an oath to achieve this milestone. Vibhor Agarwal, Director Marketing discussed in details about the Industry, Opportunities and scope of improvement. Nirmal Kumar Meharia, Director Finance & administration has explained the financial part along with credit policy.

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IT Associations to come up with marketplace

e-Tailers have gained considerable popularity among the buyers, and it has affected 35 to 45 per cent of the Channel business in IT. To combat e-tailers, IT associations like PCAIT, ADCTA, CMDADelhi, COMPASS and CIITA have come forward to form an ICT marketplace. These associations are also inviting other IT associations from different parts of India to an assembly scheduled to be held on August 2, 2014, in New Delhi.

On June 26, the five IT associations in a meeting have also agreed to form an ICT marketplace.

Highlighting the problems faced by traditional channels from e-tailers, Saket Kapur, General Secretary, PCAIT, said that, due to deep discounting from e-tailers, the conventional channel is badly affected.

According to estimates, 35– 45 per cent of the channel business is being taken away by e-tailers, who, many a time,

offer unrealistic prices which are below the cost prices.

Due to this, many retailers have changed businesses and some others are even buying products from online to sell to customers.”

B. Hari, President, CIITA and President, COMPASS, commented that, while it is true that e-commerce cannot be stopped, channels have to adapt and blend into the same.

They have agreed that an ICT marketplace must be formed.

The best way forward is to create a trusted marketplace for customers to provide a levelplaying field for all participants in the channel ecosystem.

The process of how marketplace will be formed will be decided in the conclave to be organized on August 2 and it was also informed that each member of the participating associations will be a stakeholder in the marketplace, which will be governed by a coordinating committee.

Toshiba and Rashi organize 4-City Training Programme

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oshiba Storage along with Rashi Team began a 4-city training programme from Ahmedabad and ended in Indore to answer all the queries and educate partners regarding the latest development in

know about the Toshiba hard drive specifically made for Surveillance Systems and Video Stream applications with various features and a large range of multiple storage capacities.”

Rajesh Goenka, Vice-

technology for the surveillance market. The partners were excited as they had this unique opportunity to interact with the vendor on a one-on-one basis.

This is an important exercise for the partners since this can help make a better and wellinformed decision for the endconsumer.

Polad Garda, Manager – Marketing, Toshiba Storage Devices, said, “We were happy to see a good turnout with such participative audience.

Some partners were thrilled to

President – Sales and Marketing, Rashi Peripherals, adds, “Toshiba and Rashi team have travelled all the 4 cities and returned with good appreciation from the partners for this initiative. The number of partners attending range from 50 to 80 partners that too in all non-metro cities is a positive feedback in itself.

We hope to plan for many such training programmes to educate more partners about these latest products and technological development as much as possible.”

VAR ANALYSIS

John Chambers focuses India as an investment Hub

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India to become an investment hub once again

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t seems that recently global C-suite executives have been visiting India more frequently than in the past. While IBM Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Virginia Rometty came to India in May, Cisco Chairman & CEO, John Chambers was in the country last month, and then in the first week of July, India welcomed Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. Besides the visits of these important IT honchos, Google's Sunder Pichai is planning to visit India for a global launch later this year. It is also being speculated that Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella will visit the country by the end of the year. The visits of these biggies in India have given some hope that India is being seen once again as an investment centre.

During her first visit to India after becoming COO of the world's most popular social networking site Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg met Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi. She said that India is Facebook's second-largest and the fastest-growing market with the fastest internet connectivity in the Asia-Pacific region. It is of high priority for them.

She also said that over $2-trillion Indian economy has immense potential to create jobs and drive growth, especially with its huge base of small and medium businesses (SMBs).”

As far as IBM’s Virginia Rometty’s India visit is concerned, she visited the country for the third time after her appointment as IBM’s CEO in 2012. She has announced the company’s plans to set up a new cloud data center in Bangalore. The new center will be part of Softlayer, the cloud storage company IBM acquired for $2 billion earlier this year.

Industry experts believe that these visits are symbolic of a conductive environment created for the investers to invest in the Indian market by foreign investors. India should use this as an opportunity to convert this interest into dollars and cents. However, it is difficult to say anything for now. Let time decide.

isco CEO John Chambers has been visiting India once every year for the past few years. This year, Chambers visited India on June 26 & 27 and was able to grab more eyeballs as this time he hinted that Cisco is now once again looking at India as a manufacturing hub.

The main attraction of John Chambers’ India visit was a meeting with Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). According to reliable sources in the government, the meeting between John Chambers and Amitabh kant was more focussed on understanding newly-formed government plan with respect to tax structure and seeking concessions with respect to Cisco’s manufacturing in India.

During his interview by the press, Chambers said that India has a very bright and prosperous future and his company liked the new Government’s business plans. “We like their (new Government’s business plans and where they are headed to. Plans to digitize the country and bring all the benefits of the Internet to all the citizens, (in areas like) healthcare, education, and job creation is very exciting. We see a Government willing to make changes and we want to be a partner in that,” he added.

On his twoday visit to India, Chambers also met the CII members and said that Cisco wants to play an active role in digitization of the Indian economy and develop it as a strategic business hub.

Here, it is worth noting that Cisco’s India business has been slow over the last few years. The latest reports suggest that the company was not able to beat the $1-billion target in the services revenue that it had set out to attain in India during the 2011-14 period. However, it seems that the company is now optimistic about a brighter future of the company amidst slow growth in India. Chambers told reporters, “We spent about $1 billion a year in equivalent foreign direct investment in India. We put $40 million in new start-ups and new ideas. We lead in corporate social responsibility in many areas. India is our second world headquarters.”

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

RDP XL-700 Product RDP XL-700 is powered with latest Intel Core i3 (3230), 3.30 GHz Processor, Intel H61 Express Chipset and coupled with 2 GB DDR3 RAM, 500 GB HDD (2.5”). The XL-700 Mini PC comes with default Linux OS (Enterprise edition) and even supports latest windows 7 & windows 8. It has eight 2.0 USB ports for peripherals and expansions along with microphone and headphone 3.5mm jacks. It supports up to 1920 X 1024 resolutions with Gigabit LAN port.

XL-700 is light in weight with just 1.5 Kg. With its Customized technical features, enhanced flexibility, elevated security gives competitive advantage over existing Mini PC’s in the global market.

Because of its enhanced sleek and slim design, it can potentially hide the device completely out of the way by mounting back on the monitor. It saves more than 70 -100% of desktop space compare to traditional PC’s can effectively operate more number of devices in limited space. It Consumes very little amount of power (less than 90 Watts) as compare to normal desktop PC (360/450 Watts).

Internal cooling fan and advanced heat absorbers allows operation 24X7 in temperature up to 45 degrees centigrade .

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CHANNEL BUZZ

Channel acts as the main interface between BlackBerry and its Customers Beliefs are strong at BlackBerry on its ability to regain a foothold in India's surging smartphone market and restore its lost sheen among Indian customers. The role of partners doubles here as they are the ones who have lent their support ever since they became associated with BlackBerry and will hence lead the brand to glory. An interaction with Hitesh Shah, Director, Channel Sales – BlackBerry, India, makes it clear as to how the brand is looking at supporting its channel in this endeavour.

B

lackBerry’s relationship with channel partners has played a key role in its success in India. The channel community serves as the crucial link between the brand and the consumers and brings in critical market insights for the company that helps both flourish and create joint business opportunities. With the evolving customer dynamics, it is with the channel partners and the vendor equally that the responsibility to showcase the reliability of the brand lies. BlackBerry’s partners understand this and have been able to effectively leverage the information and technical know-how to maximize sales.

“India’s competitive smartphone business landscape has taught us to strike a chord with consumers in terms of giving them what they need, when they need it. With the help of our channel partners, we are able to create a stronger connection with our customers by offering them compelling, innovative products and services. We work closely with our channel partners to devise our retail strategy for each product/ solution,” states Hitesh Shah, Director, Channel Sales, BlackBerry, India.

Channel Programmes & Policies…

A channel-friendly company that BlackBerry is, it ensures that through its channel programmes, retailers and resellers are acquainted with the latest technology and product offerings so that they are able to aptly market the products by delivering relevant information to consumers. Some of the key strategies that BlackBerry focusses on to engage with partners are – • Focus on the depth of distribution rather than width of distribution and ensure that the top channel partners are on board driving volume • Ensure channel hygiene (price difference in channels, cross territory sales) – Trust is the highest priority for partners.

BlackBerry works to establish trust from a

Sunil Motwani, EXCELL COM 34

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channel perspective by ensuring that channel partners do not lose money due to cross territory sales and price wars due to VAT Arbitrage, Deal prices and Grey market • Ensure channel satisfaction with the right products and work on hyper local activities to drive footfall to the channels – BlackBerry works to ensure that the channel has the right product mix and drive a sell through a business model driven by locally relevant initiatives – since “one- size-fits-all” model doesn’t work when it comes to a country like India • Ensure high level of service support for Retailers – It is already a known fact that Channel partners are BlackBerry’s biggest brand ambassadors and they drive sales for them. Being in the business of sales where service is a key differentiating factor, it is very important for BlackBerry to ensure that they give best service to their partners to keep their faith and ensure that they support them when servicing requests come from customers • BlackBerry’s policies are designed to ensure a Win-Win situation for both – their business partners and the brand “Our customers are important to us and this means both the end-customer and the channel (which in one form is our customer) are taken care of,” says Hitesh.

In India, BlackBerry works with Redington for the consumer segment and Ingram Micro for the enterprise segment. It also works with all of the top 9 telecom carriers in the country and they are an integral part of its sales mechanism. The go-to-market is through these partners with whom it works closely to reach out to its end-consumers in the product and enterprise space.

Z3 launch in India…

The hype around the new Z3 and the speculation on its pricing might have died down after its launch, but BlackBerry’s efforts to make it one of the premium smartphones in

Hitesh Shah Director, Channel Sales BlackBerry, India the country goes on unabated.

“Gone are the days when a consumer would knock on the retailer’s doorstep, if he intended to make a purchase. As a customer today, you visit a retailer’s website first. The next thing you know, you are viewing a TV ad promoting deals available via the retailer’s mobile app. You then dig deeper into product information, compare competitor’s prices, access additional information on your mobile device and then visit the brick-and-mortar store.

As you browse through the store, you look up products online and perhaps even scan a QR code in search of a deal. This little anecdote indicates how customers now approach their shopping experience at various touch-points,” observes Hitesh.

He further adds, “We, at BlackBerry, understand the changing need of consumers and hence have begun to explore strategies beyond traditional marketing modes and are working to reach out to consumers at various touch-points in real time. It is the first time that a mobile brand has tied up with an online and offline retail partner simultaneously. This is simply because we intend to open diverse platforms for consumers to shop from.” The BlackBerry Z3 has been launched at a very attractive price point and the company aims

“Our journey with BlackBerry started from the Day 1 when BlackBerry was launched with three models through Airtel in 2004. The trade schemes and incentives of BlackBerry are at par with market but what is remarkable is the loyalty programme and initiatives that were taken from time to time. Also the exclusive BlackBerry Retail model has helped us to grow our retail image along with the brand in the market place. One of our biggest core strengths has been our Customer Service – and this is, and will always be, our success mantra and also our highly visible presence in the prime locations of Delhi.

Loyalty programmes for customer and customer after-sales service is the core competency for growth. BlackBerry compared to other brands is way ahead on these parameters, but there is always scope for betterment and what I think is if we can constantly focus on these parameters along with product innovation and pricing, we can certainly grow in a much bigger way.”

“We have been associated with BlackBerry since its launch in India in 2004. In terms of channel programmes and incentives, we have seen some of the best and affordable products being launched, specially the Bold and the Curve series and currently the Platform 10 series. We have always been a hardcore supporter of the robust technology and do not forget the quality of BlackBerry. However, constant advertisements and brand visibility need to be done if the brand retention in the minds of customers has to sustain.”

Jaiveer Rao, Frontline Technologies to target the prosumers, i.e., professional consumers with this device. However, retailers say that initial stocks of this latest handset have been sold out in almost two weeks since its launch.

Going ahead…

Given the complexity of managing a distribution network, it is essential for companies to interact with their distribution partners frequently and ensure that they have a robust channel programme in place.

BlackBerry tries to expand its partner base by introducing more channel- friendly policies and will maintain the open communication channel to derive action-worthy feedback from them. Apart from aiding seamless sale of products and services, the handset major hopes to help its partners understand its products and services better by offering training modules and highlighting the consumer preferences and accordingly recommend its product portfolio to be able to address the consumer demands in real time.

Amit Galada, Studio cell “It has been a wonderful experience to have worked with BlackBerry for the last six years hand in hand with the brand.

The support from the brand has been exceptionally good and continuing along with time and again. There has been an overall support in terms of advertising, branding, back hand incentive monthly schemes payout and all extra supports from time to time. The brand is very helpful in supporting the retailers and enhancing their profitability. The schemes are more dealer-friendly than the other brands. The margins what we make from the brand BlackBerry is much more than any other brands.

There has been seasonal support for selling BlackBerry products. The latest initiative to put the store owners as the brand icon in their respective showrooms is very innovative and attractive. This shows that BlackBerry always keeps their retailers on top. The brand can further enhance its presence in the channel by giving a few ads in papers and building awareness to the public. The brand is growing now with new models coming in at competitive prices.

Hope BlackBerry carries on their good work in future also and gets us the best from it.

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The inaugural budget of the new NDA regime has been keenly awaited at a time when the country's economy needs a strong fillip to set the momentum for high-growth. Union budget for the year 2014-15 is a welcome move with a more strategic focus, concentrating on mid-long term implications towards sustainable growth. The commitment to achieve 7-8% economic growth in the next 3-4 years anchoring on the core sectors is much needed to revive the sluggish economy. The new government’s budget bodes well for Indian Industry as it encourages local manufacturing, entrepreneurship and transparent governance to create an investor friendly, stable tax regime with retrospective decisions scrutinized by a high level committee.

The government is committed to providing 24/7 power supply. It has also proposed and assigned crores for the development of small smart cities. Urbanization and development of urban infrastructure through smart cities has also found significant mention and over 7000 crore is being allocated for the development of 100 smart cities across the country - this is a huge opportunity for the Indian IT industry to partner with the government in this initiative. The 100 Crore INR provided to enable virtual classrooms through the CLICK initiative is a welcome gesture and the government’s move to establish more IITs and IIMs is great to strengthen the pool of quality technical talent that will enable India’s journey to be a scientific power.

Sunil MK, Head – AEC Autodesk, India & SAARC “Following the presentation of the Union Budget 2014-15 in Parliament, the Government has communicated an aim at higher growth, lower inflation, and a prudent policy stance in the Financial Year 2014-15. The government has considered PPP model as one of the key driving parameters for growth. We welcome the Infrastructure Investment Trust being set up to finance infra projects as we believe this will be crucial in terms of speeding up the completion of pending projects and make way for new ones. The announcement of 100 smart cities is a bold and encouraging step by the government and will open up huge market potential for builders, engineers, architects and companies, who work closely with the building and infrastructure industry in India. Metro rail services to Lucknow and Ahmedabad, national industrial corridor to link cities, development of archaeological sites send out a strong message about the seriousness of this government in pushing for better connectivity and superior facilities for better public life.”

Sanjay Rohatgi, President - Sales, India Symantec “The Finance Minister has presented a forwardlooking budget. ‘Technology for Governance' seems to be the new mantra here. This has instilled a great deal of excitement in the technology sector with an array of opportunities. We are particularly thrilled with the Government’s all-encompassing initiative themed ‘Digital India’ which clearly enunciates a clear action plan for last mile internet connectivity, better access to services, as well as IT skills development of local talent. This is being further reinforced with outstanding proposals for massive investments in greenfield infrastructure projects such as smart cities; youth-focused programs like establishing new IITs and developing a conducive environment for entrepreneurship.

Suresh Pansari- Director Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd. “The abolition of SAD will not have much impact since for traders the same is not available and for manufacturer CENVAT credit was available. However it will improve their cash flow and at times they have unutilized credit available, which will be now taken care. There will be a minor impact to the extent of 3 % of the duty i.e.

0.30 % increase in cost where the duty is 10%. The budget mainly aims to target fiscal reforms with focus on Industrialization, Indigenous Manufacture and Infrastructure development. The direction is positive and we have high hopes that the finance minister will revive the economy and more and more people will buy Desktop/Notebook.

Atal Bihari Bhanja FCA, DITL (ICAI) “IT industry being the growth driver has got several benefits in the first Budget of the Modi Government. Some of them are Advance Rulings provisions covered by domestic tax payers, raising FDI Cap to 49% in Defense and Insurance sectors, Rs. 500 crore fund for E-Kranti and Rs. 100 crore fund for Good Governance in the rural sector, VC Fund in the MSME sector with corpus of Rs. 10,000 crores for start-up companies, exemption of all inputs/components used in the manufacture of personal computers from 4% SAD, Cenvat credit allowed if paid service tax amount only mentioned in the invoice.”

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Ashok Chandak, Chairman India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) “India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) welcomes the budget aimed at boosting the Indian Electronics and semiconductor industry. The budget is growth supportive, anti-inflationary as well as committed to fiscal consolidation and reviving growth in manufacturing. We believe the steps outlined for this sector by the Hon’ble Finance Minister and commitment from the industry will put India on the journey of becoming the “Design Led Electronics Manufacturing hub” by attracting investments, promoting entrepreneurship and creation of jobs. The speed and focus of the Minister for Communication & IT and DeitY in capturing industry needs from the electronics sector is very heartening and is a major milestone towards vision of making India an ESDM powerhouse. It is appropriate to say now that, “ELECTRONICS KE LIYE ACHE DIN ANE WALE HAIN.”

Vishal Dhupar, MD, South Asia NVIDIA “We welcome the proposed allocation of INR 7,060 crores by the government for the development of 100 smart cities. The government’s ambition for modernising mid-sized cities will undoubtedly require precision planning and effective disbursement of budgetary funds, and we believe that technology will play a crucial role in enabling this development.

Flawless execution of the Smart Cities vision will require massive computing power to achieve smarter real-time video surveillance, traffic management, emergency response, satellite imagery, seismic modelling, utilities, civic amenities, biometrics and image processing and anti-terror measures. GPU and supercomputing technology can help the Indian government to overcome challenges of costeffectiveness and energy-efficiencies. And, NVIDIA looks forward to supporting the government in its vision of building 100 smart cities.”

Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman Microsoft India “There were five specific priorities that I was looking for to be addressed in this maiden budget by the new Government - ubiquitous use of technology for inclusive growth, enhancing the education ecosystem, promoting a tax regime that is stable and growth oriented, focus on the start-up ecosystem and greater impetus to the manufacturing sector. It is heartening to note that the budget has provided the right direction on these.

Naveen Aggarwal, Partner-Tax (IT/ITes) KPMG in India “The budget seems directionally very positive, even though it may not have addressed the key expectations for the IT-ITES industry. On the policy front, extension of advance ruling mechanism for resident tax payers and roll-back of APA provisions will be embraced by the industry to provide stability and certainty in an otherwise litigious tax environment.

Debasish Mishra, Senior Director Deloitte India “In the power Distribution segment announcement of Rs 500 crore for “Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana” for feeder separation is a good move to improve power supply quality in the rural areas. But the allocation seems to be too little to make any real impact.

Extension of 80IA benefit, (10 year tax holiday) to generation, distribution and transmission of power by till March 2017 is a big positive as it gives the investors certainty. Also as banks to be permitted to raise long term funds for lending to infrastructure sector with minimum regulatory pre-emption such as CRR, SLR and Priority Sector Lending is also positive for power sector.

Anil Valluri, President NetApp Indian & SAARC “It is a well-rounded, directional budget which doesn’t overpromise but tackles important issues. The proposal of a Digital India programme which begins with 500 Crore INR to facilitate pan-India broadband connectivity and eGovernance, encourages indigenous hardware and software entrepreneurship and supports a National Rural Internet and Technology Mission is another big step in the right direction. The strong focus on the SME and start up ecosystem is refreshing. But the highlight of this year’s budget is the focus on use of technology to empower infrastructural projects such Smart Cities.

Kiran Bhagwanani, CEO Dimension Data India “The budget had enough ingredients to stimulate growth in certain sectors of the economy.

Increased focus on leveraging IT for public services will definitely help the domestic IT market in a big way. The major initiatives in this regard are Digital India, one hundred smart cities, national internet and the inter-ministerial e-governance initiative. Focus on reforms to boost investment in infrastructure will definitely have a huge positive impact on the overall market. Another key point in the budget is about skill development that should help us reap the widely anticipated demographic dividend.”

Subhasish Gupta, Country Manager India & SAARC, Allied Telesis “Union 2014 budget is very encouraging as it focusses on infrastructure; IT sectors and hopes to see increase in FDI limit as it would strengthen the Indian rupee. Modi government has outlaid a clear roadmap by allotting Rs 7060 to develop smart cities across India. This would be challenging for the ministers because this is vast, as they have to leverage technology in every part of the cities from core operations to applications. Willing to see new job opportunities in the market and new business in rural areas and hope the government will support Indian economy.”

Jaideep Mehta, VP and GM, IDC South Asia “IDC welcomes the Union Budget as a positive step forward in the government’s efforts to revive the economy and promote economic growth. The emphasis on the infrastructure and manufacturing sectors is particularly welcome as these are foundational for a nation at India’s stage of economic growth. The outlay of Rs. 7060 Crores on Smart Cities will not just push the frontier of urbanisation in India but also create a new set of markets for tech players across the industry spectrum. We estimate a minimum of Rs. 2,000 Crores flowing into the technology sector on the back of this initiative.

The e-governance program to inter-link all ministries and departments is welcomed. New employment and wealth creation opportunities will abound in the start up eco-system with the Rs. 10,000 Crore fund created to boost start ups and SMEs.”

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UNION BUDGET 2014 Salil Parekh - CEO, Application Services Capgemini “The announcements made in Union Budget 2014 are likely to boost growth of the technology sector and also further drive investments. The proposal to integrate all government departments and ministries through an E-platform is a major opportunity for IT players to offer solutions that empower the government to understand the needs of the populace, anticipate them, and to engage better with people.

With this budget, the country is set to witness digital transformation on a massive scale as the finance minister proposes to set aside Rs 7,060 crore to set up 100 smart cities. Additionally with the allocation of Rs 500 crore to set up broadband network in villages and promote local manufacturing of hardware and Indian software products, India continue to a be strategic hub for IT MNCs.”

Koichiro Koide, MD NEC India "We are happy with the Union Budget 2014-15 presented by the new government that focuses on growth and development. The budget depicts the government's effort in promoting the use of new technology and integration of technology across sectors. We welcome government's decisions of allocating Rs. 7,060 crore for development of 100 smart cities and modernization of satellite towns in the country, and an additional allocation of Rs. 3000 crore towards modernization of police departments. This will promote investments in use of modern technology, making our cities smarter and safer. The commitment to develop e-visa facilities at nine airports, and encouraging departments and ministries to be integrated through e-platform by the end of this year further indicates the government's intent to adopt and promote new technology for better governance.”

Deepak Lamba, President Times Centre for Learning “The budget delivered today has set the tone for getting India growth story back on track. The increase in FDI in sectors like Insurance, Defence would kick start the investment cycle. Increased thrust on emerging sectors like e-commerce, healthcare, real estate, etc. would add positivity to business cycle and job creation. Moreover, there has been re-emphasis on education being an area of high priority with announcement of setting up more IIMs, IITs and AIIMs. What gives more credence to the intent of the government is the target for budget deficit at 4.1% for FY15, which would help propel growth in the long term.”

Ravi Swaminathan – MD, AMD India & VP (Sales & Marketing) AMD South Asia “The budget looks very pragmatic and realistic. The government has pledged to support the growth of domestic information technology capabilities in both hardware and software, focused on enabling the timely delivery of citizen services and creating new jobs opportunities, especially in rural areas. The FM talked about Smart Cities and Digital India which clearly speaks about government’s intention to go aggressive in developing the nation by taking help of technology.

It recognizes the role of technology in creating a citizen centric governance framework.”

Subroto Das, Director – South Asia & India WD “As expected, the current government has acknowledged the importance of technology and has demonstrated vigour to promote it for socioeconomic growth. Earmarking Rs 500 crore for broadband connectivity in villages, exempting all inputs/components used for manufacturing personal computers from 4 percent special additional duty (SAD), proposal to develop 100 smart cities, and more such pro-technology initiatives are likely to boost local manufacturing of technology hardware and software. This is important in bringing economic growth, connectivity, and reducing the existing digital divide.”

Edgar Dias, Regional Director, India Brocade “A promising budget with initiatives to enhance connectivity by building infrastructure to bridge the gap between rural and urban India.

The smart cities and digital India programme of the government will ultimately create an economic value for the country by aiming to increase employability and reducing immigration.

Good to see empowerment of the rural areas for businesses to flourish for a speedy economic growth. The measures to boost domestic manufacturing sectors, revive SEZs, support start-ups and set up new industrial clusters are all initiatives towards creating a progressive and advanced India.”

Sunil Khanna, President and MD Emerson Network Power in India “Emerson Network Power believes that this has been a pro-industry budget and the proposal to develop 15000kms of new gas pipelines through PPP will spur growth. Additionally, allocation of funds to create solar power projects across states will help in alleviating the power crisis in the country. Understandably, the focus on implementing the Green Energy Corridor Project will help boost power generation from renewable energy sources. The government’s commitment of providing electricity 24x7 for all households will provide an impetus on maximizing power utilization.”

Dharmesh Panchal, ED (Indirect tax) PwC India “The Union Budget has taken a major step towards certainty in tax legislation by extending Advance Ruling to resident assesses and by providing a forum to address the issues faced by industry. The FM has promised action during the year to resolve various issues for the advent of GST. The Budget has also taken steps to address inverted duty structure for specified sectors, rationalization of duty rates, review of negative list and exemptions for services. Overall, the Budget reiterates the Government’s commitment for tax reforms and clarity in tax legislation.”

Debasis Chatterji, CEO, Netxcell Limited “Overall, a good step forward by FM with a different approach. Certain initiatives taken in this budget by the Govt. are commendable such as - for the first time currency note will be friendly to blinds in India. This budget has a clear map of reducing fiscal deficit. Income tax relief for individual tax payers is a big relief and a tool to tackle inflation. The Govt. has provided a huge boost for personal saving by enhancing PPF from 1 to 1.5 lakh. Initiatives for boosting the manufacturing industry and enabling a good industry network between states will have tremendous impact. In my opinion this was a pro people and pro industry budget with an emphasis on the growth of North East India.”

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BVR Mohan Reddy, Vice-Chairman NASSCOM “Union Finance Minister presented a Good Budget. While there were no anticipated big reforms, the push he gave to infrastructure and housing is very welcoming. The encouragement to startups, entrepreneurship, innovation and incubation is a great initiative and is a high priority area for it will be the engine for employment generation."

Arun Jain, Chairman & MD Polaris Financial Technology Limited “The NDA Government’s Union Budget is reminiscent of Nelson Mandela’s ‘Rainbow Nation’ philosophy, which adopted continuity in the face of volatile relations. The tone of the budget was, in my opinion, smart to wise. The budget signaled to a wide array of segments, with a particular and necessary focus on major infrastructure, as well as relatively low-investment industries. The 15% tax exemption to industries from the Rs. 25 cr range onwards will surely create a conducive environment for startups."

Rajat Jain, Managing Director Xerox India Limited “The maiden budget presented by the new government has been high on intent and has laid out initial steps to kick-start growth, tame inflation, fiscal consolidation, attract foreign capital as well as push through economic reforms. A composite cap of foreign direct investment (FDI) in defense and insurance raised from 26 percent to 49 percent will provide a big relief to the capital-starved private insurance sector and get much needed capital from overseas partners. The requirement of the built up area and capital conditions for FDI is being reduced from 50,000 sq m to 20,000 sq m and from USD 10 million to USD 5 million respectively with a three years post completion lock-in; thereby encouraging development of smart cities.”

Anwar Shipurwala, Executive Director MAIT "The issue on Inverted duty structure by indigenous manufacturers has been taken care of several measures. Special Additional Duty (4%) on all inputs/components used in the manufacture of Personal Computers (laptops/desktops) and tablet computers is being exempted. Duty structure on imported and manufactured computers has been brought at par by withdrawing exemption of CESS (0.3%) on imported computers. The launch of broadband connectivity at village level, with Rs 500 crore allocation is likely to boost penetration and e-governance. The Government has proposed a fund of Rs. 100 crores for setting up virtual classrooms as Communication-Linked Interface for Cultivating Knowledge (CLICK) and online courses."

M P Vijay Kumar, CFO Sify Technologies “For a Government that is just 45 days old, I will say it’s a job well done. This budget has given us visibility on intent and direction. The Government has been very practical in ensuring continuity and making some socially important schemes productive. Secondly, they acknowledge that banks need to be capitalized on priority without which, industry credit needs cannot be met. There is a huge emphasis all through the budget proposals on PPP. Effective governance will result in successful PPP facilitated infrastructure growth. This might also give an impetus to the Smart Cities plan; because eventually these cities would require utilities and connectivity.”

Veerasundar Veluswamy EVP & CFO CSS Corp.

“The introduction of a “Roll Back” provision in the Advanced Pricing Agreement (APA) scheme so that an APA entered into for future transactions is also applicable to international transactions undertaken in previous four years in specified circumstances. This helps reduce long standing litigation affection the IT/ITES industry severely. Introduction of advance ruling for payments made to residents will provide much needed clarity on the taxability of the transaction and avoiding litigation. Continuation of tax rate of 15% on foreign dividends received without any sunset clause will help continue the cash repatriation from foreign arms of India IT/ITES companies.”

Amar Babu, MD Lenovo India “The Modi government’s Budget for the year is positive, encouraging, and includes some much-needed reforms. With a strong focus on infrastructure, connectivity and with the rollout of GST, the FM has given a boost to the economy’s growth momentum, making it easier for businesses to operate. The reduction in Income Tax for the salaried comes as a relief, with a resultant rise in disposable income, encouraging IT purchases. For indigenous manufacturers, the Budget has aptly addressed the issue of inverted duty structure, thus enhancing local manufacturing. Furthermore, with a boost given to e-governance, and the focus on broadband penetration, the Budget has adequately harnessed technology to propel future growth.”

Sanjay Kapoor, Chairman Micromax “Budget is not a one day event; it is a journey to reach Government’s vision for its term. The Finance Minister has made pragmatic choices around available resources and has articulated a road map towards reducing the fiscal deficit and fuelling economic growth. While all of us hope he achieves the ambitious target of containing the fiscal deficit, executing it seems very challenging. His focus on giving fillip to the infrastructure seems exhaustive and he has rightfully protected the common man’s interest in his first budget. While we welcome his stand on retrospective tax policy and intent to finalize GST this year, the current Government has the potential and mandate to take a stronger stance on subsidy and policy."

Altaf Halde MD, Kaspersky Lab -South Asia "The Budget will definitely give a boost to the Information Technology sector with an agenda for promoting Digital India and good governance initiative. Moreover, the focus on Internet connectivity will improve the quality of technology usage in the Indian market and also improve access to services through IT enabled platforms. With increasing Internet penetration, there will be increase in demand for Internet/PC/mobile security. The special focus on supporting new startups to encourage entrepreneurship plus focus on manufacturing sector is a key factor for growth and job creation. Overall, the new Budget will have a steady impact on the Nation's growth."

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UNION BUDGET 2014 Shibu Paul, Regional Sales Director – India, ME and SEA, Array Networks “We appreciate the current developments and congratulate the government's decision to support and allocate funds for Internet connectivity in villages, for development of smart cities across India. The focus on tax rebates for low and middle income bracket and on infrastructure development will boost the growth. This is not sufficient as there is no specific allocation for promoting and implementing eGov projects on a timely manner. Government should concentrate on promoting local manufacturing of IT products and provide specific incentives for IT products and industry.”

G Lakshminarayan, VP -Finance eScan “The Budget looks pragmatic and realistic and was in line with expectations. Defined focus on domestic manufacturing & infrastructure, investment allocations to build Smart Cities & to increase broadband penetration of Indian villages, liberalization of FDI in ecommerce sector, promised actions to finalize GST this year, clarity on transfer pricing along with a collaborative framework to minimize future disputes etc., are all steps in the right direction and indicative of a positive start to a long-term process. To conclude, this Budget is quite optimistic with clear roadmap ahead and it will be quite interesting to track how it plays out eventually.”

Murali Bukkapatnam, President TiE Hyderabad “This budget is one of the most positive budgets for startups and we are delighted to see some very encouraging announcements promoting entrepreneurship in the country.

On one side setting up of Rs. 10,000 crores VC fund will enhance the capital inflow to new startups & SMEs while on the other hand new national accelerators and incubators will boost innovation. It is also encouraging to see that the government is taking steps to spread the seed of entrepreneurship beyond the urban areas by allocating Rs. 100 Crore for Startup Village entrepreneurship for rural population and Rs 14, 389 crore for ‘Skill India’ program.”

Deepak Kumar Sahu, Chief Editor VARINDIA "The strong focus on the SME and start up ecosystem is refreshing. The relaxation of FDI eligibility thresholds aimed at the creation of Smart Cities provides the financial platform for technology-enabled urban regions. The introduction of e-Visas is another example of an entire industry benefiting from the adoption of technology. To sum up, the budget is certainly a first step towards the government’s vision to transform India. The government is committed to providing 24/7 power supply. It has also proposed and assigned crores for the development of small smart cities."

While there is no specific advantages offered in the Union Budget for the IT Distribution and Channel eco-system, TDAI is satisfied that there is an emphasis on consolidation and continuity, which would allow the IT industry as a whole to grow in future. The attempt to bring down cost of components that go into local manufacture of IT hardware would ease the pressure on

manufacturers and is likely to provide a fillip for growth.

TDAI hopes that the government would follow through on its intent to put in place a simple, uniform and transparent GST regime which would act as a single major growth driver and also contribute immensely to ease of business."

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FACE TO FACE

Unparallel Customer Services - another feather added to Lenovo’s Cap Sudipto Ghosh, Executive Director, Services, Lenovo India, in conversation with VARINDIA about the company’s seamless transition of customer services from IBM to Lenovo and the winning of the coveted “Golden Peacock Award”

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enovo believes in going the extra mile, to help raise the bar in creating long-lasting customer relationships. Ever since 2005, customer service as a function was handled by IBM globally.

However, the recent transition of these services from IBM to Lenovo which resulted in the significant increase in customer satisfaction and delight has fetched the latter the prestigious “Golden Peacock Award”.

In fact, Lenovo India is one of the first few regions to have taken this step and showcased desired results.

“The coveted ‘Golden Peacock Award’ for innovation in customer services is a testimony to our growing number of delighted customers across India. Lenovo India bagged this award owing to its seamless transition of customer services from IBM to Lenovo,” says a jubilant Sudipto Ghosh, Executive Director, Services, Lenovo India.

Transition of Services from IBM to Lenovo…

It was a smooth and seamless transition from an IT standpoint, owing to enablement of switch level call routing, which was a strong positive as it had a minimum impact on its customers. However, there were a few teething issues in terms of predicting the additional surge in customer complaints due to the monsoon season, which affects the performance of PCs and other form-factors. This seasonal impact brings a huge number of issues stemming from water logging, electrical fluctuations, moisture and dust which directly impacts the internal components within a PC. “Despite the odds, we were able to rebound within four months of transition and gain the confidence of our customers and business partners,” replies Ghosh.

100 per cent of customers, barring IBM’s captive accounts, have shifted completely to Lenovo customer services. Lenovo caters to over 2.8 million of the installed base across the commercial and consumer segments. “More than a lakh customers contact us every month and we resolve more than 92 per cent of their queries. In the Enterprise space, we cater to key global accounts, large enterprises, education and government organizations. We have industry standard SLAs defined for each of these segments, which helps us resolve customer queries in quick turnaround time,” Ghosh explains.

Sudipto Ghosh Executive Director, Services Lenovo India

The overall foundation for this transition was based on four critical pillars –

Lenovo Services platform has now set a standard in end-to-end lifecycle tracking from a Services delivery standpoint. This model has been implemented in other Asia-Pacific countries. “Our current delivery model and infrastructure is scalable to support new business aligning with our PC+ strategy in terms of growing our presence in the tablets and smartphones market. We have launched Lenovo’s Premium Service and Support for mission-critical customers. We will also launch a Depot service in India, which is a collect and return service where customers can drop a device at specific collection points or carry-in centres. The same will be shipped to a central repair factory where the unit will be repaired and returned to the collection point.

These processes and systems will reduce the backlog and ensure that our customer complaints are quickly resolved,” asserts Ghosh.

• IT systems and CRM capability which comprise of a world-class globally deployed SAP CRM, extended bandwidth of telephone lines, a state-of-the-art in-house contact centre as well as direct IT connectivity with Lenovo’s field and parts vendors.

• A talented team that drove the transition despite the challenges.

• Extensive field services footprint across India, which comprises of more than 40 field service partners who cover the length and breadth of the country offering efficient SLAs to its customers.

• Parts & Logistics which cater to both in-warranty and out-ofwarranty parts planning, delivered through Lenovo’s existing network of 23 warehouses covering most of the state capitals.

This humungous reach has helped it to increase its network coverage across the country, resulting in quicker turnaround of customer queries.

As Lenovo exited the fiscal year 2013-14, Lenovo service delivery was above the standards that had been set by IBM. The turnaround time was reduced as well as increased efficiencies within various verticals in the Services team. Ever since the transition from IBM to

Lenovo, customer and partner feedback has been very positive and encouraging. Lenovo also has been engaging with our partners through regular meets for their feedback and we continuously improvise to set new standards in this industry. n

Going forward…

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FACE TO FACE

Symantec sees tremendous value in investing in committed, capable partners Symantec is one of the world’s largest software companies and an unparalleled provider of security and information management solutions. It has breadth of market-leading information protection and information management solutions for the endpoint and data center and it also owns premium brands across mobile, backup, DLP, security, availability, authentication and hosted services. To know more about the company, its channel strategy and expansion plans, VARINDIA talked to Amitabh Jacob, Director – Channel, India, Symantec. Excerpts:

Security landscape is highly vulnerable as organizations often switch vendors in case of a breach. Do you see that scenario changing soon?

Competition today is what Symantec used to be a few years before.

We looked at the point issues or point products. When we look at solving a specific customer job, replacement is fairly easy, whether it is an antivirus to solve a point issue or a DLP to solve a particular issue.

But when a customer looks at you as a security partner, he wants a partner to initiate right from consulting to protecting his 3 layers that he has and then the ability to manage the same going forward. For customers, we do it with the help of our partners. The moment you look at solving the bigger problems, replacement doesn’t bother us so much.

Tell us something about Symantec Partner Programme, how it would help partners?

We wanted to build a new programme based on the feedback from our partners. Globally, we worked with our partners every step of the way to redesign the Partner Programme, validating with 92 partners from all partner types in 27 countries and with four to five global analysts.

Through the redesigned programme, eligible partners will have access to a more comprehensive enablement portfolio and a host of valuable sales, marketing and technical benefits designed to help them increase customer demand and adoption, speed the sales cycle and accelerate their success.

Do the partners have the chance to promote themselves to expert levels or there are a set of partners who will go to those expert levels.

A number of partners today are doing resell, manage and integrate.

Depending on their focus, in some areas, they may choose, to remain as a principal level partner and not an expert. In some areas which they have heavily invested in, they might decide to move to the expert level because they have the right skills and they focus on a particular vertical where the skill is valuable. So it will be a flavour which is combined. That is one of the best things about the programme. We are not bracketing a partner into one function. He has an opportunity to earn depending on what he does. A few partners might do all the three. Some of our larger partners do resell, manage and integrate and they have an opportunity now across all the three, depending on the solution area that he is focussing on to get rewards, to build competency and to deliver stellar customer experience.

How has the response been from the partner community globally and in India?

The response from partners has been overwhelmingly positive.

Our partners have been involved in shaping the programme, and they see the opportunity that the programme provides.

Do you run training programmes for your partners?

Yes, of course. We have communicated the programme to all the partners and we are conducting training programmes for all our partners directly or through our distribution. That is an ongoing process and we will continue it till October 2014.

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Amitabh Jacob Director – Channel, India Symantec

"With approximately 90 per cent of Symantec’s business in India being partner-led, Symantec sees tremendous value in investing in committed, capable partners to forge deeper relationships with customers that will help them address information security challenges and complexities. The new Symantec Partner Programme (SPP) is designed hand in hand with our partners and adopts a new competency-based enablement framework that includes 12 competencies.

These competencies will enable the partners to solve customers’ information security challenges for enterprises, small businesses and consumers. With this, Symantec together with its partners is confident of making businesses in India more secure and protected. "

Also, partners need not register themselves again. Existing partners can automatically switch over to the new programme. n satinder@varindia.com

FACE TO FACE

“We offer value and innovation to customers globally” Darin Welfare, VP – Sales & General Manager, EMEA & India, WinMagic, talks, to VARINDIA on the encryption market in India and the opportunity for WinMagic to be positioned as a leading encryption brand in this market

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rom a positioning point of view, Data Security is increasingly becoming an important market in India.

One of the key factors driving this market is the new legislations and regulations that mandate a stronger security foundation for organizations. In addition to this, there are also market-specific requirements for security in different verticals, especially in the areas like finance and healthcare sectors. And this is how WinMagic sees a strong opportunity to increase its focus and investments into emerging security markets like that of India.

“We are not new to this segment of Data Security, as we have been in the encryption and security market since 1997, for over 16 years. We offer a global focus and an attention to encryption that no other competitor can offer. Given Encryption to be our only focus (and not firewall, antivirus or malware), we are able to deliver value and innovation to our global customer base,” assures Darin Welfare, Vice-President – Sales & General Manager, EMEA & India, WinMagic.

WinMagic is seeing a good response coming from not only the mid-market and enterprise-level customers but also from its partners. “We cater to all verticals, as data security needs are relevant across every sector today. Today, our customers range from Government agencies and educational institutions, to Retail and Manufacturing and we continue to work with global leaders in healthcare and finance. In the coming years, we will increase our focus on the public sector in new markets,” says Darin.

Data Center Market for WinMagic…

No matter where the data resides – laptops, desktops, tablets or smartphones, WinMagic’s focus and expertise is related to everything encryption – including servers.

Historically, data centers have not been a very large business for encryption vendors, because there has been an attitude to suggest that the most vulnerable points within an organization are going to be the end-points.

There is a belief that data centers aren’t vulnerable because there is no significant risk of loss or theft. However, this isn’t true. The transfer of backup data, unsecured server rooms and lax security all mean they are just as exposed as a desktop or laptop.

“In today’s market, we are seeing an increased demand for server encryption which is relevant for data centers. That is why we bring unique capabilities for this particular market with a technology called PBConnex. PBConnex is a pre-boot network-based authentication solution that

Darin Welfare Vice-President – Sales & General Manager EMEA & India, WinMagic allows for better management and security of servers. In the event of a device when not connected to the network (e.g. if a server is stolen) it will not be able to boot up without its local area network connection.We have offered PBConnex for a number of years now for laptops and desktops and as servers become more important from an encryption standpoint, we’ve ensured support for them as well,” asserts Darin.

There are two keys to how WinMagic differentiates itself from other market players.

First is the PBConnex capability. “When we talk to customers who have already started adopting encryption, a lot of feedback we get is that encryption is highly complex and the user experience is not always great.

We address those complexities with our capabilities by simplifying user experience and the IT management experience,” explains Darin.

Secondly, WinMagic brings this capability of managing security to customers in multiple environments. In a bring your own device (BYOD) era, where security compliance issues are rising, it works to ensure organizations its ability to manage the security of all devices within the enterprise. WinMagic’s goal is to help customers manage everything related

to encryption in their business. So whether it is its encryption solution (SecureDoc), Microsoft’s BitLocker, Apple’s FileVault 2 and native encryption within iOS, the native encryption within Android or hardware encryption with SEDs – everything can be addressed.

In the long run…

This year, WinMagic is also focussed on the growing demand coming from Cloudbased capabilities. There is an increasing risk with customers starting to look at Cloud solutions like Dropbox, Amazon or Google.

WinMagic is, thus, going to have Cloud based solutions in the near future.

WinMagic also has a strategic OEM relationship with HP and Lenovo.

Traditionally security parts always used to be sold through security channel. But now it wants to extend its security offerings through the existing HP and Lenovo partners. So instead of selling just the boxes, partners are provided a platform where they can bundle their devices with WinMagic’s encryption solutions and offer them to their customers as a value addition. n samrita@varindia.com

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FACE TO FACE

Creating a DELL STORM with a unique Channel strategy

From what started as a direct marketing company has today successfully come an inch closer to harnessing the Channel power by having adopted a GTM strategy that clearly puts Channel at the forefront. What is even laudable is the business relationship that it has built all along the way with both its partners and customers that will eventually take the company to the next big level. Dell has, indeed, created a strong channel ecosystem that extends well to business conversion and profitability.

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Ajay Kaul Director & General Manager, North Geo - Dell India "Customer will continue to be the epicenter of everything we do. With the new GTM structure now, we are able to reach customers far & wide with the help of channel partners and also drive deeper engagements in large & complex accounts with a rich solutions stack .

Good news is that the business outcome is depicting growth across all Routes to Market ( RTM) & we are growing exponentially in all lines of business.

Partners are seeing a new Dell & are excited to collaborate. As per them, Customers value Dell, due to a strong brand, superb quality, variety of solution offerings and best in class post-sales support. "

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hen Dell India started its operations 14 years back, it began by keeping in mind certain key strengths that it has – the best of supply chain management, the best of direct selling model and, lastly, products that could be customized as per customer’s requirements.

From there on started a legacy that today supposedly grew into a much bigger entity with its business growing and expansion happening in every single market vertical. To cater to these huge customer verticals, Dell formed four verticals which were – government, education & healthcare, consumer, SMB and, lastly, large enterprise. These four verticals kept on growing quite rapidly and today after acquiring more than 20 companies, as Dell embarks on a new journey, it looks to have a hyper growth by getting into the cities of India where it did not have any presence so far. So it was a twopronged strategy of improving its coverage further and getting into customer businesses where it did not have a deeper presence so far.

There have been both challenges and opportunities all along the way. Because Dell started with a direct model, partners were skeptical of whether this partnership is going to be a sustainable one or not. This is when the whole background change of the Route-toMarket (RTM) strategy necessarily took place.

However, this is a change not at a minute level of simply changing account managers or adding few partners but it is an organizational change where Dell created three routes to market – Dell-led, where the customer relationship is going to be managed by Dell and execution will be kept open for partners (it will enlist pre-dominantly larger and complex accounts), partner-led and lastly distributor-led RTM. In the latter 2 RTMs, every single business that happens will be carried through partners.

Given the intricacy and the magnitude of the project, a pilot project – RoM (Rest of Maharashtra) had also run for almost a year by creating teams that were running businesses in the rest of Maharashtra, including Pune. Dell also had its share of learnings in those couple of months that the pilot was run and has taken into cognizance these learnings while launching a much bigger show at the country level.

Dell has opened more than 30,000 existing accounts to partners in addition to acquiring new ones, which will pave way for a strong business execution through Partners , both from Value & Volume perspective. Besides there will be Inside sales representatives (ISRs) who will be passing on these customer leads to partners by working big time. So if a customer needs a virtualization solution, it knows best which partner to address and the lead automatically goes to that partner. n

Anil Sethi Director & General Manager, Commercial Channels - Dell India “Collective thinking is always better than solo thinking because this brings in maturity and innovation. Secondly, it is always good for a company to change with times. We are known to be the largest start-up. For us, indirect marketing was always there but it is much bigger and committed now. This is going to be the biggest change ever and partners are going to find this quite interesting as we bring in a whole lot of opportunities on to the table. We got to build the trust level with customers and improve in terms of our engagements with them. Opportunities will be there, but it depends on how you go and engage.”

samrita@varindia.com

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Canon EOS 1200D C

anon has made a remarkable effort to explore the DSLR arena with its new and powerful EOS 1200D Kit (EF S18-55 IS II). Packed with a host of smart features and excellent filters, this latest entry from Canon perfectly caters to the needs and requirements of the first time users. It allows the novice photographers to capture sharp images along with super-fine visual clarity. One can shoot photos and videos with a quality and character all of their own. With 18megapixel images from the EOS 1200D, it is large enough to be printed on sizes up to A2+. Videos have a professional look and feel that looks great when played on a home HDTV. Canon EOS 1200D 18MP Digital SLR Camera with 1855mm and 55-250 mm IS Lens is easy to use and delivers results that you will love for sure. Canon 1200D comes with a wide ISO range of 100 to 6400, which can be expanded up to 12,800. This DSLR model offers its users an option to select their choice of expressions either in dark rooms or in bright daylight. Ranging from low sensitivity coverage to high sensitivity, this camera enables users to click blur-free and high resolution photos. Users are allowed to click pictures and even shoot videos with a character and quality of their own. The optical viewfinder of this camera moreover helps users to compose and foresee their shots. The product has friendly controls that are intuitive to use. When you compose a photograph using the EOS 1200D, the camera analyses the scene too, looking for brightness, colour and the presence of movement and faces. This information is used to set the most appropriate camera settings for the scene, whether it's a detail-packed landscape or fast-moving action. A built-in Feature Guide, and supporting app, help you learn more about your camera whenever you want.

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MARKET WATCH

Let’s get Back to School……

…..opportunity beckons It’s that time of the year when corporate anticipate business, kids anticipate joy and parents anticipate rising expenses. From desktops to laptops to printers and tablets, brands present a huge array of products before

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very single business, whether big or small, needs to have a suitable marketing strategy in place as it offers a huge opportunity for marketers to increase their brand awareness and expand their customer

Acer has also trained and supported its partners to address customer queries effectively.

Saji Kumar Director – Product Management, Acer India base. Promotional and marketing strategies are also important for guiding any business into the development of financial goals.

However, for a truly effective marketing strategy, one needs to understand and evaluate its business and its target audience very carefully. Only after that a plan of action comes into the picture. Generally, Return-on-Investment (RoI) is accepted as the key factor by which companies measure their marketing efforts.

It is observed that the year 2013 was a year in which consumers increasingly adopted new technology, search and review tools and social media channels to help drive consumers their path to purchase. India has a significant student population who has a strong understanding and expectation of how technology can enhance their life.

With the start of the new academic year,

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the Back-to-School/ College programmes have also kicked off. The education vertical has been one of the key areas of focus for different companies. Ketan Patel, Director, Computing Category, PPS, HP India, opines, “We believe that the way people are consuming IT is undergoing a massive change and with our ‘Back to School’ campaign we want to empower the new generation of students by making their learning easier, enjoyable and more affordable. HP is now offering the new and advanced Pavilion Premium notebook series designed to fit in with the unique and hectic lifestyle of students. Complete with Beats Audio and HP Connected Music, students can listen to their favourite songs and take advantage of educational features they can enjoy in classrooms like never before.”

Smart brands have already started incorporating new social elements into their marketing strategy and are looking for ways to truly connect and garner engagement from the influential youth market as this kind of campaigns offer a huge opportunity for marketers to increase brand awareness and expand their customer base. Sandeep Aurora, Director, Marketing and Market Development, Intel South Asia, says, “Our focus this year would be to get the student community to realize why this pre-academic season is the best time to buy a personal computing device for themselves. Today, consumers have the option of choosing between a tablet, 2-in-1, a regular laptop, an Ultrabook or regular desktops and Allin-One PCs. With technology innovation progressing by leaps and bounds, the Intel processor-based devices currently available in the market provide better performance and a longer battery life than the previousgeneration devices. Thus, now is the best time for students and college-goers across the country to buy personal computing devices and gain the advantage in their pursuits."

students to choose from. The Back to School campaign is on full swing this season As a part of the Intel “Time for New” campaign which encourages consumers across segments to buy a PC now, the company is targeting the student community especially as they get ready to go back to school. The campaign which is present across multiple media is targeting its young consumers, this season. Besides this, Intel has a strong retail programme that includes activation programmes, retail salesperson

We’ve seen tremendous success in several demand generation campaigns and consumer campaigns in the past.

Sandeep Aurora Director, Marketing and Market Development, Intel South Asia training and advocacy programmes as well as retail merchandising. These initiatives are designed to drive preference and relevance of Intel processor-based devices for consumers as well as help make their purchase decision easier. Sandeep Aurora further adds, “We have seen tremendous success in several

MARKET WATCH

Our devices are becoming smarter and sleeker to help today’s youth cope with performance pressure, while remaining cool and stylish.

Shailendra Katyal Director, HSB (Home and Small Business), Lenovo India demand generation campaigns and consumer campaigns in the past. In fact, during the course of last year, we reached out to over 20 million households in India through a focussed 10-state campaign. Through our flagship programme, ‘My Discoveries’, we also reached out to over 5 million youth in 2013. The My Discoveries programme has also won several industry accolades and awards.”

HP is geared to deliver solutions that address some of the bigger social challenges in the country. This campaign is an extension of their existing focus on the student community. HP is not only providing a Notebook but also other attractive offers bundled with it which makes “Back to College” an exciting offer. The HP Pavilion Series Notebooks come with a 90-day free subscription to HP Videobook, a tool that creates textbooks across subjects, in association with the education boards and

We believe that the way people are consuming IT is undergoing a massive change.

Ketan Patel Director, Computing Category, PPS HP India schools, selecting key subject topics that can be explored further through relevant videos. Presence in the regional media plays a critical role in reaching out to its customers in “C”, “D” and “E” class cities of India. It not only helps build any company’s reach in these markets but also enables a company to engage with customers in their

own language. For the Back to College campaign, HP has an integrated marketing campaign with Deepika Padukone as its brand ambassador, which caters specifically to college-going students.

To engage with school and college students across the country, Acer had launched the “Campus Craze campaign” on its Facebook page. Recently concluded, the campaign required contestants to partake in five activities, viz. school selfie, school yaadein, craziest campus moments bitstripped, college grand masti, and most freaky gang. The players participating in all the five were eligible to enter the final round of activity called Campus Ke Rockstar, where one lucky winner won an Aspire V5 notebook. Acer received phenomenal feedback, with participation from more than a 1,000 number of students. Saji Kumar, Director – Product Management, Acer India, says that targeted towards school/ college students across the country, their “Back to School” campaign has received tremendous response. He is confident of leveraging the opportunity and gaining further momentum

Tips to make a marketing strategy successful: • Work on a realistic forward looking marketing budget • Create a simple yet effective mobile optimized website • Build a Complete & Accurate Listings Presence • Accept and successfully manage negative online reviews • Build effective social media presence • Use previous results reporting to indicate your marketing strategy

in the coming weeks. For this, Acer has also trained and supported its partners to address customer queries effectively and offer more to their customers by identifying and recommending appropriate products from Acer's wide array of offerings.

Keeping in mind the time when holidays are going to over, Lenovo brings innovative form- factors closer to college students with the launch of Flex 2, a budget-friendly 14” two-in-one laptop with a touchscreen that flips 300 degrees from laptop to stand mode.

The perfect style statement for college goers the new Flex 2 promises to transform how students create and consume content on a PC, owing to its user-friendly features and sensible design. Shailendra Katyal, Director, HSB (Home and Small Business), Lenovo India, says, “Our devices are becoming smarter and sleeker to help today’s youth cope with the performance pressure, while remaining cool and stylish. The Flex 2 enables students to work hard and play hard, and at the same time shine in a crowd. Its design and performance is geared towards providing the

user an edge over the others, to help make the most of one’s college years.”

As far as Dell is concerned, in time for the Back to School season, Dell has introduced its new Inspiron 3000 Series laptops, its Inspiron 20 3000 Series and 23 5000 Series All-in-One (AIO) desktops.

P. Krishnakumar, Executive Director & General Manager, Consumer & Small Business, Dell India, adds, “Our endeavour remains to deliver the maximum potential that technology can possess in making both personal and educational pursuits more productive as well as engaging. The new Inspiron laptops and AIO desktops package all the right features into compact devices which are stylish, yet powerful to use thereby not compromising on quality of the work performed.” Combined with special offers for back to school and college students in Dell’s “Learning meets doing” themed campaign, students and parents alike will find that the new Inspiron devices are a smart investment which brings a wholesome computing experience for the whole family.

Dell is also offering vouchers from Bata on the purchase of either of the products and is also offering warranty extensions on AIOs, which are currently in the market.

The bottom line…

The bottom line says that these marketing campaigns are about raising the contour of brands and encouraging customers to buy a company’s products or services. However, one of the critical elements of getting people to buy is trust. Whether any particular product represents quality and luxury, or comfort and value, it is the brand name that encourages buyers to buy particular devices.

Our endeavor remains to deliver the maximum potential that technology can possess in making both personal and educational pursuits more productive as well as engaging.

P. Krishnakumar Executive Director & GM, Consumer & Small Business, Dell India So, these kinds of marketing campaigns should be designed by keeping some vital points in mind like building a brand image, increasing sales of a product already on the market, or even reducing the impact of negative news. n

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FACE TO FACE

GIGABYTE betting big on Gaming motherboards Focusing on gaming motherboards, GIGABYTE is leveraging the vacuum created by the exit of its prime competitor Intel from the motherboard market. Moreover, the company is also keen to set up Service Centres and Exclusive Centres in India. Colin Brix, Deputy Manager, Technical Marketing Department, Service & Marketing Center, Motherboard Business Unit, Gigabyte in his conversation with VARINDIA divulges the big focus of the company for India and the revival of the DIY market What is new at GIGABYTE? We have launched 9 series products. We have very expensive high end to low cost gaming motherboards such as H81, H91 and H97. We try to have as many products as we can fit it to as many regions and end users we have.

GIGABYTE is trying different form factors such as Mini ITX which is a very small motherboard. We have also introduced new system called Brix. These are designed by the server team. We also have gaming versions, motherboards with discreet graphics- NVIDIA desktop graphics, one with Iris Pro graphics known as Brix Pro, some cost effective products using Intel Bay Trial and also have fan less solutions. We tried to evaluate different segments in the market and form factors.

Colin Brix Deputy Manager, Technical Marketing Department, Service & Marketing Center, Motherboard Business Unit, Gigabyte

In how many places does GIGABYTE have its manufacturing We conduct channel partner meets units? regularly focusing more on Class B and C GIGABYTE has its headquarter in Taipei and has one of the manufacturing units here.

Interestingly, we are the only motherboard manufacturing company in Taiwan. It makes our work faster if we remain close to the manufacturing unit. Besides, we also have units in China and Brazil.

What is your focus on the Indian market?

GIGABYTE is planning to invest heavily in after sales services. There is a good focus from HP currently for India market.

Moreover, as Intel has already left the market so we see a growth in the market and for that we are planning a good infrastructure development in terms of Service and Exclusive Centres in India. We have Exclusive Centres in Ahmedabad, Kochi, New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai but in some areas Accel Frontline is providing services for us.

The company has bought a bigger place in Mumbai exclusively for GIGABYTE for an Exclusive Centre with GIGABYTE’s own engineers. Gradually it will be replicated pan India.

What other investments is GIGABYTE planning in terms of Channel engagement? What steps are taken to educate Channel?

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cities. Every quarter, we conduct at least 10 such reseller meets. The main objective of these meets is to engage, educate, and enroll Tier 2 and Tier 3 resellers in the upcountry markets.

For the GIGABYTE 9 Series Motherboards, based on the Intel Z97/H97 chipsets, we had channel launch events in seven India cities in June 2014.

GIGABYTE is focusing on gaming motherboards this year and chalking out plans how to gain ground in the segment. We have already launched some gaming motherboards for that. Indian gaming market however is only 2% of global gaming market.

The company is also intending to invest in development of the DIY (Do It Yourself) market across India. Since the C and D class cities are unable to get quality CPUs, we are planning to organize programs that will educate C and D city people and end users of DIY market .It is still in the initial stage and we are strategizing the move.

What is your focus on Tier 2 and 3 markets?

We have an ongoing online point redemption scheme named GIGABYTE Value Partner Program (GVPP), designed for Tier 2 channel partners. In GVPP, partners get points on the purchase of GIGABYTE motherboards. These points are subsequently

redeemed to get prizes enlisted under the program.

The scheme is open only for registered reseller partners who buy GIGABYTE motherboards from the company’s authorized distributors and GIGABYTE Premier Partners.

To be qualified for this latest scheme, partners have to register themselves on the GVPP Website, on which they have to enter the purchased motherboards’ serial and check numbers to win reward points. As partners will win gifts worth the same amount as the number of points earned by them, more purchases will ensure more prizes. Also, partners can earn more points by purchasing higher end motherboards.

We also run a channel loyalty program under which we take our committed partners to a holiday trip abroad annually.

As per GIGABYTE’s business structure, we have a set of T1 partners and for Tier 2 we can touch any number. T1 are the volume buyers and T2 are System Integrators.

What are the growth objectives of the company. Which segment is supporting the most?

One of the big focuses is gaming as it is a big factor for growth of the motherboard industry. We may see a 3-5% growth and for that the 9 series motherboard range has many gaming motherboards. In 9 series product range there are 12 gaming motherboards. We are hopeful to take market shares from our competitors. GIGABYTE is doing good in terms of growth.

India has always been a price sensitive market. Entry level or value segment contributes around 75-80%. This market is not matured for the high-end motherboards.

Globally, in past couple of years the mid market has decreased a bit and seen growth in high and low end because of tablets and cell phones.

What is the Brand acceptance of GIGABYTE globally and in India?

Talking globally we are at No. 1 or 2 in most regions and in US we are at the third position because Intel is at the top there.

But now that they have exited motherboard business we are trying to get some business from there. n aparna@varindia.com

VAR SECURITY

Ten additional critical Internet Explorer Vulnerabilities: How to stay protected M

icrosoft and Adobe have made a priority of working with companies and finding and fixing vulnerabilities through programs like MAPP. Unfortunately, there are other widely deployed applications that have vulnerabilities. Every year there are more than 5,000 vulnerabilities discovered and businesses need to focus on knowing the risks of running vulnerable software. Unfortunately, these vulnerabilities discovered every day are not discussed enough.

“Why do major software vendors all over the globe keep discovering and patching vulnerabilities in their software?” When asked this way, you realize it goes far beyond the vulnerabilities that receive media attention such as Microsoft. There will always be bugs, or flaws in software, especially when talking about complex applications with millions of lines of code. In most cases they are unintentional, though they can sometimes be planted by malicious insiders or adversaries with access to an organization’s network.

You hear about Microsoft more than others due to how their software is widely used and the impact it has on this large user base.

Not only this, but they are in many ways leading the charge with the Microsoft MAPP program, which many companies participate in, to share the latest information on vulnerabilities to protect customers and the industry as a whole. These vulnerabilities are serious, and all of the ones Palo Alto Networks has discovered for Internet Explorer receive the highest ranking of “critical” by Microsoft, but it is believed that this open and responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities, and the sharing between vendors, is a powerful tool against adversaries.

Critical vulnerabilities in the software used each day represent a huge risk to businesses. Fundamentally, adversaries can exploit these vulnerabilities to gain an initial foothold in a system. This foothold allows advanced attackers to control the system, install malware, and use that as an initial pivot point to move around the network. Typically, stealing intellectual property is their goal, though they can also seek to bring down systems or deface a company’s public presence. From a technical sense, critical vulnerabilities discovered allow “full remote code execution,” meaning, an attacker can execute code of their choice on the system from anywhere in the world.

Oracle's Java is probably one of the widest deployed and most exploited by web attack toolkits. There are often instances of companies using old out of date vulnerable software because the vendor that has supplied hasn't gotten around to fixing it. The only reason why a particular company had a vulnerable version of Java installed on every employee’s computer was due to the vacation request software that required it! This single issue put their entire company at risk of silently being compromised by a web attack toolkit.

Few core concepts to protect an organization • Keep your applications patched and up-to-date. Vulnerabilities generally only affect certain versions of software, and you greatly reduce your attack surface by applying the patches vendors provide, which close these gaps • Employ basic security protections such as IPS/IDS to prevent exploitation of vulnerabilities at a network level. Choose a vendor who has a record of creating and deploying new signatures quickly, and is part of information sharing programs such as Microsoft MAPP • Use Next-Generation Firewall policy as the central control point for your network, safely enabling only the applications you need to run your business, and blocking all others • Have a solution for discovering unknown threats crossing your network, with the ability to prevent them in-line • Join information sharing groups with your peers, to understand breaking attacks affecting others in your industry n

Anil Bhasin MD for India and SAARC Palo Alto Networks

There will always be bugs, or flaws in software, especially when talking about complex applications with millions of lines of code. In most cases they are unintentional, though they can sometimes be planted by malicious insiders or adversaries with access to an organization’s network

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FACE TO FACE

“Xerox never compromises on service delivery” S

ince the invention of Xerography more than 75 years ago, the people at Xerox have been continuously helping businesses to simplify the way work gets done. With its presence in India since 1985 and as the leader in the office automation and document management services, Xerox has been dedicatedly following this practice for almost 30 years now.

In India, Xerox focusses on two businesses: one is Technology & Channels business (T&C) – that deals with sales of equipment and consumables to corporates and SMEs, and the other one is the Global Document Outsourcing (GDO) business that provides Document Management Solutions including Managed Print Services, Communication & Marketing Services and Document Transaction Processing Services for large business houses.

Customer Service Operations supports both these businesses. While GDO is a direct business, T&C business is driven through partners, and the partners become critical to service delivery for Xerox. VARINDIA recently got an opportunity to meet Balaji Rajagopalan, Executive Director – Operations and Lean Six Sigma, Xerox India, to discuss the company’s customer service, supply chain and operations strategy for the Indian market.

Xerox partner ecosystem In the Technology & Channels business, Xerox GTM is primarily through partners.

Working with over 200 partners in India alone, Xerox ensures that the partners are well equipped and strongly supported to win in the marketplace. Xerox has two types of partners – the Sales-only partners and the Sales & Service Partners (SSPs). All these partners are managed by Xerox Partner Business Managers who help the partners in expanding their business through business planning, sales planning, sales support and partner training.

Addressing customer issues on a realtime basis Xerox has a centralized call centre for all direct customer contract, which is a standalone call centre for solving customer’s breakdown calls / queries where it caters to the entire production product, high-end A3 office product space along with warranty management for A4 office devices. Also, Xerox has an innovative system, which directly links customers to the engineers, who can then address the issues the customer is facing. Through this system, within a few minutes of the customer’s call, the engineer gets an SMS regarding the customer’s details as well as the problem. Xerox aligns its field workforce in such a way that the customers are mapped to a specific engineer who knows

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Message for partners Balaji Rajagopalan says, “My message to all the partners is, Service is all about doing the basics right and keep your customers satisfied with agreed resolution with in time line. Do note, customers do not measure averages, they only feel the impact that comes to their business when our machines does not. So it’s important each one focus on the tails of the curve and resolve faster. The business will come on its own.”

Balaji Rajagopalan Executive Director – Operations and Lean Six Sigma Xerox India the operations and the fleet of this customer very well. This helps to build a long-term relationship with the customer and improve overall machine performance with improved uptime. In case of any repeated or unresolved problems, customers can escalate the problem to the Xerox “WE CARE” platform through a phone, email or web. A separate team, which is independent and directly works with Balaji Rajagopalan and the Managing Director of the company, works on this platform. This team, irrespective of any function, attends to the customer’s issues, responds to them, closely loops the issue in a timely manner and takes feedback from customers after the resolution of the problem.

Balaji Rajagopalan expressed his views, “An important element that we need to keep in mind that this involves an investment by the customer and he has many queries – both pre-purchase and post-sale. We provide multiple avenues to our customers so that they can get relevant information including toll-free numbers, web log and e-mail.”

Xerox’s Lean six sigma concept Lean Six Sigma (LSS) is a management concept that focusses on customer’s needs like no other process does. It is like how you can produce more with fewer defects. It is all about eliminating waste and improving the process. 6 sigma means that, in any process, one can have only 3.4 defects for every million output. Lean Six Sigma takes this concept forward to check each and everey work process and incorporates checks like the elimination of waste (non-value adds for customer) and reducing cycle time for products output, over and above reducing defects. It adds the vital dimension of speed and quality to the enterprise’s processes.

LSS work on DMAIC methodology

(Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control). Six Sigma has been around for a while, but Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as a concept emerged in India in 2002-03, and Xerox has been leading it in the industry to continuously improve on our service delivery to our customers and improving internal efficiencies.

Training partner engineers The key thing which even comes before training is, hiring. Xerox has a very clear well-defined method to hire engineers and it applies when we hire engineers for partners too. We concentrate not only to enhance skills of the partners, but we also look for the attitude of engineers. Since it is the engineers who will directly touch the base with the customers, the attitude of engineers becomes critical. Besides training, Xerox has also Webbased and online “Eureka” tool, which is a worldwide knowledge base of over 150,000 engineers, for all the partners and Direct engineers. It is instituted in the Xerox system for over 20 years. Partners’ engineers going to remote areas of the country have direct access to the knowledge base of over 2 lakh engineers with them; they are not alone when faced with any particular problem. They are bound to solve the problem, faster than anybody in the system.

Another platform called “LogMeIn” is also there to help partners in providing secondlevel virtual technical assistance without the specialist visiting the remote location. In addition, Xerox has started the partner net portal giving partner the power of complete visibility of their machines in the field and all the knowledge base for providing remote resolution and training pack for providing training to both engineers and sales force. n satinder@varindia.com

PICK OF THE MONTH

AXIS F Network Camera Series AXIS F Network Camera Series presents a highly flexible, modular network camera series that involves extremely discreet HDTV 1080p cameras with wide dynamic range. The new series is ideal for ATMs (automated teller machines), banks, stores, hotels, as well as rugged environments such as ambulances and police cars. AXIS F series is based on a divided network camera concept, where the camera is split into a lens and image sensor unit, and a main unit. This concept was first introduced in the AXIS P12 Series. The divided network camera concept allows a small sensor unit to be installed discreetly in tight places and the bigger main unit to be placed elsewhere and away from public view. AXIS F Series consists of units that are sold separately. The series includes AXIS F41 Main Unit and four compatible AXIS F sensor units with different form factors and lens types for different field of views. AXIS F41 Main Unit houses the processor, network, power, SD card slot and other connections, and can connect to one AXIS F sensor unit. Each sensor unit, which consists of a lens and image sensor, comes with the choice of a 3-m or 12-m (10-ft. or 39-ft.) pre-mounted cable for connecting to the main unit.

AXIS F41 Main Unit supports the following features:

• Axis’ Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) – Forensic Capture, which enables details from both bright and dark areas of a scene to be visible; ideal for scenarios such as at entrances or in front of ATMs where the subject may be dark against a bright background, or in nighttime situations where the camera must handle low-light environments together with bright lights from vehicles, street lamps, signage and stores • HDTV 1080p video records up to 50/60 frames per second, ideal for capturing fast-moving objects and generating smoother video • Two-way audio • Input/output ports to external devices for enhanced alarm management • RS232 port for integration of external data to the video • Full-sized SD card slot for local storage • Power over Ethernet, as well as the option of connecting to an external power supply • Intelligent video capabilities such as video motion detection, active tampering alarm and downloadable applications through the AXIS Camera Application Platform

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Panasonic foresees growth in Security space in India Prasenjeet Bhattacharyya, Business Head, Security and Mobility, Panasonic India discusses the trends in surveillance industry and growth opportunities at length with VAR India.

I

n the past few years, security has gained momentum in India as it has suffered from various acts of terrorism, crimes and data thefts which have led to its growing demand. With focus on building a holistic and secure environment, the paradigm of security is moving from just device security to guarding of assets with enlarged alertness of threat management while keeping in mind the reputational cost.

The Indian security market is already undergoing major developments from sectors such as city surveillance, public transport, hospitality, airport security, BFSI and retail. The market trends also show that verticals like small and medium enterprises (SMEs), small and medium businesses (SMBs) and small office home offices (SOHOs) are the major segments driving the growth of security and surveillance products in India.

Switch from Analog to Digital The Indian market for surveillance and CCTV is fast changing with new technologies being introduced coupled with the technological advancement being more towards software-based solutions than hardware-based. The latest technology expected to dominate this space is the network or IP camera. These cameras stream live video via digital packets across and internet protocol network such as LAN (Local Area Network) leading to video streams which can be accessed remotely via smartphone, tablet or other network devices. Emerging demands for such security equipment would further encourage better technology.

Channel opportunities With the growing security demand from the SOHO and SME segments, the channel plays a larger role in marketing the concept.

The need is to develop the solution selling approach with the customer’s need and move away from the passive seller to the active one with value addition in terms of larger product portfolio and reach. Since there are lesser entry barriers in the Indian security industry with players coming from IT, electrical, automation and core security

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areas, it would be challenging to address all of them.

Brand positioning Panasonic has always believed in providing value and cutting-edge technology solutions to its customers. The research and

Prasenjeet Bhattacharyya Business Head, Security and Mobility Panasonic India

development team is constantly analyzing the market trends and the needs of the consumer through their buying behaviour. Panasonic’s strategy has always been focussed in proving satisfaction to their customers. The company will cater to the industry's portfolio of reliable, integrated security solutions, arming professionals from government, enterprises, schools, healthcare facilities and other organizations with the situational awareness necessary to make timely, actionable decisions that put safety first. With the introduction of the latest security and video surveillance technologies, the company continues to expand the capabilities of the security solutions portfolio to help protect people, property and assets across the world with the state-of-the-art technology solutions that meet their operational needs.

Growth continues…

Panasonic foresees a huge growth in

the Indian security space, the market for electronic security equipment is still largely untapped and under-served as there is need for greater awareness about the installation of electronic security equipment and associated benefits.

As per a recent report, the electronic security market in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of 24.0% during FY’2013FY’2018.

Government bodies, financial institutions and private organizations are enhancing their budgets for video surveillance and network security systems. Other than this, the growth is also expected on account of the growing urban population, improved residential, commercial and industrial construction and rising GDP of India. The escalating alertness about benefits of the electronic security equipments amongst the Tier-I, Tier-II and Tier-III cities of the country will encourage players in the electronic security market to expand their centres across the potential markets in India. n aparna@varindia.com

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Affordability is helping Gionee to connect with customers Gionee has been doing really well globally and stands among the top 10 brands. On entering India last year in February 2013, it had set its goals and wanted to become one of the most sought-after brands in India as well. A year later, it is observed that Indian audiences have been very responsive towards the brand and its activities. It has been doing great business and already has around 2 million satisfied customers. Now, it has a plan for opening 250 brand stores and 2,000 shop-in-shops in the coming year and is targeting a 5-per cent market share by FY 2015. Having a discussion on the marketing trends and company’s expansion plans, Arvind Vohra, India Head, Gionee Smartphones, shares his views with the VARINDIA team. Edited excerpts:

G

ionee is, at present, completely focussing on the smartphone market and trying to excel in the space. We have no current plans for the tablet market at present

Is the Phablet concept picking up among Indian customers? Will Phablets substitute smartphones in the near future in your opinion?

Phablets are generally smartphones with a larger screen size typically between 5.1 to 6.9 inches which is a hot favourite nowadays with the young crowd. Larger screen size leads to better viewing and presentation which is a preferred choice for surfing the internet, reading, gaming and watching videos and movies. The phablet market is gaining pace, but I will not say that it will substitute smartphones anytime soon. A good 90 per cent of the market comprises of smartphone users and a 4-inch to 5-inch will continue to be the optimal screen size for the users.

this section of customers? How do you plan to tap the feature phone market?

Gionee has been manufacturing smartphones to keep up with the demands of the “masses”. We have been devising marketing strategies and product launches keeping in mind the price factor. All our phones are high on looks, design, technical aspects, but we have always kept our pricing affordable which, I think, has helped us make the necessary connect with the audience.

For our feature phones, we have mainly focussed on the key aspects like the battery performance and durability which offer the consumers the ease of using the basic features.

What is your strategy around support?

Customer support is an important factor for any business to flourish. Gionee plans on opening 750 service centres and is working towards a service turnaround time of 72 hours.

How much of your sales come from the Channel, Retail and What are your future plans for e-commerce media? Which one Indian mobile device market? is flourishing for you at present?

India is the second-most important We only sell through our retail and channel partners and are currently not selling officially through any e-commerce portal in India. The channel has been very successful in driving impressive sales for us and our own e-store gionee.co.in/estore also complements our sales.

Arvind Vohra India Head Gionee Smartphones

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India being a price-sensitive market and more than half of the population of the country comprising of “masses”, what is your strategy to connect to

market for us after China. We will be introducing new products with better specifications and great features. We plan on penetrating into the regional market by introducing new phone models with regional languages like Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Punjabi in our mobile phones from September onwards. We are also working towards a strong distribution network and a service turnaround time of 72 hours and are targeting at opening 250 brand stores and 750 service centres. n satinder@varindia.com

VAR MOBILITY

Asus ZenFone 5 The Asus ZenFone 5 has a 5" HD IPS display. The screen has a resolution of 1,280 by 720 pixels, making it a 720p screen HD screen with the pixel density of 294 ppi. ZenFone 5 runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with Asus’ latest ZenUI and can be upgradable to Android 4.4 KitKat. ZenFone has introduced ZenUI, a sublime new user interface that’s exclusive to ASUS smart devices. With simplified icons and menus, a selection of themes beautifully designed to match the device colors and a clever What’s Next feature that helps users keep track of their lives, ZenUI is the irresistible front end of these irresistible new devices — and proof that fantastic functionality can have a friendly face. This phone is powered with Intel Atom Z2560 dual-core processor with Intel HyperThreading Technology clocked at 1.6 GHz. The Intel Hyper-Threading Technology uses processor resources more efficiently, enabling multiple threads to run on each core. It also increases processor throughput, improving overall performance on threaded software. The Asus ZenFone 5 packs an 8 MP f/2.0 camera with PixelMaster. PixelMaster is a unique ASUS-developed technology that combines software, hardware and optical design to deliver incredible image quality. With PixelMaster, the smartphone can produce professional quality photos and, best of all, it's with you all the time so you can capture every moment. It has 1 GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. ZenFone 5 colors represent a trendy and urban lifestyle. It is available in an array of striking colors-The white of exquisite porcelain, the black of a modern leather couch, the red of a shimmering velvety dress, the gold of a mega city's shimmering lights, and the purple of the skyline-framing night.

OptimaSmart 45Q OptimaSmart 45Q phone comes with 4.5” QHD display and Dual Sim support. It runs on 4.2 Jelly Bean android. 45Q is powered with 1.3 GHz Quad core processor, and 8 megapixel camera with flash and 2 MP front camera. It has WiFi and Bluetooth. It also supports popular Google applications. The company is targeting the college students and young and mid-level professionals in the age group of 18-30and also in Tier 2 cities. 45Q comes with 3G, it has 1GB RAM and 4GB internal memory and has the capability to support up to 32 GB expandable memory. This phone is available in two colours – Black and White. The phone is sleek, light weight and comes with magnetic leather case for protection. Equipped with an 8 megapixel front camera, this phone is ideal for taking high resolution pictures. The 2MP front camera enables good quality video and Skype chats. 45Q comes with 1500mAh Battery for better battery backup.

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VAR MOBILITY

BlackBerry Z3 Smartphone launched in India

A

fter sparking some speculation over its price in the Indian market, BlackBerry Z3 smartphone is finally here to woo audience. The first phone to have come out post its partnership with Foxconn, it is priced

on-the-go along with best smartphone experience.

“The new BlackBerry Z3 offers consumer engaging user experience with all the features of BlackBerry 10 combined in one powerful smartphone. It is the

at Rs.15, 990. Featuring BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2.1, the new all-touch BlackBerry Z3 smartphone comes with a beautiful 5” display and a long-lasting battery. It is designed for the nextgeneration customers and offers them connectivity

ultimate smartphone that gives users more ways to connect, share and communicate, The BlackBerry further strengthens our commitment to enhance our devices portfolio,” said Sunil Lalvani, MD for India, BlackBerry.

Spice introduces Stellar 600 with Android KitKat

S

pice Retail Limited has unveiled its first Android KitKat-based smartphone, the new Spice Stellar 600. The classy look of this Quadcore handset and the majestic 15.24 cm Edge to Edge QHD IPS Display gives it a distinct style quotient and an edge over its competitors. The smartphone packs a punch with its other superlative features including Free Utility Dock which has a Four-in-One Stylus pen – multi-use stylus pen and phone stand inside the box, 3G video calling, G Sensor and Smart Flip cover. Spice Stellar 600 gives access to 2GB Free storage on Spice Cloud that enables the users to access data on multiple devices.

The new smartphone is available exclusively for the customers on HomeShop18.

Spice Stellar 600 ü Android 4.4 KitKat ü 15.24 cm QHD IPS Capacitive Touch ü 1.3 GHz Quad

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Core Processor ü Four in one stylus pen ü 2500 mAh Battery ü Android 4.4 KitKat ü Dual-SIM (3G + 3G) ü 8 MP + 3.2MP Camera ü 4GB ROM + 1GB RAM ü Wi – Fi/Wi-Fi Tethering ü Bluetooth 4.0 ü 3G HSPA + ü Pre-embedded apps ü Expandable up to 32GB ü GPS/AGPS ü Free Smart Flip Cover.

Commenting on the launch, T. M. Ramakrishnan, CEO – Devices, Spice Retail Ltd, said, “Stellar 600 is for those who dream big. With a large screen size and running on the latest Android version 4.4 KitKat, it is a powerdriven device in terms of its processor and expandable storage (up to 32GB). At Spice, we believe in catering to consumers’ needs and aspirations and the Stellar 600 is yet another potent effort from us in exceeding consumer expectations."

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HTC rolls out two new smartphones

H

TC has unveiled two new handsets HTC One (E8) and Desire 616 dual-sim.

HTC One (E8) is a lightweight device which is a vibrant twist on HTC’s iconic flagship design, HTC One (E8). Designed to attract the fashionconscious, HTC has introduced new materials and bold, stylish colours to the latest member of “One family”. Complete with Motion Launch, HTC BoomSound, and incredible imaging capabilities, thanks to the 5MP front-facing and 13MP rear-facing cameras, the HTC One (E8) exudes originality without compromise.

Jack Yang, President, HTC South Asia, said, “The HTC One (M8) had set a new smartphone standard and now we are taking it in another exciting direction.

Combining style and substance, the HTC One (E8) represents the incredible experience people expect from a HTC One device with a look and feel that is unlike anything else out there today. If you are looking for the best flagship smartphone experience, but want to stand out from the crowd, this is the phone for you.”

HTC Desire 616 dualsim smartphone with 1.4 GHz Octa-core processor makes the latest addition to the HTC Desire family. It brings effortless HD video creation, consumption and superior graphic capabilities to the mid-segment market.

Fusing a sophisticated design with a powerful Octa-core processor, HTC BlinkFeed, and Video Highlights, the latest addition to the HTC Desire family, makes some of the celebrated HTC One series’ most popular features.

Samsung strengthens Galaxy Portfolio with K zoom

S

amsung Electronics has launched its new smartphone with a specialized camera, the Samsung Galaxy K zoom. The smartphone is equipped with unique features like effortless

Asim Warsi, VP – Marketing, Mobile & IT, Samsung India, said, “Equipped with excellent image processing apps, new Galaxy K zoom enables users to swiftly capture and share their

capturing ability, real optics and a premium design, providing users the mobile solutions they need with the ability to create professional quality visual content in a fun, easy-to-use device.

memorable moments with ease.”

Galaxy K zoom smartphone has a 12.2cm (4.8”) HD super Amoled touchscreen display and is equipped with Android 4.4 KitKat OS.

Karbonn eyes Tier-II & -III cities, enters budget smartphone category

K

arbonn has forayed into the affordable KitKat OS platform with its cuttingedge Karbonn Titanium S99 Android Smartphone.

Launched at an affordable price of Rs.5,990/-, the Karbonn Titanium S99 brings fast and smooth Android experience via the evolved KitKat OS which is the most refined Android OS ever. Faster multitasking, rapid processing and great user feedback are the USP of the device.

“The advantages of using Android OS, 4.4 KitKat takes system performance to a whole new level by offering better memory management. It provides all-in-one solution to user’s communication needs by providing upgraded Hangouts App supported with improved

SMS & MMS integration.

Hot “Ok Google” feature predicts information based on user’s location, favourite sites and TV programmes. It includes a variety of new features like Smarter Caller ID, faster multitasking, low-power location monitoring, redesigned downloads app and easy home screen switching, to name a few,” says Sudhir Hasija, Chairman, Karbonn.

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