November Magazine Issue 2014

NetApp builds a Hybrid Cloud Foundation

VOLUME 3

ISSUE 16

NOVEMBER 2014

WD expands “Purple” line of hard drives

PRICE Rs. 50

www.varindia.com

November 2014

1

2

November 2014

www.varindia.com

www.varindia.com

November 2014

3

4

November 2014

www.varindia.com

Seagate supports the Microsoft Open CloudServer 2

Google announces creation of ILIA

Office Automation Industry the Next Big Thing In forthcoming December 2014 issue...

VOLUME 3

ISSUE 16

NOVEMBER 2014

PRICE Rs. 50

SUBSCRIPTION COPY NOT FOR SALE

A New, Refurbished “Avatar� for the Structured Cabling Market 32pg

HP announces Servers based on ARM Architecture

H

P has announced two ARMbased servers, including the first enterprise-class 64-bit ARM-based server.

Additionally, HP is making available a production-ready platform to enable software developers to develop, test and port applications to the 64-bit ARM-based server.

Part of the HP ProLiant Moonshot portfolio, the new servers underpin a major milestone in designing the next-generation infrastructure platform, which addresses IT demands with a vast pool of processing resources that can be located anywhere, scaled to any workload and available at any time.

Microsoft eyeing Indian Data Center market

M

icrosoft has now decided to invest an amount of Rs 1,400 crore for setting up three data centres in the country. For this, the company has already started working on it and according to some sources, the data centres will be located at Mumbai, Pune and Chennai.

Here it is worth mentioning that Microsoft CEO Satya N a d e l l a visited India in September 2014.It is reportedly said that Microsoft is targeting the customers in the banking and telecom industries, which has data sovereignty concerns. As per a recent report, in 2013-14, Microsoft earned Rs 2,261 crore from India and is the fastest growing cloud markets globally, with 2,000 customer additions each month.

Microsoft is also in talks with telecom companies to connect large enterprises directly to their data centres, which will ensure faster as well as reliable bandwidth.

www.varindia.com

November 2014

5

6

November 2014

www.varindia.com

www.varindia.com

November 2014

7

HELLO INDIA

Time to transform the Business to Cloud T

he drive for mobility is part of the business technology agenda for most companies today.

With “Make India Digital” being the topmost priority of the Government, there is a positive wave across the globe for investing in India. Many enterprises have also geared themselves up to adopt newer technologies like being part of social media with network automation and Machine-to-Machine (M2M). Challenges like cyber bullying which is increasing day by day and safeguarding the business from the ever-increasing security risks is becoming very critical.

Secondly, mobile technology allows companies to have an unprecedented level of connectivity between employees, vendors and customers. Internet of Things (IoT) is yet another facilitator. It is expected that IoT may provide an opportunity for hardware-based security providers. With internet penetration of 11%, foreign retailers have found a huge opportunity in the Indian e-commerce space despite several challenges they face. The revenue has also grown exponentially over the past one year.

This is, indeed, the right time for the Government to evaluate the predatory pricing strategy that is being used by e-marketplaces.

Lastly, because of the interactive nature of mobile technology and the general perception that security breaches are caused by external sources, there is no denying the fact that external sources indeed pose a grave threat. But, at the same time, it will be in the best interest of enterprises not to ignore internal sources. Threats from internal sources are probably more than external sources since they have easy access to critical information.

Going forward, the Internet of tomorrow will be more powerful, connected and intuitive. The growth of cloud computing and mobile devices in the workplace has intensified the frequency and complexity of potential security threats in enterprises. Nearly 75% of Indian enterprises expect an increase in information security spending. To capitalize this and seeing a $2 trillion promise in India's cloud market, Microsoft has decided to invest Rs.1,400 crore on setting up three data centers in India. CISCO has also planned to invest $1.7 billion investment in India towards large government projects, smart city, digital India initiatives in the country. Besides them some top cloud players have also shown keen interest in setting up data centers in India.

The recent Star Nite Awards event witnessed discussions in the Tech Talk session on various key topics. In due course of the discussions, it was found that with the help of Make-in-India project, India can be transformed into a global manufacturing hub. Suggestions also deliberated on why important establishments like Defense and the Telecom sector should be discouraged from using Chinese products, and the Government should make more spectrum available for commercial use for achieving the aim of making the “Digital India” project a mega success.

Thanks again for voting in choosing the best vendors in the country.

S. Mohini Ratna Editor, VARINDIA mohini@varindia.com

Where do you see yourself three years Please talk about your accomplishments from now? in the industry?

I have been a channel veteran in the Indian IT industry, setting up Distribution & Channel Partner Network in the fields of Data Network Equipment, Network Security, Data Peripherals, Communication Equipment and Video Surveillance. I have helped customers migrate from Analog Video Systems to Network Based Video systems with my current stint at Axis. We have marquee installations done through our Channel Partners solving various business challenges through our Network cameras. I along with my team have developed a robust Distribution and Channel partner network in India & SAARC and rolled out the Global Channel Partner Programme for Juniper Networks in India & SAARC Markets.

What kind of a relationshi p do you enjoy with the Channel fraternity?

Most of my stints have been involving working closely with the Distribution & Channel fraternity in India & SAARC. So I enjoy good working relationship with the leading Channel organizations in the region.

Majority of my time in my roles – current and past – has been on the setting up of Distribution & Channels to reach to the market effectively.

8

November 2014

www.varindia.com

Three years down the line, I would like to do something on an even more large scale and help grow Axis to its next stage in the growing Network Camera & Network Video Surveillance market. On a personal front, I will also put more time and effort for a social cause and will also spread spiritual awareness and transform people to even better individuals.

Besides IT, what are your other areas ofinterest?

I am a renowned amateur theatre artist and actively perform and contribute in the field of Yakshagana. Yakshagana is a theatre form that combines dance, music, dialogue, costume, make-up and stage techniques with a unique style and form. I also love to read books during my free time. If I wouldn’t have been part of the IT industry, I would have aspired to be a Yakshagana artist, having my own troupe performing all round the world. I associate myself with spiritual organizations and spend time for social causes. I conduct workshops and deliver discourses on topics like Power of Subconscious Mind, Yoga/Yogic healing Therapies and other spiritual topics helping in the transformation of people. n

Sudhindra Holla Country Manager, Axis Communications India & SAARC

Sudhindra Holla leads Axis Communications’ operations in India, driving business strategy, in addition to overlooking sales and marketing verticals. Prior to Axis, I was the Head of Channels – India & SAARC for Juniper Networks India. During my stint with Juniper, my focus was on building and developing a robust channel strategy to drive growth in revenues. Prior to that, he was with MROTEK in roles of Product Management, Business Development & Sales, driving business for Niche IT Product & Solutions and MRO-TEK’s own range of Network Connectivity products in India and parts of SE Asia.

He also had stints with Wipro, Powertel Boca and Godrej & Boyce EBE Division in roles of Technical Support, Product Management and Business Development.

www.varindia.com

November 2014

9

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 Executive: Manish Kumar 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 Marketing Manager: Shubhendu Nanda Correspondent: L. G. Swami D-103 G.F., Ashish JK Apartments Thubarahalli Extended Road Bangaluru- 560066 Tel: 08049530399 Mobile:08904205750/9916134482 E-mail: shubhendu@varindia.com, swami@varindia.com Mumbai: Bureau office Regional Manager (West): Anil Kumar Sr. Correspondent: Mamta S. Anurag Residency, 203 - “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.

For Subscription queries contact: info@varindia.com Subscription: Rs. 500(12 issues)Rs. 1000 (24 issues) All payments favouring:

KALINGA DIGITAL MEDIA PVT LTD

© All rights are reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. (1999-2014) * All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi only.

10

November 2014

www.varindia.com

!"# $

%

!! "

& ' ("# %

)

)

www.varindia.com

November 2014

11

Customer needs driving Ricoh’s Business Diversification

From having diversified its business from its core businesses of printing and imaging to communication and IT services, Ricoh as a brand has come a long way.

Manoj Kumar, Executive VP & CEO, Ricoh India, speaks to VARINDIA on how this has been made possible by working as a team and what they look forward to in 2015

A

few years back, Ricoh was dealing in products such as multifunction printers, printing products and services & solutions. But, in due course of time, Ricoh came up with additional products and solution offerings which would complement with what it has already been doing to emerge as a one-stop solution provider and take care of every need which a customer may have in the office space.

“It has been a logical expansion and a cautious decision for Ricoh to diversify its core business competencies and make a foray into communication solutions. Printing and imaging is a way to capture and distribute information but communication solutions become another way of sharing information. Another reason is that we are an expert in printing solution and IT peripherals but venturing into IT solutions truly complements our core business. We believe in integrating our printing and documentation expertise with IT services,” explains Manoj Kumar, Executive Vice-President & CEO, Ricoh India.

Customer need remains Ricoh’s prime focus and through these extended solutions with its core business, the company is able to add greater value to what a customer wants to take.

All geared up for 2015 2014 has been a good year for Ricoh, as they have emerged as the market leader with 23.5% market share in copier-based multifunction printer and 30% market share in Laser printer. In the last three years, Ricoh has grown from Rs.300 crore to Rs.1,042 crore. Its CAGR in these three years has been 50% and in the last one year the growth has been 65% over the previous year. The growth in the past year has come from Production printer, Laser printer and copier-based multifunction printer. Today, Ricoh has managed to become one of the top IT service providers in the country with national presence.

The printing industry is growing, but the customer needs are changing. Customer’s interest and focus is shifting to digital as the digital commercial printing market is rapidly developing in India with an annual growth of over 12%. However, offset and digital printing will coexist because there are different markets for each of these.

"The quick response that a customer gets through digitization and the quality of print are some of the things which are driving customers towards digitalized printing solutions. As more and more people are getting conscious about environment, future demands will be for green or eco-friendly solutions," says Manoj.

There is a huge market potential which exists now in the country by virtue of the change in the dynamics of the market. For 2015, Ricoh has taken a strategic decision to focus on certain key industry verticals such as education, manufacturing, healthcare and BFSI. In addition to this, the focus will also be on specific vertical approach and communications solutions such as projectors, unified communication solutions and interactive white board. Ricoh’s go-to-market strategy for the new year would revolve around vertical approach and customizing solutions as per the requirement. n samrita@varindia.com

12

November 2014

www.varindia.com

Manoj Kumar Executive Vice-President & CEO Ricoh India New product line from Ricoh….

• Ultra-Short Throw Projectors – This product allows the projector to take lesser foot space and can project images from just 4 inches from the screen • Unified Communications – Ricoh has recently introduced the first-of-its-kind product for video conferencing anytime, anywhere. Compact size and lightweight, this innovative product connects easily through Wireless LAN support • Ricoh Interactive White Boards – With Ricoh’s Interactive white boards customer can open their Diagrams / Presentations on to the “Interactive Panel”, make notes on the interactive panel, save the changes and e-mail it directly to the participants, or share the file over the LAN / WAN (intranet). Ricoh White Board also allows up to 20 participants to connect remotely over the intranet Device Management – Ricoh’s New Business Interest Device Management is an important tool in Ricoh's Managed Document Services (MDS) program, which focusses on the total cost of ownership (TCO), business process improvement, security and compliance including environmental sustainability. Ricoh stands out with a solution which meets the requirement of an SME with single location and 20 installations and even a billion dollar multinational corporation which is operating across 140 countries with 2,000 offices with 15,000 devices Device Manager is one of the most innovative devices from Ricoh, which puts control of an entire device fleet in the hands of the customer. The Device Manager empowers an IT Administrator to easily and efficiently manage their entire fleet of networked devices from one central computer. Further, with the help of versatile products and solutions in their overall basket, Ricoh can offer total print / document management solutions to all customers

www.varindia.com

November 2014

13

CHANNEL CHIEF

Simplicity, Profitability and Innovation – driving HP Channel As a market leader in Managed Print Services, HP gains easy access to its SMB customers. But the route they follow is the Channel. Gurpreet Brar, Director, Commercial Sales, PPS HP India, speaks to VARINDIA on the various new initiatives for its Channel that HP has at present and how it leverages these programs to get the best out the partners serving its customers

H

P is committed to its channel partners and it is this commitment that gets manifested in the channel enablement programs it implements that continuously focusses on opening new opportunities for growth and increase partner’s profitability.

“As a market leader in Managed Print Services (MPS), HP has strengthened its ability to deliver services and solutions through its channel partners directly to SMB customers. With Partner MPS, HP is not only delivering excellent print management to SMBs, but also strengthening the relationships it has with its channel partners – a major driver of success in our business,” says Gurpreet Brar, Director, Commercial Sales, PPS HP India.

Customers want services, solutions and support to help them manage their print environment. More importantly, customers want long-term, strategic partnerships with a vendor that can provide a comprehensive solution. HP Partner MPS enables its channel partners to sell to customers in new markets, helping optimize, manage and improve existing print environments for a new set of customers.

Continues Gurpreet, “In my role overseeing the commercial channel for HP PPS India, I am responsible for working closely with our commercial channel partners to develop strategies and plan for their mutual growth. I am also responsible for planning and expanding the SMB business in the country, which again helps HP grow together with our commercial channel. My team and I have the onus of driving channel expansion and marketing programs to increase the market reach. We liaise and work closely with the partners, VARs and ISVs and their product and sales teams for various business growth needs. Our key mandate is to ensure that all our partners have a profitable and consistent business growth with us.”

HP takes pride in its extensive channel network to provide reliable, high-quality products and solutions. HP India’s strong geographic model ensures that customers from every part of the country can have access to the company’s products and services.

The company believes if the channel is happy and profitable, the brand will always have potential in the market. “From a product standpoint, we have best-in-class products and new product lines to meet the market needs. While the youth segment continues to drive demand for new consumer notebook PCs and tablets, SMBs and enterprises look for a trusted partner to provide productive, reliable and secure solutions,” remarks Brar.

An innovative Channel engagement strategy HP’s channel engagement focusses on three pillars – simplicity, profitability and innovation. This also encompasses “ease of doing business for partners”, with HP introducing programs which enable partners to enhance their profitability. In order to maintain cordial relations with partners, HP is running the “Pay for Result” program, through which HP promotes partners to conduct linear business in a quarter by paying additional incentives under the “Linearity” program. Its deal registration system is also an existing process, but HP is now making it more powerful and transparent for its channel partners. “As part of ROE 1.0 (Rules of Engagement), we map the names of partners from erstwhile printing and personal system sectors against each account to ensure smooth transition by eliminating the scope for overlap. Therefore, if there is a new partner working on a particular account, our account managers will already know who the channel partners working on it are,” sums up Gurpreet.

14

November 2014

www.varindia.com

Gurpreet Brar Director, Commercial Sales, PPS HP India

Message to Partners

“Our focus is to help partners keep up with the changing IT landscape by offering solutions for the four mega trends, i.e. cloud, security, mobility and big data. Consumers and business customers demand innovative technology that not only meets their needs, but seamlessly fits into their working style and lives, whether they are in the boardroom or socializing. We enable our partners to serve their customers in the best possible way by offering complete end-to-end solutions right from devices to the cloud.”

HP has driven many partner incentive initiatives along with training programs for channel partners in the past too. With its conscious efforts to help partners grow, its partners can expect some more exciting, beneficial programs from HP in the near future as well. In order to keep affinity with its partners, HP makes sure that they are being constantly valued and introduce a "go-to-market" strategy with a certain amount of consistency and methodology. n samrita@varindia.com

www.varindia.com

November 2014

15

ROUND ABOUT

Wikipedia and Kishori Mohan Ganguly M

any will ask a question as to what is the connection between the world’s largest digital encyclopaedia – Wikipedia – and Kishori Mohan Ganguly (KM Ganguly). It is a legitimate query since many will not know Ganguly who translated the first authentic version of The Mahabharata from Sanskrit to English, way back in 1883 and finished only in 1896. I hope one will realize the emotional link between the two, as you go on reading this piece.

Wikipedia, undoubtedly, opened a new chapter in information sharing. Not only that, it provided a platform for everyone to contribute their knowledge for the common good by enabling them to edit pieces displayed in the Wikipedia. Is Wikipedia the first of its kind which allowed free expressions by the people? It is true that it is the largest-ever platform attempted by man in the digital media. But I cannot agree that it is the first-ever produced by mankind to capture everyone’s views and perceptions. Here, I want to add a caveat before coming out with my views.

Civilizations always gave people the freedom to interpret events as they occurred to them, of course in the light of newer evidences.

There were no restrictions on them to follow a particular line of thought. That is quintessence of pluralistic thinking. In a way, the concept of Wikipedia is evolved on that basis. Free thinking, fearless interpretations, bold ideations, etc are part of human history.

A peep into the growth of social networking is revealing. Incremental innovations have come at regular intervals. Web-based Wikipedia was posted on the net in 1995. The precursor to the Wikipedia was Apple’s Hyper card, which had only limited social networking avenues.

Towards the end of 1990s, blogs had become operational. The major innovation was in 2004, with the advent of Facebook, which brought people together to share their views. The next major developments were Twitter, LinkedIn, Skill Pages, etc which take care of certain segments of people.

These are all marvellous achievements. But social networking platforms are not new in their essence. There were such forms that continuously improvised and edited the literature and the great works from time immemorial. Let us take The Mahabharata and The Ramayana. There are many versions of The Mahabharata and The Ramayana, each different from the other, not in essence but in narration. Some characters assume different proportions set to the imagination of the author.

They had noticed that no one version of the epics was similar and found great difficulty in understanding the inner meaning and connotations. They wanted the original version of the epics translated from Sanskrit to English. One Kishori Mohan Ganguli was approached to translate The Mahabharata into English. Initially, he was reluctant to take up the responsibility fearing that it would upset the sentiments of the people. On persuasion, he undertook the job in 1883 and came out with the translation titled “The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa translated into English Prose” in 1896. There are 18 books of translation, each known as Parva. In the initial translations, Ganguly did not give his name, fearing that he would not be able to complete the work in his lifetime. Perhaps, he must have thought that someone else would take up his work after his death. All 18 Parvas (chapters) are on the net for those who are interested to know about it. It is also adjudged as the most authentic translation of The Mahabharata ever made.

Are the Wikipedia, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc the ultimate stages of the social media? Sooner or later, more accomplished versions will come up. Sometimes, interactive social media goes overboard when some events happen or when people get agitated, or being used by vested interests for indoctrination and the like. I am of the opinion that this effective networking system has a wider role to play. The Digital India, launched by India recently, can be a case in point. With the rollout of 4G (fourth-generation Internet-based telephony), India is poised to grow phenomenally in the digital world. It is planning to connect the remotest parts of the country to the mainstream. This may take some time, but the last-mile connectivity with every nook and corner of the country will script a new chapter in the Indian

16

November 2014

www.varindia.com

Asoke K. Laha

President & MD, Interra IT economic history.

Equally significant is the need to bring about electronics revolution in the country. The benefits of Digital Revolution can be fructified only by equipping people with devices that ensure them easy access to internet. For instance, the financial inclusion programme of the Prime Minister of India is trying to connect the people through mobile texting to keep them informed about the credits in their accounts, when and how the subsidies are credited to their account, when they can avail the overdraft facilities, etc.

Interestingly, the other day Google announced its India-focussed plan. It is taking steps for increasing Internet penetration in the country. By 2017, the largest search engine in the world is aiming to bring 500 million Indians under its ambit. That is slightly short of the halfway mark of our population at 1.2 billion. More importantly, Google is giving importance to promoting Indian language contents in the net. The idea is to make usage of the net as a habit of the people rather than limiting it to certain classes. It is partnering with smartphone manufacturers to ensure that the new phones install its Hindi keyboards. One can legitimately expect that the coverage will go beyond Hindi belt to include other important Indian languages.

Google has already announced formation of an Indian Language Internet Alliance (ILIA), which will be the body that will facilitate the internet content usage in the Indian languages.

This is a great opportunity that will be unveiling before us in the coming years. We have to encourage people to have access to net. That is possible only when the access is easy and economical. Such initiatives also should be linked up with Digital India programs, wherein we have to empower the people to go for net connections and use them regularly. Who knows some of them may turn out to be the people like Kishori Mohan Ganguly, attempting impossible things and making them happen. That is the time when “India becomes Unbound”. n

www.varindia.com

November 2014

17

HOT BYTES

Red Hat, Wipro extend partnership

W

ipro and Red have expanded their alliance to accelerate deployment of open hybrid cloud solutions.

Red Hat and Wipro together will develop and deliver enterprisegrade cloud solutions to the market, and will also jointly deliver nextgeneration DevOps solutions for continuous integration and testing.

Additionally, to support global adoption of OpenStack and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), both the companies will bring solutions for private, public and hybrid clouds to their existing enterprise and

telecom customers. After piloting separately, they are now combining their efforts and knowledge around configuration, deployment, and management of OpenStack private clouds.

As part of the solutions collaboration, Wipro has launched a demo-ready Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform environment in the Center of Excellence (CoE) at its Bangalore campus, enabling the companies to showcase their cloud solutions in a more robust, agile and varied manner.

Google announces creation of ILIA

G

oogle has announced the creation of the Indian Language Internet Alliance (ILIA), a group committed to promoting the growth of Indiclanguage content online.

Through its efforts, the ILIA hopes to enable 300 million Indian language speakers to become highly engaged Internet users by 2017. The Alliance will work together to accelerate building Indic language content for the

hundreds of millions of Indians who will be coming online for the very first time, mostly via smartphones and mobile devices.

Google has also showcased demos of Voice Search in Hindi and has also launched a website called www.hindiweb. com, which will be a good place for Hindi-speaking Internet users to discover the best Hindi content across websites, apps, videos and blogs.

Lenovo to increase computer penetration

T

o make computers accessible to youths Lenovo has announced the launch of finance schemes.

India’s current computer penetration is 10%, which is the lowest among developing countries like Vietnam (16%), South Africa (18%), Turkey (49%) and Malaysia (64%). Lenovo is joined by Intel in its effort to promote this initiative across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Lenovo is offering 100% financing with zero down payment and zero interest on the purchase of highperformance laptops and

18

November 2014

AIOs. The payment can be broken up across multiple EMIs with no-interest fee.

This initiative is being piloted in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

as it complements their focus on education to bridge the IT divide.

Lenovo is looking at a comprehensive 360-degree marketing outreach that includes advertising and student engagement through college contact programmes across the two states.

www.varindia.com

DIGISOL addresses price discrepancies

D

IGISOL has identified the issue of price discrepancy between the price offered by its channel partners and the e-commerce sites, i.e. its online retailers. This is posing a major hurdle for DIGISOL's partners and distributors businesses.

“At DIGISOL, distributors and channel partners are immensely valued. Most of our company’s business is attributed to the efforts put by them and it is Smartlink’s priority to safeguard their interest first. If there are problems confronted by our channel partners, we want to take all the necessary steps that will resolve those problems.

We want to support our channel partners and our commitment to them will always be undiluted,” said Arati Naik, COO, Smartlink Network.

GIGABYTE enters Indian Graphics Card Market

G

IGABYTE has launched the full range of NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards in India with exclusive distribution partner, Ingram Micro. Combined with technical expertise, innovative products and superb customer service, GIGABYTE is now bringing its top-notch quality products to the market, and providing Indian users the ultimate graphics experience.

Mayank Sharma, Country Manager of Graphic Card Business Unit, GIGABYTE, said, “As for the rapidlygrowing emerging market like India, the extensive expertise of Ingram Micro will be a fast access for us to enter effectively into the market, and increase our presence in the country.”

M.Tech to distribute Extreme Networks in India

E

xtreme Networks has appointed M.Tech as a distribution partner to distribute its complete product portfolio to the Indian market. This strategic appointment will enable Extreme Networks to expand its footprint in India by providing enhanced support for its authorized channel resellers.

Additionally, M.Tech’s strong technical capabilities to introduce innovative products will enable Extreme Networks to deliver its OneFabric architecture along with its award-winning Purview

platform to Indian enterprises.

Bhavin P. Bhatt, Regional Director – India & SAARC, M.Tech India Pvt. Ltd, said, “We are delighted to add Extreme Networks’ entire range of networking solutions to our portfolio. Extreme Networks’ products are globally recognized for high performance and quality. With our strong presence and solutionfocussed approach, we are committed to expand Extreme Networks’ reach in the Indian market.”

NVIDIA and Ubisoft take PC Gaming to new heights

T

o bring consumers closer to their games than ever before, NVIDIA has announced a new technology PC gaming development partnership with Ubisoft.

By integrating NVIDIA’s superior GameWorks technologies, such as HBAO+ for realistic shadows, TXAA for cinema quality smoothness, as well as enhanced 4K support, Ubisoft is delivering cutting-edge content that allow PC gamers to become fully immersed in their gaming

environments.

Part of the “Pick Your Path” promotion which kicks off this week and runs to the end of the year, gamers who purchase a qualifying GeForce GTX GPU, including a GeForce GTX 980, 970, 780 Ti, or 780 graphics card or a notebook with GeForce GTX 980M or 970M get their choice of which title – The Crew, Far Cry 4 or Assassin’s Creed Unity – to add to their library for free. In India, this offer is available via leading channel partners and top e-tailers.

Fortinet strengthens technical support in India

F

ortinet has expanded its India Technical Assistance Centre by adding support engineers, professional

Account Management, ensuring expert and timely deployment of local projects.

In line with this

services consultants and Premium Account Managers.

Besides providing Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 phone support to Indian and SAARC customers, Fortinet's team will oversee Professional Services and Technical

expansion, the company will also boost investment in highly-skilled engineering resources to help customers solve difficult technical issues and deploy complex architectural designs and implementations.

www.varindia.com

November 2014

19

20

November 2014

www.varindia.com

www.varindia.com

November 2014

21

HOT BYTES

NetApp builds a Hybrid Cloud Foundation

N

etApp has announced new software, services and partnerships. It includes a powerful new version of the NetApp clustered Data O N T A P operating system, Cloud O N T A P , OnCommand Cloud Manager and NetApp Private Storage for Cloud. Combined, these patented and patent pending offerings enable customers to embrace the hybrid cloud while maintaining control of their data and ensuring choice across a blend of private and public cloud resources.

“Hybrid clouds will be the backbone of IT today and tomorrow. We help enterprises maintain control of their data as they bridge their on-premises architecture with the cloud of their choice.

The NetApp Data Fabric for the Hybrid Cloud is the right architecture for building enterpriseclass hybrid clouds. Our software improves the economics, flexibility, and business impact of a customer’s existing infrastructure.” said George Kurian, Executive Vice-President of Product Operations, NetApp.

Zebra acquires Motorola Solutions' Enterprise Business

Z

ebra Technologies Corporation and Motorola Solutions have announced that Zebra has completed the acquisition formalities of Motorola Solutions’ Enterprise business for $3.45 billion in cash. The transaction was funded with $200 million of cash on hand and $3.25 billion in new debt.

“Motorola Solutions is now singularly focussed on the very core that our company was founded

and built upon – a business that continues to help build safer cities and thriving businesses around the world through innovative missioncritical communications solutions,” stated Greg Brown, Motorola Solutions Chairman & CEO. As part of the deal, approximately 4,500 Motorola Solutions employees from locations throughout the world will transfer to Zebra.

R&M expands global presence

R

&M has announced the launch of its operations in Sri Lanka to further strengthen its footprint in fiber and copper solutions.

As a first step in expansion, R&M has appointed Serendib Engineering as a partner to manage the sale of its products across the Sri Lankan market. The company will focus on the telecom and IT/ITeS sectors to start with, but it plans to slowly expand to other industry verticals as well.

22

November 2014

Gaurav Ahluwalia, MD, R&M India, said, "The rising need for highspeed connectivity and data storage also means data centers and networks have to provide greater capacity. With R&M's copper and fiber-optic systems for high-quality communication networks and forward-looking system design, we can ensure greater reliability for our customers."

www.varindia.com

InterraIT joins hands with InShoring

I

nterra Information Technologies (InterraIT) has signed an MoU with InShoring Pros Netherlands BV for providing access to the culturally diverse European marketplace via Netherlands and further know how to exchange on a global scale.

The MoU was inked in the presence of the Minister of Netherlands in New Delhi last week.

Asoke K Laha, MD & CEO of InterraIT, commented, "This collaboration intends to provide access to the European market as well as help Netherlands with senior and specialist ICT talents which are in short supply there. We will focus on high quality and faultless delivery as per the European standards and expectations."

Facebook announces the India Client Council

F

acebook has announced the India Client Council to better serve its partners.

Comprised of a diverse group of leading client and agency partners, the India Client Council is a forum where some of India’s leading marketers can listen, inspire and share ideas about the future of marketing.

Facebook is committed to helping businesses navigate this changing landscape, and the Client Council makes our clients and agency partners a key part of this journey.

Helping people and businesses connect is a key component of Facebook’s mission to make the world more open and connected.

Tavant Announces 2X Growth Strategy

T

a v a n t Technologies has announced that it is on track to double its revenue in two years.

Tavant is achieving a year-on-year growth of 40 percent, which is significantly above the industry average with the Indian growth aligned to it. The company also announced that it will be investing over USD 100 million in India over the next two years.

Tavant has achieved significant growth in the eRetail segment

and currently partners with three of the top five eRetail companies in India. Its warranty management solutions, ‘Tavant Warranty’ and the cloud version on Salesforce1 platform called ‘Tavant Warranty On-Demand’ are market leaders. Tavant is the first company to launch a warranty solution on the salesforce cloud.

India eCommerce Market to touch $6-Billion by 2015

eCommerce has taken the world by storm. According to a latest report generated by Gartner, India’s eCommerce market is expected to reach $6 billion by 2015, a 70percent increase over 2014 revenue of $3.5 billion.

“Digital commerce is at a nascent stage in India. However, India is one of the fastestgrowing eCommerce markets in Asia-Pacific.

India represents a $3.5billion market, growing at approximately 60–70 percent every year. It represents less than 4 percent of the total retail market. B2C eCommerce leads the market in India, while B2B is limited to organizations that drive online channels to integrate with their partners and distributors,” said Praveen Sengar, Research Director, Gartner.

Seagate supports the Microsoft Open CloudServer 2

S

eagate Technology has announced support for Microsoft’s Open CloudServer specification version 2.

The specification will include new performance enhancements and expand the management software code provided to the open-source community, including new deployment and diagnostics functions. The enhanced specification will also simplify deployment while enabling greater flexibility and lowering implementation costs.

Open CloudServer version 2 will allow for improvements to storage solutions now

while enabling changes to match the dynamic cloud environment. The specification will help optimize storage solutions for large, web-scale deployments by allowing for greater flexibility while reducing complexitiy.

Costs of storage solutions can also be reduced through the elimination of cabling as the power management is distributed through the backplane. These improvements are part of an ongoing movement towards optimization in cost, performance and implementation of cloud infrastructures.

www.varindia.com

November 2014

23

ON THE RAMP

IBM unveils Intelligent Cloud Security Portfolio

I

BM has built an intelligent security portfolio for protecting people, data and applications in the cloud. Built on IBM’s investments in cloud, security and analytics software and services, the new offerings are designed to protect a business’s most vital data and applications using advanced analytics across their enterprise, public and private clouds and mobile devices – collectively known as the hybrid cloud model.

This rapid adoption of cloud is taking place as businesses still struggle to safeguard their existing IT

W

systems against attackers who are becoming increasingly sophisticated and more difficult to detect. Currently, 75 percent of security breaches take days, weeks or even months to be discovered, significantly increasing the damage inflicted by attackers.

IBM’s new cloud security tools use proven analytics to give companies a clear line of sight into the security status of their entire business.

ManageEngine deploys Intel DCM

M

anageEngine has launched the Intel DCM Energy Management plug-in for RackBuilder Plus, its 3D visual modelling software for data centers.

The new plug-in lets admins know the power usage and temperature of their data center floors, racks and devices. Up to 60 percent of a typical data center utility bill goes to cooling systems.

“Our partnership with Intel brings together leading-edge

capabilities in energy monitoring and DCIM visualization.

Intel’s energy manager is now available as a plug-in for our RackBuilder Plus to help admins get the heat map view of their racks, apply power capping over energy-intensive equipment, measure and report on energy metrics such as PUE and conduct energy audits periodically,” said Dev Anand, Director of Product Management, ManageEngine.

Logitech announces G302 Daedalus Gaming Mouse

L

ogitech has introduced its newest Logitech G mouse, the Logitech G302 Daedalus Prime MOBA Gaming Mouse. Tested by professional MOBA gamers from around the world including players from Team SoloMid, Cloud9, CJ Entus Frost, CJ Entus Blaze and Invictus Gaming, the Logitech G302 is designed to withstand the rigours of the highest tiers of professional eSports gaming. Specifically, its

24

November 2014

WD expands “Purple” line of hard drives

exclusive metal spring button tensioning system improves click responsiveness, making in-game actions fast and accurate.

The Logitech G302 reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to leverage science to design products that help gamers win. It also incorporates Logitech’s Delta Zero sensor technology, which combines exclusive lens design, illumination geometry, and algorithms.

www.varindia.com

D has announced expansion of its WD Purple line of 3.5inch hard drives for surveillance applications, with the release of 6TB capacity.

Designed for video surveillance, a highly data-rich category within the “Internet of Things (IoT)”, WD Purple hard drives excel in new and existing home and small business security system environments with up to eight hard drives and up to 32 high-definition (HD) video cameras.

“Video surveillance has long been a pioneering Internet-ofThings application. IoT brings access and big data analytics to improve user’s security,” said Matt Rutledge, Senior VicePresident & General Manager of WD’s Storage Technology group.

Extreme Networks’ Unified Edge to simplify IT

E

x t r e m e N e t w o r k s has announced key additions to its Unified Edge portfolio of access layer products, building on its innovative Software Defined Architecture.

The new Summit X460G2 fixed switch and IdentiFi Wireless 3805 access points (AP) add increased performance, manageability a nd BYOD/security to the company’s world-class network product portfolio. The development of the Summit X460-G2 is a significant milestone toward a converged and streamlined portfolio of fixed switching solutions from Extreme Networks.

McAfee delivers new product portfolio for Indian SMBs

M

cAfee has announced a new line of security suites that provide SMBs with a simple, flexible and costeffective way to safeguard both their data and devices.

McAfee suite is optimized for businesses with up to 25 devices. For larger businesses, with up to 250 devices, McAfee Endpoint Protection Essential for SMB and McAfee Endpoint Protection Advanced for SMB are designed to protect devices and data while offering new cloud capabilities for additional management options.

These suites will also help businesses improve user productivity.

“Nearly every day, we hear about data breaches. What often gets

overlooked are the small Main Street businesses that are plagued with the same security issues, but often with far more devastating consequences,”said Candace Worley, Senior VP & GM of Endpoint Security, McAfee, part of Intel Security.

SanDisk launches Cruzer U (image) SanDisk Corporation has launched a new line of USB flash drive that is designed to be ‘musthave’ for students heading back to school. SanDisk Cruzer U, which has enough capacity to hold homework, photos, music and movies, sports a U-clip for attaching to backpacks, bags and key rings. Available in bright and bold design, it aims to be both attractive and hard to lose, with all information safely protected by password.

“With the workload and carry loads of students increasing, students are always looking for smarter ways to store their files.

SanDisk Cruzer U offers a practical yet rugged design that also looks ‘cool’ at the same time. Designed with students in mind, it aims to keep all information safe. With ample space, it complements today’s busy yet outgoing lifestyles of Indian students,” said Rajesh Gupta, Country Manager India, SanDisk Corporation.

CP PLUS debuts new CCTV power supplies

C

P PLUS has introduced a wide range of power accessories to ensure smooth and hassle-free operations of any surveillance system.

The system is dependent on its operating power supply for reliability and ruggedness. CCTV cameras operate on very low voltage that have little tolerance to increases in voltage above the rated input level, most CCTV cameras have a DC voltage input rating of 12V with a tolerance of +/- 10% meaning the maximum

applied DC voltage that the camera can handle is faulty power supply can create havoc leading to irreparable damage to the system, thereby reducing its reliability.

Besides, incorrectly rated power supplies will either damage or severely reduce the life of CCTV cameras and other equipment.

CP PLUS R&D team at TeknoLogix Labs constantly strives to develop rugged and safer devices.

www.varindia.com

November 2014

25

ON THE RAMP

Brother launches new series of Printers

B

r o t h e r International has launched a series of 4 new Mono Laser Printers and 6 Multi-Function Centres which come with enhanced features to increase efficiency and affordability.

"Brother India is expected to grow maximum within the entire AP region. To achieve this, we have been constantly working on our distribution network to ensure smooth availability of our products. We have invested heavily on

C

manpower by adding sales force. We complimented the above initiatives by Brand building activities like Outdoor Ads/ Inshop branding which are aimed at enabling visibility in the market," said Yoshiji Matsui, Managing Director, Brother International India.

ADATA announces UC330 Dual USB Flash Drive

A

D A T A Technology has announced the launch of UC330 Dual USB Flash Drive featuring dual micro USB and standard USB interfaces in India. Available in 8-, 16- and 32-GB sizes, the UC330 Dual USB allows one to share and backup data between PC, tablet, phablet, or smartphone at prices rivaling builtin storage found on some mobile phones.

Along with a lifetime warranty and On-the-Go (OTG) USB compliance, customers who purchase the UC330 flash drive can also enjoy ADATA's

feature-packed OStoGO and UFDtoGO software packages.

Flawlessly crafted of zinc alloy with a silver finish, ADATA's Choice UC330 Dual USB Flash Drive weighs only 3.6 grams and comes with a black end cap fitted with a strap hole so you can easily carry the flash drive on a lanyard, keychain or neck strap.

As you use the rocketshaped UC330, its cap fits on either side of its dual-headed USB. When not in use, stand it up on its end for easy storage on your desktop like a rocket awaiting lift-off.

Dell introduces NFV Platform

D

ell has introduced its NFV solution offerings and companion starter kits, comprising Dell systems and software combined with software from open ecosystem partners and open-source distributions to help jumpstart carrier trials and adoption. Dell’s NFV solutions can help telecommunications service providers improve cost structures of existing service delivery and simply and quickly enable new service innovation and creation. This is achieved by virtualizing

26

November 2014

Cyberoam announces CR10iNG

the telecommunications and mobile service infrastructure using industry-standard compute and open networking platforms, combined with commercially available software packages at the infrastructure, m a n a g e m e n t , orchestration and service layers.

The NFV platform uses the latest server, storage, networking and software technologies from Dell combined with software from open ecosystem partners.

www.varindia.com

yberoam has l a u n c h e d CR10iNG for SOHO/ ROBO markets. The UTM appliance aims to extend enterprise- level network security to small and branch offices, making them futureready for security needs.

Cyberoam CR10iNG features the company’s flagship Layer 8 Security, is centrally manageable via Cyberoam Central Console (CCC) and Cyberoam’s on-Cloud Management Service and is compatible with iView – Cyberoam’s Open-Source logging and reporting solution.

CR10iNG brings in the next-generation security features as its bigger counterparts.With Cyberoam CR10iNG, organizations can ensure secure remote access to its employees on the move or those working from remote locations.

Palo Alto extends Security to the Cloud

P

alo Alto Networks has extended its leadership in security services for private, hybrid and public cloud with the latest release of its virtual firewall series (VMSeries). The VM-Series gives organizations the ability to realize the full agility and flexibility promises of cloud.

“The Series was specifically designed with the cloud in mind.

It provides consistent automated protection for cloud computing environments so organizations can take advantage of the productivity and cost benefits provided by the cloud,” said Lee Klarich, Senior Vice-President of Product Management, Palo Alto Networks.

Tata Communications to drive hybrid cloud adoption

T

a t a Communications has launched IZO, a global network platform for enhanced hybrid cloud enablement. A game changing new network platform, IZO brings a new way of tackling the complications and challenges that businesses face in realizing the potential of the cloud.

For the first time, a single provider offers access to a full ecosystem of network, cloud and data center connectivity making it simple for a business to connect and build its cloud, their way – be it private, hybrid or public.

The IZO network platform takes the public internet and uniquely engineers it for predictable routing, together with enterprise cloud connectivity and interconnected data centers. Bringing together a growing ecosystem of over 20 service providers reaching 85% of the world’s GDP, two of the largest cloud platforms – Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure – and over 50 data centers across the globe, the IZO network delivers the most comprehensive cloud-enablement platform available today.

Rackspace speeds up customers’ journey to the Hybrid Cloud

R

ackspace has announced the newest release of its Rackspace Hybrid Cloud offering, RackConnect v3, including new security capabilities, increased scalability and an improved customer experience.

Rackspace created the unique RackConnect technology to address the needs of customers who require the scalability of the cloud, combined with the enhanced security and performance of traditional

dedicated hosting.

RackConnect allows customers to blend traditional dedicated hardware and networks with a variety of services deployed in the public cloud. The latest iteration of RackConnect uses software-defined network technology and Rackspace Cloud Networks to deliver a seamless connection between disparate environments with an emphasis on security across the entire configuration.

Huawei launches CloudEdgeMobileFlow Solution

H

uawei has made technical innovations to its future-oriented network architecture SoftCOM, including mobile network solution CloudEdgeMobileFlow prototype.

The solution will focus on the deployment of mobile network control functions across a cloud environment and data plane functions are based on a common forwarding plane model.

Jason Dai, President of CloudEdge, Huawei, said, “Huawei has a

long-term commitment to researching mobile communications.

The CloudEdgeMobileFlow reflects our continuous

innovation and leadingedge technology in the wireless field. Based on the MobileFlow system, the evolution of mobile networks will become a platform for business innovation which helps operators enhance their competitiveness in mobile communications.”

www.varindia.com

November 2014

27

VOICE-N-DATA

BlackBerry improves BBM with new security features

B

lackBerry has announced that it has released several new features for BBM.

enhancements to BBM were highly requested so we are excited to be delivering them to users

At the core of the BBM experience is privacy and control. These two notions are more important today than ever before as people are looking for simple ways to help guard against their messages getting into the wrong hands or being seen by anyone other than the intended recipient.

“These new

today. These capabilities will allow our users to be more creative in how they deliver their messages while also being confident that their content is kept private and seen only by its intended recipient,” said John Sims, President Global Enterprise Services, BlackBerry.

Ericsson signs deal with Ozone Networks

O

zone Networks has signed a Small Cell as a Service agreement with Ericsson. In the first stage of the project, Ericsson will provide Ozone with 30,000 Wi-Fi access points and network management nodes and tools, as well as a variety of options for monetizing the Wi-Fi network. These include opportunities for offering telecommunications operators the chance to reduce the data burden on their network by utilizing the neutral Wi-Fi network to carry some of the traffic.

Sanjeev Sarin, Chief

Executive Officer, Ozone, said, “In today’s world, consumers like to be connected at all times, which means that network capacity becomes an extremely important factor. Deployment of Ericsson’s Small Cell-asa-Service offering will enable us to better manage consumer expectations in ultra-dense environments.

The partnership will also ensure that Ozone is able to establish the neutral Wi-Fi model in India, which will help the Indian Government make the right to internet access a reality for every Indian.”

Airtel debuts “One Touch Internet” for new Internet users

A

imed at simplifying internet services for millions of first-time users in India, Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of “One Touch Internet”. Airtel’s “One Touch Internet” is a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) portal designed with a simple, secure and intuitive interface that will allow first-time users to discover the internet easily and help them overcome common

28

November 2014

perception barriers around the mobile data experience. Now available for prepaid mobile customers on Airtel –“One Touch Internet” will work as a single-point destination for uninitiated internet users to see-trybuy a host of popular services (including social networking, videos, online shopping and travel bookings) through free tutorial videos and trial packs – all with just one touch.

www.varindia.com

Telenor completes acquisition of Telewings

T

elenor Group has completed the acquisition of the 26per cent ownership stake in Telewings, held by Lakshdeep Investment & Finance. Telenor now takes full ownership of the company that operates under the brand name Uninor. The process was finalized after Telenor received approval from the Indian Government's Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to increase its stake.

"We are encouraged by the strong growth of our Indian operation. The company continues to capture market share every month and is leading in new subscriber additions in many of its circles," said Sigve Brekke, EVP of Telenor Group and Chairman of the Board of Telewings.

Nokia Networks wins 3G Contract

N

okia Networks has bagged a 3G contract from Bharti Airtel that will help Airtel enhance its 3G network in the Mumbai, West Bengal and Bihar telecom circles, using Nokia’s latest Single RAN (radio access network) Advanced platform.

The deal includes an India’s first dual-band, dual-carrier 3G network implementation, reframing 900 MHz to complement Mumbai’s existing 3G network on 2100 MHz. This will enable higher throughput and thus improved 3G services for Bharti Airtel’s customers.

Nokia Networks will supply its Single RAN Advanced platform, based on its energy-efficient Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station. It will also support Bharti Airtel in its TD-LTE rollout and pave the way to FDD-LTE.

Uninor starts WebWise Program on Cyber Harm

U

ninor has conducted a survey in schools across seven states in India, which indicates that 30 per cent of Indian children accessing Internet have experienced some kind of cyber harm. This includes cyber-bullying, cyber stalking, hacking and defamation. The survey reveals that 34 per cent of children rarely speak to their parents about their online activities.

Researching for school and project work, social networking, downloading music and movies rank highest in the list of online activities of children.

The survey was done across 29 schools and covered nearly 10,500 children. Based on the findings of the survey, Uninor has initiated the WebWise program with the objective to build resilience amongst children against Internetrelated risks. It aims to create awareness on Internet safety for children and familiarize them with habits that can give them a safe online experience.

Uninor plans to extend this program further and cover additional 20,000 children by January next year.

Tata Docomo launches public Wi-Fi access

T

ata Docomo has announced the public Wi-Fi connectivity in Connaught Place (CP) area, in partnership with NDMC. At a ceremony organized in Connaught Place, Smt. Meenakshi Lekhi, Member of Parliament, inaugurated the public Wi-Fi services in the presence of Shri Shankar Agarwal, Urban Development Secretary.

To enjoy Wi-Fi service the user needs to authenticate with a valid

mobile number in a Wi-Fi enabled device. Post which the user receives a one time password (OTP) to login and use the service free for 20 minutes. Those who wish to continue enjoying the experience can opt for recharge cards of various denominations, which are easily available online and at Tata Docomo retail outlets.The recharge cards are available at Rs. 10 for 30 mins, Rs. 20 for 60 mins and Rs. 50 for 180 mins of Wi-Fi access.

Juniper presents vMX 3D Universal Edge

J

uniper Networks has introduced a virtualized version of its flagship MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routing platform to deliver fullfeatured, carrier-grade virtualized router. The Juniper Networks vMX 3D Universal Edge Router, which operates as software on x86 servers, gives service providers and enterprises the ability to seamlessly leverage the benefits of both virtual and physical networking so they can rapidly deliver services and cost-

effectively keep ahead of customer demand. Juniper also unveiled a new set of capabilities designed to help customers build High-IQ networks that leverage the benefits of virtualization and automation.

Carrier-grade routing can be deployed in the time it takes to spin up a virtual machine, scaled elastically with virtual capacity, and if the need arises, migrated to the high-performance physical MX Series platforms for high-volume workloads.

!

"

# "

!

$ %

&

www.varindia.com

November 2014

29

CHANNEL BUZZ

neoteric and Alcatel-Lucent launches “Xplore” Road Show

PACT, CAIT and ITAO come down heavily on online traders

neoteric infomatique in association with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALUE) has kicked off “Xplore” multi-city channel engagement road show in Bengaluru. The event focussed on new enterprise applications, product road maps and their unique selling propositions that deliver more value to the fastgrowing Indian SMB market.

Partners availed the hands-on product demonstrations delivered by the neoteric team and learnt how cost-effective AlcatelLucent Enterprise products and solutions in the Voice & Data and Wireless segments enhance business results, and cater to the future needs of their customers’ and their businesses.

Varun Mata, Business Head, neoteric infomatique ltd, said, “These road shows complement Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s major focus on the Indian SMB market.

This initiative will empower our channel community to explore business opportunities and at the same time help us in partner recruitment and brand-building.

he confederation body of 13 district associations of Punjab and Chandigarh, PACT (Punjab Association of Computer Traders) had called for a "Purchase Bandh" on November 4th, keeping in mind the interests and the concerns of IT trade in the region. The objective of the Bandh is to have a consensus among all the national association presidents to push the government to come up with an online policy. It also wishes to seek support at the national level to put pressure on vendors to come up with a concrete solution to curb the online price parity that still continue to persist.

The Bandh happened to open new frontiers of cooperation as 7 non-member cities joined the agitation to support the Association. PACT’s call for a Bandh was followed by similar agitations by Confed-ITA and associations from Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has also launched a similar nationwide movement to attract attention of the Government, demanding the Government to form a Regulator and Laws & Rules to govern e-commerce business in

Through this event, we look forward to educating partners on the latest technologies in a solutions format so that they can position and pitch end- toend solution to their customers.

Accordingly, we will be able to enhance Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s business and growth in the Indian SMB space.”

The event is all set to cover six other major cities, namely Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi to help small and medium businesses maximize their Return on Investment with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise solutions.

Genius hosts partners meet in Lucknow

G

enius has recently organized a meet for its dealers in the City of Nawabs - Lucknow. Attended by over 75+ leading channel partners from all over Lucknow and upcountry, the dealer meet was intended to attract new partners and consolidate its relationship with existing partners. The senior officials from Genius presiding over the meet included, Gaurav Mathur (Country Head - India)

Gaurav Mathur, Country Head (India), Genius, said, “It has always been Genius’s endeavour to understand the needs of its channel partners and maintain long-term relationships

30

November 2014

with them. Uttar Pradesh is an important market for us, thanks to its sheer population and Lucknow serves as the hub to make further inroads into the vast market. The objective of the meet was to demonstrate our commitment to the market and reiterate our status as the leading player with cuttingedge, innovative, yet affordable products. The response from the channel has been very

encouraging, who are clearly impressed with our exciting range of products and overall channel strategy. We hope to emerge as a leading accessory and peripherals brand in Uttar Pradesh.”

www.varindia.com

T

India. Unrealistic prices, unfair competition, unhealthy business practices, predatory pricing have damaged the business of offline market to the tune of 35% in various segments.

"The e-commerce business in India is like an open playground where every player is free to play the game as per its own whims and wishes and setting its own Rules and Regulations, no matter how detrimental it could be either for the economy or for the rest of the stakeholders," said Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT. Foreign funding in e-retail is nothing less than FDI in multibrand retail and since the Government is committed not to allow FDI in multibrand retail, there is an urgent need to block any loopholes in e-retail business which may give opportunity to MNCs to enter into retail trade of India as a backdoor entry via e-retail business. Beside traders, CAIT will also rope in other sections of non-corporate sector, including SMEs, farmers, transporters, truck operators, hawkers, labour unions, cooperative groups, selfentrepreneurs and others in its nationwide movement.

WatchGuard organizes training sessions for Channel Partners

W

a t c h G u a r d Technologies has continued to empower its channel partners about the technology shift in the security space.

As part of its overall partner strategy, WatchGuard has scheduled detailed handson training for its channels across 4 cities of India. The trainings will take place in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Delhi over the next couple of weeks.

The 2-days training program in each city will focus on WatchGuard XTM range of network security solutions. Expert trainer Max Maizenberg based out of company's headquarter in US will be travelling to conduct this special training.

Elaborating on the importance on training for channels, Scott Robertson, Vice President-APAC at WatchGuard said, "WatchGuard is a 100%

channel driven company. We invest heavily in channel focused activities every quarter and partner enablement through series of webinars, hands-on trainings is a continuous drive."

The training program has been divided into two parts: XTM Essentials and XTM Advanced Training. The partners who have undergone the basic certification will be trained and graduated on the newer technologies under XTM Advanced Training. The key modules to be covered during these sessions will include Link Aggregation, Multi-WAN, FireCluster, Traffic Management, VPNs, VLANs, WSM Demo and access points.

www.varindia.com

November 2014

31

A New, Refurbished “Avatar” for the Structured Cabling Market The Structured Cabling market, which was at its all-time low a few quarters back, is starting to spring back to action with new opportunities coming its way. Will this work wonders for it?

T

he global structured Cabling market is estimated at Rs.38,000 crore, and the Indian market accounts for around 3% of the global market. Reports suggest that the global market for Structured Cabling will grow from $6 billion in 2012 to $8.3 billion in 2020. According to IDC, the structured cabling market is likely to show a CAGR of

Sarvesh Mishra AGM – Marketing, PTNO, Schneider Electric India

32

November 2014

www.varindia.com

20.5 per cent in the coming years, which is high relatively to global growth trends and this would encompass both the copper and fibrer solutions.

“The size of the structured cabling market is Rs.1,200 crore for the current fiscal. With the new initiatives of infrastructure developments and smart city concepts, the market is expected to grow at 10% year on year,” says Murugesan, Director – Sales & Marketing, Enterprise Networks, TE Connectivity.

“The Indian structured cabling market has faced turbulent times and the segment is expected to look upward from Q2 2014.

Having peaked in 2011 at Rs.1,400 crore, the market was almost flat in 2012 and dropped by 20 per cent in 2013. Q1 2014 has not been great too, but from Q2 2014, it seems things will start looking upward and stabilize at a 20-per cent growth over the next ten years,” asserts Gaurav Ahluwalia, Managing Director, R&M. Moving forward, there will be tremendous growth opportunities in this segment with huge investments coming in from the government sector. The overall positive economic outlook has also resulted in enterprises being keen on

enhancing their infrastructure in India and this would eventually lead to thriving business.

Copper vs Fibre Cabling The maximum growth in the Structured Cabling space is primarily dominated by copper cable which contributes about 79– 80%, with the rest being Fibre. “We believe that within the copper market, approximately 41–42% contribution is from the components and the rest is from cables,” remarks Sarvesh Mishra, AGM – Marketing, PTNO, Schneider Electric India.

Though copper clearly has a major share of the structured cabling market, there are limitations within the copper as a category.

For instance, copper has a restriction in terms of distance it can cover for high-speed data transfers (typically up to 100 metres only). Secondly, security is an aspect which is a strength of fibre. Whereas copper can be easily tapped, fibre cannot be tapped without detection. Thirdly, copper would have limitations with respect to outdoor applications where bandwidth of 1GB plus is required. On the other hand, fibre offers unmatched reliability/efficiency as compared

www.varindia.com

November 2014

33

INDUSTRY WATCH market demand against fibre. However, more and more enterprises today are looking at fibre solution; so moving forward, fibre will gain momentum,” observes Murugesan.

Shailesh Bhayade Vice-President – Structured Cabling, D-Link (India) Ltd to copper. Also, the losses in fibre compared to copper are much low and this results in highperformance and high-bandwidth speeds from fibre cabling. Hence, this clearly positions fibre cabling as a much more efficient and reliable category.

“The growing need for faster data transmission and stable performances across a wider frequency range has given rise to increased adoption of Cat. 6A, mainly in copper, but fibre is also gaining ground fast. The rising use of high-definition video, voice and data services and remote access of applications will drive the demand for fibreoptic cabling solutions in the coming years,” opined David Shalts, Regional Sales Director, RiT Technologies.

The fibre-optic cabling market in India is witnessing a higher growth with strong demand coming from data centers and residential complexes (FTTH). In recent times, it has garnered a lot of mind share, with FTTH and FTTP being increasingly deployed. A lot of recent high-end residential projects are opting for FTTH as it allows a single service provider to deliver voice, data and video content efficiently. Further, with increasing broadband connectivity along with the rollout of 4G/ LTE is driving the adoption of fibre cabling.

However, in spite of fibre prices have been stable or even reducing slightly at times, it has no preference over copper even now. On the other hand, cost of copper has been fluctuating for a couple of years now, sometimes the price turning sensitive due to the volatility of copper. “Copper is preferred over fibre-optic cables as the total network costs are less expensive when copper is used,” says Gaurav.

“To add to it, FTTX as a category is still driven by property developer segment (premium/large residential, commercial projects). It would take time to penetrate down into large volumes. Probably, high capital expense is one of the bottlenecks for this technology to take off to the next level at a high pace,” views Sarvesh.

“Easy installation and high level of acceptance in the data center space makes copper still a highly preferred choice. In the present scenario, copper dominates the

34

November 2014

www.varindia.com

Data Centers to drive growth With structured cabling being an essential part of network, there is a higher adoption of cabling solution across various business verticals. Almost every major vertical is important for the structured cabling market to thrive, but it is primarily the infrastructure that enhances this industry. "Without a strong investment in infrastructure, there won’t be any growth potential for structured cabling.

Today, in India, we can see the major verticals being IT/ITes, manufacturing, telecom, etc," says Gaurav.

"We believe major market drivers in the coming times are primarily going to be IT/ITeS, government and manufacturing segments. Apart from these, there is ample opportunity for this market to grow within the SME / SMB segment, where customers look for optimum price for the offering," says Sarvesh.

Murugesan Director – Sales & Marketing, Enterprise Networks, TE Connectivity

Major initiatives by the government to enhance IT deployment across various departments, BFSI, deployments in educational institutions, hospitality, retail, residential (FTTH) and emerging markets like Tier-II & Tier-III cities are going to be the major thrust areas for this industry.

"Government today is certainly one of the key promoters of technology usage in the country. Today, high emphasis is being laid on digitization along with a strong focus on enhancing broadband penetration. The key announcements like development of Smart cities, emphasis on internet penetration, etc has resulted in positive outlook towards the ITC sector," suggests Shailesh Bhayade, Vice-President – Structured Cabling, D-Link (India) Ltd. Moving ahead, the enterprise segment is also likely to generate a lot of demand as new policies come into action. For instance, FDI cap hike to 49% from existing 26% and further concessions for FDI in the development of Smart cities.

However, at present data centers remain one of the important areas of growth in India. The shift from buying IT products to purchasing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is boosting the need for storage and increase the demand for data center capacity. The future of data center market will be dominated by large IDCs unlike small /enterprise DCs in the past.

“Thanks to technologies like virtualization, cloud computing, etc, these technologies not only demand for high-bandwidth cabling but also specific design architecture, intelligent management requirement and importantly integration of IT & non-IT services,” says Murugesan.

He further continues, “The increasing use of smartphones, the need for file sharing and instant access, will massively increase the need for data storage and speed. Convergence will increase and more structured cabling will be used to wire access points, Internet Protocol (IP) cameras, building management systems, access controls and other applications. The demand for better bandwidth boosts the adaption of Cat. 6A and higher category cables."

Data center installations have been steadily increasing over the last couple of years. This will rapidly increase in the coming years as well, as we can see more companies making such installations. Agrees Sarvesh, "Data centers for sure are going to play a significant role in the growth of the overall structured cabling market. With customer expectations going up for performance optimization and lowering of TCO, the industry needs to be more aligned with the customer needs and evolve with innovative offerings to make the value proposition more tangible.”

As Indian enterprises focus on building new intelligent data centers while optimizing existing hardware assets, data center modernization initiatives are a key contributor. “In our opinion, the next growth curve will be quite steep. We think the growth of the structured cabling sector will increase – we are in the beginning of the curve – and indeed data centers will contribute a major push to this spike,” reiterates David.

At a global level, the market for Structured Cabling in data centers stood at

David Shalts Regional Sales Director, RiT Technologies

INDUSTRY WATCH

Trends in Structured Cabling Market

Gaurav Ahluwalia Managing Director R&M US$1.18 billion in 2013. This is expected to reach US$1.6 billion by 2020. “Adoption of convergence, Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Networks (GPON), and cloud computing is driving growth for structured cabling in the data center space. Interestingly, this trend is also being observed in the Indian shores as well,” recalls Shailesh. He further continues, “Another major trend is high-density cabling solutions that can save space in the communication room and data center. We see an increasing need for these solutions because of the increased demand from existing data centers and the lack of space for traditional cabling solutions.”

“The growth of the Indian data center business has coincided nicely with the value that Corning provides to our customers.

As customers deploy larger data centers with higher-performance requirements for 40GbE and 100GbE transmission, they are demanding more reliable solutions which give them the ability to easily scale to the emerging requirements of tomorrow,” says Scott Gregg, Marketing Manager, Enterprise Networks – Asia-Pacific, Corning Optical Communications.

Smart City & Structured Cabling With the new government’s sharp focus on the words “digital” and “smart” when it comes to the new-age Indian cities, a lot of talking has been done as to where and how smart cities are going to be built. The Government’s decision to earmark Rs.7,060 crore for development of smart cities is definitely going to attract FDI from global multinationals and create a competitive landscape that will boost the country’s long-term potential economic growth rate. “Every company would want to be a part of this as it is a huge opportunity. As a company which is able to provide solutions for such as project, it is obviously a target to look at,” remarks Gaurav.

According to David, to design and develop services and solutions for a smart city, an array of solutions such as intelligent transportation systems, security & surveillance, access control, real-time monitoring and integrated analytics need to be implemented. The backbone of all these is networks and network infrastructure. “No doubt, a smart city will

• Distributed Antenna System is one of the critical systems a campus facility shall have in the recent future. DAS for cellular wireless is much needed solution that provides higher capacity with better coverage.

• FTTX technology (Fibre to the Home) is picking up pace in India. Along with it, Fibre to the Desk (FTTD), especially designed for last-mile network cabling is in high demand. Customers are leveraging the benefits of fibre for security, longer reach and high bandwidth.

• The number of outlets per desk and number of workstations will decline, but growth in Ethernet networks to connect and even power other devices will have a positive impact on the cabling market. Use of Ethernet networks by devices and applications like cameras, BMS and other IP-based applications will also enhance adoption of structured cabling technology.

• Optical LAN (Passive Optical Network) has emerged as an alternative to routine copper solution and getting much attention by facilities like education campus, public area properties, healthcare facilities, etc. Cat. 6A, OM4 fibre and intelligent cabling system are few technologies that are matured enough and are settled well in customer’s networks.

• High-density cabling solutions that can save space in the communication room and data center is going to be another major trend. Increased demand from existing data centers and the lack of space for traditional cabling solutions necessitates the need for these solutions.

• Cabling management solutions, often called Intelligent Infrastructure Management (IIM) solutions that automate the management of the increasingly complex network environments is a trend worth watching for. They provide a complete view and monitoring capabilities of the entire network physical infrastructure. require advanced network infrastructure that includes the technologies outlined above.

In this respect, the government’s smart city initiative is drawing our interest and we are keenly observing it, since it has opened up new business opportunities for network providers,” he says.

The new Government’s initiative has boosted the morale of vendors across IT, telecom, cabling, networking and enterprise sectors who are deeply interested in creating smarter cities and developing infrastructure corridors. With the rise in Smart City Development and the initiative taken by the Government of India for the same, there is an immense business opportunity. “As an organization with vast experience in the networking domain, D-Link strives to bring innovative products for the betterment of the consumers across diverse verticals. We certainly look forward to contributing to the nationbuilding process with our innovative structured cabling solution offerings,” says Shailesh.

“The Smart City initiative will usher in an exciting era in India’s development. The bandwidth requirements will be immense.

We believe that Corning’s fibre solutions will play a key part in enabling the vision of the Smart City initiative,” Scott asserts.

Finally…

India as a market has got almost all the innovations that any other market would have. It is just that the amount of installations carried out is much lower with cost being

Scott Gregg Marketing Manager, Enterprise Networks – Asia-Pacific, Corning Optical Communications

an important factor. Nevertheless, India is a growing market with a solid economy, and the future of structure cabling also looks very strong. 2015 is expected to be a good year for structured cabling, with key drivers being a stabilized US economy, momentum gained

by IT/ITeS, liberalized economy outlook in India and the increasing demand for high bandwidth broadband services. While copper still has a long inning to play, fibre is showing a surge as it is a good option in data centers based on the current standards. With newer technology in fibre coming in, various projects will be seen using fibre very often now. n samrita@varindia.com

www.varindia.com

November 2014

35

36

November 2014

www.varindia.com

www.varindia.com

November 2014

37

38

November 2014

www.varindia.com

www.varindia.com

November 2014

39

(From Left to Right) : Mr. Kshitz M Kotak,President- ASIRT; Mr. Sanjiv Bhavnani,Chairman,Menterprenure Advisors; Mr. Deepak Kumar Sahu,Chief Editor-VARINDIA; Mr. Rajiv Bhalla,Director-Marketing-Intel India; Mr. Prashant Prakash,CEO- Global Infonet; Mr. K K Sharma,Ex. DG-Competition Commission of India; Mr. Anil Sethi, Director & General Manager-Dell India; Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Sr VP- Canon India; Dr. Debabrata Nayak, Chief Security Officer-HUAWEI Telecommunications; Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS, JS-MSME, GOI; Shri. Sunil Soni, IAS, DG-BIS,GOI; Ms. Senapati Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA; Shri Vipin Tyagi, Executive Director, C-Dot; Mr. Josh Flougar, Director & President-Nokia SEZ; Mr. Asoke K.Laha , MD & CEO-Interra IT; Mr. Jagannath Pattnaik, CEO-NNR IT Solutions; Mr. Bimal Das, Jt. President-HCL Infosystems Ltd. and Mr. David Wittenberg, CEO- The innovation Workgroup

T

he evening commenced with the lamp lighting ceremony and was graced by the Chief Guest, Shri Sunil Soni, IAS, DG, BIS, Government of India and other highprofile guests like Shri S. N. Tripathy, IAS, J.S., MSME, Government Of India; Shri Vipin Tyagi, Executive Director, C-Dot, Government Of India ; Shri Asoke K. Laha, MD, Interra Information Technologies & National President, IACC; Mr. Josh Flouger- Director, India Operations Program & President Nokia SEZ; Mr. Vishal Dhupar, Global Head (Business Development) -

Services industry is opening up in India now

"A mega trend visible now is that of the growth of the service sector that will grow up to 80% from the current level by 2020. Cloud Computing which was a distant reality some time back has become a trend that is fast gaining momentum."

Shri S. N. Tripathy, IAS, J.S., MSME Government Of India 40

November 2014

www.varindia.com

NVIDIA Graphics; Mr. Anil Sethi, Director & General Manager, Dell India Pvt. Ltd; Mr. K. K. Sharma, Chairman, Law Offices, Ex. D.G.- Competition Commission of India; Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Executive VP, Canon India; Dr Debabrata Nayak, Chief Security Officer, Huawei Telecommunications; Mr. Rajiv Bhalla, Director – Sales & Marketing, Intel Technology; Mr. Bimal Das, Jt. President (Enterprise Products & IT)-HCL Infosystems Ltd.; Mr. Priyadarshi Mohapatra- M.D. - Avaya India; Mr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher, VARINDIA; and Ms S. Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA. The lamp lighting was preceded by a motivational speech given by Mr David Wittenberg, CEO, The Innovation Workgroup, who addressed the guests in general and the VAR community in particular to talk on how to think out of the box and implement the same in the technology offerings and solutions that they give to their customers. “Many of you forget this but you have to be different to be better and move faster to have a competitive advantage over your competitors. Every customer you serve wants to have something better from you than what your competitor provides in order to increase their market share and profitability. If you simply continue selling just the base solutions and products and not thinking of what it is going to do to them, your ability to build your company as a VAR is limited. There are much higher tasks that your solutions can deliver. There is a breakthrough innovation level that you should think of crossing. But at the same time you need to understand how much value you need to add.”

In his address, Shri Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher, VARINDIA, stressed on the fact as to how marketers are investing in customer experience to drive business advantage and profitable revenue growth. “The far-reaching impact of digitization in today’s world has

BIS striving to introduce standards in products made in India

“We in BIS feel two things – the message is clear that we are not ‘Making’ in India for India alone but for the entire globe. Even as we talk about this campaign, there should be some standards maintained."

Shri Sunil Soni, IAS, Director General, BIS, Government of India offered unprecedented value and intelligence to marketers and organizations and the entire world is eyeing towards the scope and opportunity in our country. It is an exciting time for the Indian IT sector to develop an ecosystem to see opportunity in digitization and various smart city projects.”

Mr Josh Flouger, Director, India Operations Program and President, Nokia SEZ, in his address, cited some instances from Nokia’s plant in Chennai that has been shut down on November 1. “In our Nokia factory, we used to make 7 phones and about

Start Manufacturing in India to stop Chinese aggression in imports “With the advancement in science & technology, there is nothing we cannot achieve or implement in the country. It is not only in defence (the Ministry that I am responsible for) that I discourage use of Chinese products but also in other sectors like IT where Chinese aggression should be stopped and we should start manufacturing IT items in the country.”

Shri Savitur Prasad, Principal Financial Controller, Indian Army, Government of India 14,000 components were getting assembled every second. To do this, we used to fly one jumbo jet a day to the Chennai airport and have 5 containers coming in through the sea.

Inside our SEZ, we had 9 trucks running all the time and 10 trucks coming in daily from local suppliers. India’s contribution to

MSME, Government of India, hinted at how ‘Make in India’ is no longer a dream and is going to be a reality very soon in the country. “I quote an economist I met who said that there is a huge possibility of us growing at a minimum of 5%; with a little bit of reform we can go up to 7% and with

Innovation will lead a movement in the way Business is done “India will become a hub of consumption in coming years.

Unless we think of commoditizing high-end technology and make it available to people, this market will not bear any fruits.”

Shri Vipin Tyagi Executive Director, C-Dot, GOI GDP in terms of manufacturing is only 15 %; but having put these figures in front of you and with an experience of 10 years in the industry in the manufacturing space, I could confidently state that a ‘Make in India’ is indeed possible.”

Taking the ‘Make in India’ slogan forward, Shri S. N. Tripathy, IAS, J.S.,

‘Make in India' will be a Reality very soon

"With an experience of 10 years in the industry in the manufacturing space, I could confidently state that a ‘Make in India’is indeed possible.If we do things right, this segment alone in the next 10 years can bring indescribable change."

Mr Josh Flouger, Director, India Operations Program and President, Nokia SEZ campaign a success by proposing standards in products manufactured in India. “Even as we talk about the 'Make in India' campaign, there should be some standards maintained. BIS is working in this direction of proposing to the Government of harmonising our standards with that of the global requirements, so that Indian manufacturing is able to join

Now is the Time for deployment of Mobility and High Speed Data

aggressive reforms we can get a 9% growth in GDP. There are also a few technology trends that are visible today which the Government is, if not fully but gradually gearing up to adopting it.”

Shri Sunil Soni, IAS, Director General, BIS, Government of India, spoke how BIS is working towards making the “Make-in-India”

Technology can pave the way for India to create a new destiny “Technology today is emerging as the biggest enabler to recreate and co-create a new destiny for India. We are hearing from everybody in what way different pieces of those technologies can be mainstreamed and we get the benefits out of it.”

Dr Alok Bharadwaj, Executive VP, Canon India

“We have traversed 3G, 4G eras successfully and now stepping into the 5G era. In the context of 5G, we envisage that broadband is essentially important. The content will go from consumption to interaction, which means that if today we are generating usergenerated content, tomorrow we may not need this.”

Dr Debabrata Nayak Chief Security Officer, www.varindia.com November 2014 41 Huawei Telecommunications

EVENT IT will develop with the growth of semiconductor industry

“The semi-conductor industry adds 202 billion $ to the global GDP directly and employ 1.2 million people. This is what India needs. The more we develop the semi-conductor industry in the country, the more we develop the scientists, mathematicians, technologists and engineers; especially at a time when we are talking about the ‘Make in India’ campaign.” .

Shri Vishal Dhupar, Global Head (Business Development), NVIDIA the global supply chain. Also, whatever is supplied to the Indian consumers should be of the best quality. India cannot be made just a dumping ground. To check this, the Government through DIETY has notified some 15 products which would be brought under mandatory certification.”

Shri Savitur Prasad, Principal Financial Controller, Indian Army, Government of India spoke about how things are being overlooked in the defence sector by using Chinese manufactured commodities in spite of the budget allocation being close to Rs. 4–5 lakh crores annually. “Even today 99 per

cent of the commodities we are consuming are being imported into the country. For instance, for the supply of sleeping bags or rucksacks to our soldiers positioned at Siachen, we place orders with a European company, but they are being ultimately manufactured in China. This is a sensitive issue to our people as well as for the country’s sovereignty at large. While our soldiers at the war front are battling with China, we are indirectly handing the latter a deal to supply war commodities This needs to be stopped.”

Mr. Vishal Dhupar, Global Head (Business Development), NVIDIA, spoke at length about the semiconductor industry.

“Fundamentally, we come from an industry where we don’t give regard to the world’s most pervasive innovation that we have faced – the semiconductor. In IT, the least spoken thing is the semiconductor. If we go beyond this industry, nobody even understand that without semiconductor, there will be no internet, no mobile technology, no autonomous driving that is going to help mankind. Every single economy in the world has progressed when they are their supreme best in the 4 fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.”

The Star Nite Tech Byte Session saw a few eminent speakers from the industry talk about technology. In his speech, Shri Vipin Tyagi, E.D. C-Dot remarked that Innovation & creativity will never be out of business but they have to happen in the social context in order to become a movement in business success. “Technology has barely begun but wise networks have become like a commodity. The broadband is going to become 10,000 more complex and powerful thus creating new business possibilities at the lowest cost.”

Dr Alok Bharadwaj, Executive Vice President, Canon India spoke about how Technology today is emerging as the biggest enabler to recreate and co-create a new destiny for India. “When I see the IT world, I can see it going through different eras. The first era was when computerization had just begun. That was a simple IT world and the whole emphasis was on enhancing productivity and value creation. 20 years

later with the advent of Internet era and Information Technology, the IT world has changed, starting an industry called ITes. A great amount of enabled services made India a big outsourcing centre. This was a big turning point of this era.”

Dr Debabrata Nayak, Chief Security Officer, Huawei Telecommunications talked about Mobility and high speed data that are required to build a safer 4G wall. “In the context of 5G, we envisage that broadband is essentially important. The content will go from consumption to interaction, which means that if today we are generating usergenerated content, tomorrow we may not need this. When I wake up in the morning, instead of reading my day’s predictions in the newspaper, my astrologer will be talking to me. This will be possible when we develop smart pipes by converging all equipments into one. Before 20 years, a man would have felt complete with a cigarette in his hand but today he does not feel complete unless he has a mobile phone in hand. This is how things have changed.”

Going with the tradition of Star Nite Awards, VARINDIA also recognized the Business & Marketing Wizards, Technology Evangelists and CEOs of the Year 2014 from across the industry. The veterans were felicitated with a token of appreciation at the event.

The most-awaited attraction of the evening was, however, the gala Award ceremony that took place amidst grandeur and celebrations. A total of 64 categories were announced this year and close-to 50 vendors were awarded for their remarkable contribution in their respective field.

There was also a Lucky Draw contest organized by Epson, Canon and Dell amidst the event where lucky winners walked away winning 2 Epson printers, 3 tablets from Dell and 2 Canon Colour laser printers.

The grand finale moment of the evening mesmerized the audience by making them remember three important persons in life – Father, Mother and Guru and the evening ended on a positive note by leaving a lasting impression in everyone’s mind. n

Channel Leadership Awards 2014

Canon India PVT. LTD. receives the Best Photo Copier and the Most Admirable Portable Scanner Award from Shri. Sunil Soni, IAS-Director General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSMEGovt. of India

42

November 2014

www.varindia.com

Canon India Pvt. Ltd receives the BEST IMAGING SOLUTION COMPANY Award from Shri. Vipin Tyagi, E.D-C Dot, Govt. of India and Shri. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Chief Editor - VARINDIA

Cisco Systems India Private Limited receives the Best Networking solution company and BEST VIDEO CONFERENCING INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTION COMPANY Award from Shri. SUNIL SONI,IAS-Director General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri.

S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India

Channel Leadership Awards 2014

EPSON India Private Limited receives the Best Projector-LCD, Best Dot Matrix Printer and Best POS Award from Shri. Vipin Tyagi, ED -CDot, Govt. of India and Mr. D.K.Sahu, Chief Editor-VARINDIA

HP INDIA PVT. LTD. receives the Best Desktop, Best Note Book- Enterprise, Best Inkjet Printer (Single & MFP) and Best Laser Printer (Single & MFP) Award from Shri.

SUNIL SONI, IAS-Director General, BISGovt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IASJ.S, MSME-Govt. of India

HP India Sales Pvt. Ltd receives the Best Server & Storage, Fastest Growing Networking Solution for SMB’s and the Channel Favourite company Award from Shri. SUNIL SONI, IAS-Director General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IASJ. S, MSME-Govt. of India

IBM INDIA PVT. LTD. receives the TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT SOLUTION COMPANY Award from Shri. SUNIL SONI, IAS-Director General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME - Govt. of India

Intel Corporation receives the Best Processor Award from Shri. SUNIL SONI, IAS-Director General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSMEGovt. of India

Lenovo India Pvt. Ltd receives the NoteBook Brand-SME Award from SUNIL SONI, IAS-Director General, Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, J.S, MSME-Govt. of India

Logitech India Electronic Private Limited receives the Best Keyboard (membrane), Webcam, Mouse and the Best Speaker Award from Shri. Vipin Tyagi, ED -C Dot, Govt. of India and Mr. D.K.Sahu, Chief EditorVARINDIA

RAILTEL CORPORATION OF INDIA receives the Best Carrier of the Carrier Award from Shri. Vipin Tyagi, ED -C Dot, Govt. of India and Mr. D.K.Sahu, Chief Editor-VARINDIA

Samsung Telecommunications India Pvt. Ltd receives the Best LED/LFD brand, Best Tablet-Galaxy Tab Award from Shri. SUNIL SONI, IAS-Director General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSMEGovt. of India

ADATA Technology India Pvt. Ltd. receives the Best SSD Award from Prof.Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, EditorVARINDIA

Aditya Infotech receives the Best Distributor in Security Surveillance Award from Prof.

Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

AVAYA INDIA PVT. LTD. receives the Best Unified Solution Company Award from Mr. Bimal Das, Jt. President- HCL Infosystems Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. D.K.Sahu, Chief EditorVARINDIA

CheckPoint Software Technologies receives the Best UTM Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, EditorVARINDIA

CtriS Data Centers Ltd. receives the Best Data Center in India Award from Prof.

Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

Cyberoam Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (A Sophos Company) receives the Best Security company In India and Best UTM- Indian Brand Award from Mr. Bimal Das, Jt. President- HCL Info November Systems Pvt. Ltd. and www.varindia.com 2014 43 Mr. D.K.Sahu, Chief Editor-VARINDIA

Best Shri.

BISIAS-

EVENT

Channel Leadership Awards 2014

EMC Data Storage Systems India Private Limited receives the Best Storage Solution company Award from Mr. Bimal Das, Jt. President- HCL Infosystems Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. D.K.Sahu, Chief Editor-VARINDIA

EMERSON NETWORK POWER (INDIA) PVT. LTD. receives the Best Power Management Solution Company Award from Mr. Bimal Das, Jt. President- HCL Infosystems Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. D.K. Sahu, Chief EditorVARINDIA

Gigabyte Technology receives the Best Motherboard Award from Mr. Bimal Das, Jt. President- HCL Infosystems Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. D.K.Sahu, Chief Editor-VARINDIA

Kaspersky Lab India receives the Best Antivirus software: SOHO Award from Prof.

Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

Kingston Technology receives the Best Memory Module Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, EditorVARINDIA

NComputing Private Ltd. receives the Best Thin Client- Desktop Virtualisation Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd. receives the Best ERP Software For SMB Award from Prof.

Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

TE Connectivity receives the Best Structured Cabling Company Award from Mr. Bimal Das, Jt. President- HCL Infosystems Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. D.K.Sahu, Chief Editor-VARINDIA

MicroWorld Technologies Incorporate (eScan) receives the Best Internet Security suite for SMB Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IITDelhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, EditorVARINDIA

FORTINET INC. receives the Best NextGeneration Firewall Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, EditorVARINDIA

Global Infonet Distributions Pvt. Ltd. receives the Most Preferred VAD (value added distributor) of the year 2014 Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

MCAFEE INDIA receives the Best Web Security Technology Company from Prof.

Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

NVIDIA Corporation receives the Best Graphics Cards Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, EditorVAR INDIA November 2014 www.varindia.com 44

ORACLE INDIA PVT. LTD. receives the Best Business Application Solution Company Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

RAH Infotech Pvt. Ltd. receives the Emerging VAD of the Year Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, EditorVARINDIA

Channel Leadership Awards 2014

TVS Electronics Ltd. receives the Best Mechanical Keyboards and Best POS- Indian Brand Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IITDelhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

VMWare Software India Pvt Ltd. receives the Best Server Virtualization Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VAR INDIA

Zicom Electronic Security Systems Limited. receives the Best Electronic Security company Award from Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT-Delhi and Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

Editor’s Choice Awards 2014

D-Link India Ltd. receives the Structured cabling Product Award from Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

EPSON INDIA Pvt. Ltd. receives the Revolutionary Printer Model L210 Award from Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VARINDIA

LG Electronics India Pvt. Ltd. receives the Innovative Product of the Year –LG Chrome Award from Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, EditorVARINDIA

Award given by Shri . SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Executive VP, CANON INDIA PVT. LTD.

Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India to Mr. Rajesh Janey, PRESIDENT, EMC DATA STORAGE SYSTEMS INDIA PVT.LTD. Award is received by his team member

Ricoh India Ltd. receives the Innovative Printer Model- SP 111/SP111SU Award from Mrs. S Mohini Ratna, Editor-VAR INDIA

Business Wizards of the Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India to Mr. HEMAL PATEL, CEO, CYBEROAM TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD. (A SOPHOS COMPANY). Award is received by his team member

year 2014

Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to Mr. AMAR BABU, MD- LENOVO INDIA. Award is received by his team member

www.varindia.com

November 2014

45

EVENT

Channel Leadership Awards 2014

Dell India Pvt. Ltd receives the Best Notebook- CONSUMER and SOHO Award from Ms. S Mohini Ratna, Editor- VARINDIA and Prof. Shriram Hegde, Department of Applied Mechanics-IIT, Delhi

Dell India Pvt. Ltd receives the Best Futuristic Company into Channel Award from Shri.

Vipin Tyagi, ED - CDot, Govt. of India and Mr. D.K. Sahu, Chief Editor - VARINDIA

D-Link India Limited receives the Best Networking Company Award from Shri. Vipin Tyagi, ED - CDot, Govt. of India and Mr. D.K. Sahu, Chief Editor - VARINDIA

CEO OF THE YEAR 2014

Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to Mr. TUSHAR SIGHAT, CEO- D-LINK INDIA PVT. LTD. Award is received by his team member

Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to Mr. PRASHNAT PRAKASH, CEOGLOBAL INFONET DISTRIBUTION PVT. LTD.

Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to Mr. VISHAL DHUPAR, MD - NVIDIA GRAPHICS PVT. LTD.

MARKETING WIZARDS OF Award given Mr. D.K. Sahu, Chief Editor VARINDIA to Ms. MANISHA SOOD, DIRECTOR – SMB, MICROSOFT CORPORATION (INDIA) Pvt. Ltd. Award is received by his team member

Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to Mr. Kishore Badami, Senior Vice President, Marketing, CISCO SYSTEMS INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED. Award is received by his team member

46

November 2014

www.varindia.com

THE YEAR 2014

Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to VMWARE Marketing team, VMWARE SOFTWARE INDIA PVT. LTD.

Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri.

S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to Mr. ANIL SETHI, DIRECTOR & GENERAL MANAGER, DELL INDIA PVT. LTD.

Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to Mr. SOM SATSANGI, VP - EG, HP INDIA SALES PVT. LTD. Award is received by his team member

TECHNOLOGY Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N. Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to SANDEEP ARYA, MD - AMTRAK TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.

EVANGELISTS

Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri.

S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to Mr. Bhaskar B., Regional Director, India & SAARC, CheckPoint Software Technologies Award is received by his team member

OF THE YEAR 2014 Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri. S.N. Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to Mr. KETAN PATEL, DIRECTORCOMPUTING PRODUCTS, HP INDIA SALES PVT. LTD. Award is received by his team member

Award given by Shri. SUNIL SONI, IASDirector General, BIS-Govt. of India and Shri.

S.N.Tripathy, IAS- J.S, MSME-Govt. of India to Mr. ASHOK K. LAHA, PRESIDENT & CEOINTERRA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.

Solution Display Kiosks

Dell

NIXI

CANON

CYBEROAM

Rah Infotech

TVS-E

DLINK

www.varindia.com

November 2014

47

CONTROLLING PREDATORY PRICING O

nline marketplace owners are extremely bullish about the prospects being offered by the Indian market, and India has now become the darling of international funds and investors. Taking this into account, a meeting of the Federation of All India Information Technology Associations organized by VARINDIA was held on 7th November, 2014 in New Delhi. The meeting was attended by the president/secretary from all the regional IT associations and several statelevel associations, including PCAIT, ADCTA, PACT, AIT, ACMA,FITDAK, TCCDA, COMPASS, CIITA, FITAM, ITAO, ISODA, SIITA and ASIRT. To combat the predatory march of e-tailers and in support of the issue, the key speakers who participated at the conclave included B. Hari, President, CIITA (East); Champak Raj Gurjar, President, FITAM (West); Alok Gupta, President, Progressive Channels’ Association of Information technology (PCAIT); Swarn Singh, Joint Secretary, All Delhi Computer Traders’ Association (ADCTA); Shyam Sunder Modi, Chairman, All Delhi Computer Traders’ Association (ADCTA); Kshitij M.Kotak, President, (ASIRT); K. K. Sharma, Strategic Consultant;K. L. Lalani, Chairman, COMPASS; Gurpreet Singh, President, (PACT); Sanjeev Walia, President, Chandigarh IT Association; Sanjeev Bhavnani, Chairman, Menterprenure Advisors; Nalin Patel, VicePresident, SIITA;Hiren Shah, Joint Secretary, ACMA, Ahmedabad; Arun KumarDey, President, ITAO, Bhubaneswar; Gurpreet Singh Sunny, President, PACT, Ludhiana; Veera Swamy, President, Twin Cities Computer Dealers'Association, Hyderabad; and KavitaSinghal, Vice-President, ISODA, M. Veera Swamy M, President, TCCDA, M. Natarajan, President, Confedita, Tamil Nadu, Mr. Senthil Kumar M, President, Sneham and Nalin Patel, Vice-Presidsent, SIITA, Bengluru.

48

November 2014

www.varindia.com

Shyam Sunder Modi, Chairman, All Delhi Computer Traders’ Association (ADCTA): Heavy discounts offered by e-commerce portals are disturbing the market to a great extent. No doubt, they are bearing losses, but that is backed by investors, which will later take out the money and ultimately the loss has to be borne by either the Government or the common man.

Swarn Singh, Joint Secretary, All Delhi Computer Traders’ Association (ADCTA): I accept that e-commerce is a new model of doing business, and it is to stay for long. But I am concerned about the unethical ways of doing business that e-tailors are following.

Alok Gupta, President, PCAIT: There are five weapons of the e-commerce vendor, channel, portal itself, consumers and the Government. The biggest problem that we all are facing is discounting; the second is price disparity; the third is tax issue; the fourth is warranty; and the fifth is unemployment of retailers.

Champak Raj Gurjar, President, FITAM (West): It is the e-tailors who are doing unethical business, so we should collect some solid evidences and then should fight against them with unity.

B. Hari, President, CIITA (East): As retailors, we have our own fundamental rights and e-tailors have their own rights, so for the suitable solution to our problem, we should go to the Court. The only thing that we want from the Competition Commission is the fair practice in terms of right pricing. We are powerful in our own way, but the only thing that we need to follow is –“Stay United”.

Kavita Singhal, Vice-Chairperson, ISODA: We should also talk about the interest of the Government, the vendors as well as e-commerce portals. Only then will they listen to our problem and find out any possible solution. We should submit a suitable presentation (with all the facts and figures), which curb around their benefits.

Arun Kumar Dey, President, ITAO, Bhubaneswar: The objective of the meeting was to arrive at a consensus amongst all the Presidents of the national IT traders associations to prevail upon the Government to come up with a suitable online policy, which suits e-commerce portals as well as traditional channels. It also desired to seek support at a national level to put pressure on the vendors to come up with a concrete solution to curb the online price parity that still continues to persist. Indian Information Technology (IT) Channels advised global brands to control predator y pricing tactics of electronic marketplaces or face noncooperation from November 24, 2014.

After detailed discussions on the matters related to predatory pricing, unfair trade practices and the challenges faced by the channel community due to the online marketplaces, the traditional ICT channels were left with only one option, i.e. to follow the basic principle “Stand United” as they can do much better business with their combined strength. The meeting concluded with the following resolutions: 1. The associations representing the states of Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh and one district-level associations in Maharashtra which had stopped purchases from Distributors till the resolution of the predatory pricing issue were advised to call off their voluntary restraint and commence business with Distributors with immediate effect.

2.

All OEMs, Brands and National Distributors are advised that they should consider the problems being faced by the channel community and take the following compliance action on or before 24th November, 2014: a) Ensure that MOP (Market Operating Price) and MRP (Maximum Retail Price) are in line with the operating prices at which channels are advised to sell. Several local and global brands have taken corrective and preventive action to ensure that online marketplaces do not undercut prices directly or through their sellers. b) Any incident where violation of MOP, MRP takes place the OEMs/ Brands / NDs (National Distributors) must immediately take corrective action. c) All Brands/OEMs/NDs are advised to comply with the above guidelines by 24th November, 2014. While the channel associations all over India will continue to do business with such Brands/OEMs/NDs who comply with the above requirement, the entire channel community across India will stop doing business with Brands/OEMs/NDs who do not comply with the above guidelines.

Finally, ICT Channel associations in the country have decided to intensify their actions to bring awareness amongst Governments, agencies, OEMs, members, media and the general public on the dangers of predatory pricing strategy that is being used by e-marketplaces.

Major Issues faced by IT Associations of India

Predatory Pricing: Social Impact: Unemployment: Loss to State Revenues:

This is high time and we want a suitable solution for our problem. I agree that going to the judiciary is the only solution left.

K. L. Lalani, Chairman, COMPASS: We have to put the pressure on OEMs / vendors that will work.

Although, it will take some time (if go through the core process), but it will certainly yield results. The sooner we approach the vendor, the sooner we will get results.

M. Veera Swamy, President, TCCDA: It should be made mandatory by all the State Governments for all the vendors to fill a specific form regarding the shipment of any goods within and outside the state as it is being practised in Gujarat.

Gurpreet Singh Sunny, President, PACT, Ludhiana: There are three probable solutions: one is approaching the Government;the second is to fight with vendors; and the third is “Unity within our own members”. We should find the defaulters within our own team.

Unless and until we work together as a team, we cannot fight against any vendor.

Kshitij M.Kotak, President, Association of System Integrators & Retailers in Technology (ASIRT): Vendor is the main culprit for any kind of pricing parity. In the US, there is an online E-Commerce Act, passed in April 2013, according to which e-commerce portals have to pay some percentage of tax on every item sold. Implementation of such kind of taxation by the Government for e-tailers can somewhere solve the problem.

M. Natarajan, President, Confedita, Tamil Nadu: 80% of the responsibility for price parity lies on the vendor’s shoulders and the rest is on the Govt. We are not against e-commerce because of the technology growth, convenience, but we have the basic demand from the vendor, i.e. they have to control the pricing parity.

Hiren Shah, Joint Secretary, ACMA, Ahmedabad: I want to say that 'United we will survive'. FITAH, the parent body ofGujarat Association has signed an MoU with Microsoft that without FITAH’s consent, Microsoft cannot carry out any raid at any partner and at any premises and no action will be taken as far as piracy is concerned.

Nalin Patel, Vice-Presidsent, SIITA, Bangaluru: We can fight with vendors, e-tailors or the Government, only when we will have unity with our own members and the associations.

Kaushal Kumar Sharma (ex-IRS), former Director General & Head of Merger Control and Anti Trust Divisions, Competition Commission of India, former Commissioner of Income Tax: In my opinion, all the organizations have to first make a strong base for the case with all the facts and figures. Secondly, organizations should have a strong channel to approach the Government.

Sanjeev Walia, President,Chandigarh IT Association: We should ask the Government to stop Cash on Delivery beyond a certain limit.

Let us have a mechanism for fixing discounts both on e-portals and for channels. This could be achieved by creating an escalation team, which will identify the culprit vendors which are creating price parity with different discounts. www.varindia.com November 2014

49

FACE TO FACE

“Our SMB-approach is our success mantra” There is more to ManageEngine than just offering free premium tools to its start-up customers. Vidya Vasu, Head of ManageEngine Community, while speaking to VARINDIA, shares the significance that the SMB customer holds for the company and how it capitalizes on their growing number in the county

F

ounded in 1996, ManageEngine had a different focussed market back then – large and enterprise-class customers.

During the slowdown in 2003, and as a plan to bring in more revenue, the company ventured into the SMB market by offering commercial IT management products. A network performance management company, the telecom boom in 2000 gave ManageEngine a good sign to revisit its company strategy.

"We thought we should be doing more of enterprise point products like network Management. We started with applications like Applications Manager and have moved a long way since then.

Today, we have 20 different products in our portfolio," says Vidya Vasu, Head of ManageEngine Community.

For the past 15 years, ManageEngine has been building IT management solutions and tools for start-ups and SMBs. "One of the main reasons for our success is the SMB-approach, though we also target large enterprises with a couple of applications. Our focus on SMBs is not only in India but also abroad. Globally, 70–80 per cent of business comes from SMBs/start-ups and the rest from enterprise business," observes Vidya.

There is always a lookout for free software in the market, as start-ups and SMBs are generally one-man shows or small teams with limited budgets who can't afford to pay for software.

ManageEngine understands that developing economies like India and others is a breeding ground for great technology innovations.

To nurture young and energetic IT innovators, solopreneurs and SMBs, ManageEngine provides freemium products and tools required to run IT for free. It is thoughtfully built with SMBs in mind and eventually scales for large businesses. It provides a delectable range of tools for start-ups that want to manage their IT without spending a dime. "This is a mutually beneficial program," says Vidya. "It also helps us as a Brand Recall strategy. With free tools, savvy start-ups can smarten up and look to enhance their productivity and performance. As companies grow, they always have the option of upgrading to our premium products without any hassle. We have 50 tools, including the Mobile App and 16 full-grown tools as the premium version."

With IT adoption in India growing, 35–40 per cent of its worldwide customers are from India alone, while another major chunk comes from the US. "We sell our solutions through partners, resellers and system integrators. We work with around 50 of them. Partners help us in growing and we, in turn, provide them necessary training and certification programs so that they are well versed in our applications and can sell them to the customers. We also have our products available online where we have a policy of 'try before you buy'. We have a free licence available for 30 days; if users wish to extend the trial period, we offer the extended trial licence also," explains Vidya.

In the long term...

ManageEngine is realigning and repositioning its products for a long haul in India. Network management market is itself a very huge market and ManageEngine seeks to have more market share in this space. One thing that differentiates this brand from the rest is that it provides scalability in and integration among all its products. For instance, it designs two applications in such a manner that they can, if needed, talk with each other seamlessly.

“We would be focussing on making this integration smoother.

Quite many of our products have already been integrated. We would also like to add more value to our products and add more

50

November 2014

www.varindia.com

Vidya Vasu Head - ManageEngine Community

Ideally, ManageEngine, Zoho, and WebNMS form the three entities under the parent company, Zoho Corp. With the emergence of cloud, more people are moving on to the cloud and Zoho was created as a separate division to offer online business, productivity and collaboration applications. Customers use Zoho applications to run their business processes, manage their information and be more productive while at the office or on the go, without having to worry about expensive or outdated hardware or software. Additionally, it provides services like CRM support, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Docs, etc.

WebNMS, on the other hand, is a provider of M2M solutions that provide data integration and application development environment for rapid deployment of M2M applications for management of connected devices in real time. free tools. We want to be in the reckoning of businesses that grow and when they grow they should remember ManageEngine,” hopes Vidya.

India is a huge market and because of the huge number of start-ups and businesses that have sprung up in the last two-three years, it definitely sees a good growth here. n samrita@varindia.com

www.adata.com XPG Z1 DDR4 DRAM Module

DDR in India

ADATA DDR4 are approved by all leading motherboard manufacturers

Why ADATA DDR4?

Amazing Performance with Great Power Efficiency

Excellent cooling

Top-Quality Chips For High Durability

Transfer bandwidth reaching up to 22GB/s

Speeds of up to 2800MHz

Consumes 40% less power compared to DDR3L

Also Available

Server DDR4 DRAM Modules

Consumer DDR4 DRAM Modules

www.varindia.com

Find us ADATA India November 2014 51

e-Governance

Escaping the Dementors "Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them... Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself... soulless and evil. You will be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life."

— Remus Lupin (from “Harry Potter” series of Books)

By Shri. Rajesh Aggarwal, IAS, Principal Secretary-IT, Govt. of Maharastra

I

n Harry Potter books, there are creatures called Dementors, who suck the happy memories out of you. Whenever a Dementor is nearby, you feel hollow. All of us have experienced the same feeling whenever we have to visit a Government Office for getting something done. As citizens, we feel hollow and helpless as we know that we may encounter humiliation along with wastage of Time, Money and Effort.

How can we escape the Dementors? eGovernance (use of Technology in Government) can be the Patronus Charm for the citizens in escaping the dementors, that feeling of utter helplessness which a visit (or an ensuing visit) to a Government office causes. I and my team at Maharashtra DIT (Department of IT) have been pioneering experiments with UID (Aadhaar) based eKYC (Electronic KYC) mechanism to achieve this objective of eliminating visits to Government Offices. We are the only State to build our own AUA/ASA and KUA/KSA infrastructure which talks to CIDR servers of UIDAI to have Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow biometric authentication of any individual. APIs working across multiple platforms and devices allow this. We have also issued GR (Government Resolution) enabling all departments to do eKYC for PoI (Proof of Identity) and PoA (Proof of Address).

“Bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy” said Oscar Wilde.

What steps do you take to Minimize Government?

• First, try eliminating departments (If Planning Commission goes out at centre, should Planning Departments in the State Governments also go?). I ask many officials – will the citizens benefit or suffer if your department/office is shut down tomorrow? Guess the answer!

• Eliminate outdated Laws, Acts and Rules.

• Eliminate many requirements (Why have Tahsildars and Collectors giving Non-Agricultural NA permissions when the State Cabinet has already approved Development Plan? Why have kids give Domicile certificate for admissions in colleges if they have passed Matriculation from the State?)

• Next, shift onus of paperwork from citizen to government (Rather than giving attested copy of Marks-sheet, student should just indicate his Roll number, and the Education department server should pass on the detailed, authentic result info to the organization needing this info. Why should the farmer run around to get a copy of his land title? He should just indicate his land survey number, and the Bank or the organization needing this info should just get it from the Server of the Land department, and so on) • Trust the citizen. Ban affidavits. Trust self-declaration.

• Simplify Forms, reduce Annexures, allow multiple payment options, allow easy application process (online, at CSCs, at cybercafés, at privately set up front desks like passport office etc.) and easier delivery (at home like passport/driving license or digital signed certificate in emails, or easy pick up at private counters etc.)

• Massive decentralization, delegation and reducing touch points in file handling/decision making.

52

November 2014

www.varindia.com

In all my discussions with various departments on the roll-out of eGovernance projects, I tell them eTransaction should stand for “Eliminated Transaction” rather than “Electronic Transaction”.

This thinking results in full elimination or drastic simplification of the processes, rather than just blindly trying to computerize existing processes without any BPR (Business Process Re-engineering).

Even after all these steps to minimize the Government, the citizens will still need physical visits to many places to prove “I am Me”.

Driving license, Property Registration, Voter Card photography, Pensioners Live Certificate, Opening Bank Account etc. all require a physical visit. Can this be eliminated? Yes! Many departments have seen massive computerization (Property Registration, Driving License etc.). It has made process smoother, faster. But has it reduced or eliminated the bribes? Not fully, because the physical contact between citizen and Government is not eliminated.

If I can get a pizza delivered at Home, then I should also get a G2C service delivered at home, maybe at a premium. I often say that my department DIT stands for “Do It Together”, with various stakeholders pitching in for start-up kind of solutions – start with a clean slate, and design a user-friendly, elegant, scalable solution. Property Registration department in Maharashtra has done a path breaking project with help of my department, DIT. We have set up a “virtual sub-registrar” office in the cloud. eKYC also makes Paperless and Instantaneous transactions possible.

One can walk paperlessly into a bank branch, do eKYC and walk out in seconds with an active bank account! Coming next: One can even sit at home, do eKYC and open a bank account. For SIM card, no need to give attested copies of papers, and wait for some guy to physically verify your residence, and then wait for 24 hours to get SIM card activated. Do eKYC, and your SIM card should get activated instantly without submitting any papers. Think of 80 crore mobiles. Calculate the cost to Telcos of storing physical copies of documents submitted

by SIM subscribers with DOT/TRAI defined strict retrieval SLAs, and cost of third party physical address verification, and we are here talking about Rupees Ten Thousand Crores National savings!

Further, usage of eKYC can result in Freedom from Location, liberating the citizen from being tied to a particular Ration Shop, Voting Booth, Sub-Registrar office, Hospital, and so on, as she would be able to get services from a location convenient to her, and which is more courteous and transparent.

And think of it! eKYC is such a great class-leveler. Earlier, only the illiterate would put a thumb impression on documents while literate would take out a pen for signature. Now even the literate are resorting to thumb impressions (on biometric machines)! n

www.varindia.com

November 2014

53

VAR PANCHAYAT

AIT Looks at 'Online Trading' as a Major Pain Point M. A. Sathya Prasad, President, Association of Information Technology (AIT), in a chat with VARINDIA, talks about how his Association has taken up the challenge of the ongoing tussle with online traders and the things AIT has on its agenda to address the current issues

W

ith the current member strength of 600, the Association of Information Technology (AIT), Bengaluru has come a long way working for the welfare of the Channel community of Bengaluru, since 1997. It aims at fostering cooperation amongst members for healthy growth of the Information Technology industry. The Association is run by an 11member Committee headed by its President along with a Secretary, Joint Secretary, Vice-President, Treasurer and 6 Executive Members. This Committee is elected for a period of two years. The total strength of the Association is 600, out of which 300 are lifetime members. To become a lifetime member, a person has to pay a onetime membership fee of Rs.12,500. At the same time, the member has to fulfil certain conditions like duration of his business, two references from the existing members, etc.

The Association majorly tries to meet the challenges faced by its members. It forms Special Interest Groups on issues concerning the industry for making representations towards formulation of policies, regulations, including commercial aspects, taxes etc. to the Government, vendors, customers, etc. It also conducts technical and skill development workshops, entertainment and networking sessions.

Other challenges faced by the channel include warranty issues, service support, payment problems, etc from the vendors.

If there is lack of vendor support for the channel community, AIT plays a major role in settling it. Another important issue is payment. If any member has any payment issue with national distributors, regional distributors, etc, the Association tries to mediate and find an amicable solution. AIT also strongly recommends to its members to use licensed software and take a united stand against piracy. It also encourages members for adopting fair practices and avoid doing unethical business.

Role of AIT in containing online challenge

The main objective of the Association, at the moment, is to meet the challenge faced by its members from online e-tailers. Most of the members are badly affected directly or indirectly in terms of sales, profitability and losing customer confidence. “This problem can only be addressed by vendors, as channel is selling their products and it is their duty to see that Channel and online

54

November 2014

www.varindia.com

traders are at a level-playing field. The vendors have funds and they can spend it to promote the brick-and-mortar Channel community and preventing it from getting severely affected. Already, many members have been affected and have gone out of business. If it continues, it will affect other members also,” says M. A. Sathya Prasad, President – AIT. In this context, the main concern of the Association is to request vendors to find a solution as both the Channel and online traders ultimately are offering their products and they have the authority to dictate terms either to the online or offline traders. The Association is already playing a major part in educating end-users through social media. It also trying to spread knowledge about advantages of buying from brick-and-motor channel other than online. The Association educates end-users about service support facility, touch-andfeel experience, easy exchange facility when they buy from the channel.

Opportunities members

for

the

Talking of opportunities, the Association helps in fostering bonding and unity among its members with a feeling of belonging to help each other in business as well as other matters. It also offers scholarships to children of the members of the Association. In every two months, AIT conducts fellowship meets where all members get together and discuss issues that need to be addressed by the Association.

“We organize fellowships for our members which are theme-based and it helps members to equip themselves to face the current challenges. It provides a common platform for all companies associated with the IT industry in the state of Karnataka to address issues at the local level. It also provides a platform to interact with each other through regular meetings which, in turn, may help in establishing the ground rules that should lead to a healthier and more productive business environment,” the president explains.

AIT aims to foster cooperation amongst its members for healthy growth of the Information Technology industry and also promote espirit-de-corps amongst members of the Association. It also carries out activities so that the dividends of business reach the society at large. A proposal to buy a property for the Association to build its own office is also under consideration. n

M. A. Sathya Prasad President, Association of Information Technology

On the agenda of AIT 1. Addressing major issues faced by Member partners related to corporate, government or any other market challenges. Special Interest Groups are formed to take care of these problems.

2. Conducting technical and skill development workshops for members.

3. Organizing Fellowship Meets every two years to discuss issues collectively.

4. Proposal for buying a plot of land in Bengaluru for setting up its own office.

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; West Bengal: 97485 02710; Karnataka: 81236 www.varindia.com November 2014 86976; www.varindia.com September 55 73 Andhra Pradesh: 90000 77671; Tamil Nadu: 74117 74666; Kerala: 98950 99231

FACE TO FACE

“India is a unique, yet potential market for WatchGuard” R

ecognizing an unmet need for a security solution that addresses the rapidly-evolving threat landscape, WatchGuard has got solutions that deliver security, performance and rock-solid reliability at the same time for users ranging from SMEs to large distributed enterprises. The company’s broad portfolio delivers flexibility and deployment options that lets users decide who, what, when, why and how to defend a network using WatchGuard’s solutions.

WatchGuard architected its high-throughput, highly scalable, and flexible Fireware operating system to form the backbone of its products. This platform yields dramatically higher performance at a much lower cost than competitors in environments where multiple security engines are enabled. The company’s enterprise range of solutions is getting wider acceptability and is witnessing exciting growth. As a result, WatchGuard’s team and the level of local investment continue to grow in 2014, and Scott Robertson, Vice-President – APAC, WatchGuard, expects this trend to continue in 2015 and beyond.

Top trends of enterprise UTM market Cybercriminals are targeting network with a new generation of malware which is more advanced and persistent. The recent massive security breaches like Target Store have put network security on the boardroom agenda for CEOs. It has never been more critical for organizations to re-evaluate how they segment

the network and ensure they have the right policies applied. As a result, UTM has evolved quickly to add additional security layers such as data loss prevention (DLP) and advanced persistent threat (APT) to ensure enterprise customers have the latest in security defenses available. Whether an enterprise chooses UTM or a subset as an NGFW it is critical to ensure gateway security is beefed up with the latest advances in network protection.

WatchGuard addressing Cloud computing space Any business looking to leverage Cloudbased solutions must consider the inherent risk of hosting their data or technology in a remote location. Whether it be simply to

56

November 2014

www.varindia.com

retain control and security of traffic and data flowing between the corporate and cloud network or to ensure that adequate levels of defense are deployed to protect against "infected neighbours" that may be sharing a server or other equipment in a data center, the question of security remains and that is exactly where WatchGuard’s XTM and NGFW provide customers with that layer of control and management. If you are thinking cloud, think security first!

WatchGuard’s Solutions specifically for SMBs/SMEs WatchGuard's product portfolio of UTM and NGFW security solutions cater to the needs of businesses of all sizes and across all verticals. Scott Robertson shares, “More recently, we have launched the Firebox T10 which is fully loaded and brings enterpriselevel network security to small /home offices.

In just a few months of its launch, T10 bagged multiple awards from reputed agencies with ‘best buy’ recommendations so we are confident this solution is well positioned for the SMB market.” There should be no reason for an SMB to compromise on the quality of security simply due to the size of their business and that is the exact market WatchGuard targeted with the Firebox T10.

Interestingly, there are a number of enterprise businesses use the T10 for executive home office connections to ensure company-level security is maintained when connecting from home for busy executives.

WatchGuard’s Channel Ecosystem WatchGuard has a network of 100+ partners across India closely working with them, out of which 50 are WatchGuard Secure Partners (WSPs) who have committed to technical and sales certifications and receive additional benefits. WatchGuard being a 100% channel-driven company, its partners assume great importance in the company’s ecosystem. Bringing more potential and committed partners on board and enabling them through regular hands-on trainings, webinars, knowledge sharing sessions is a continuous drive. Scott Robertson says, “We have been successfully running WatchGuard Secure Partner Program for years together.

Soon you will hear about WatchGuard unveiling a newly enhanced partner program which offers all that our partners need to stay one step ahead of the competition and make good margins. The Indian market is

Scott Robertson Vice President- APAC WatchGuard

I can proudly say that today we, as a heavily focussed company on firewall security, addresses security challenges with much required efficiency and enables businesses to work in a much more secured environment. a potential market with very unique value proposition. We can understand the size of the Indian market to some extent, but we cannot understand the density and complexity of the Indian market.”

WatchGuard got recognition The India market is important and WatchGuard recognized this by investing in local operations over a decade ago and its business continues to grow. In the last few months alone, WatchGuard bagged more than ten prestigious recognitions from reputed media and analyst firms including Gartner, InfoTech Research, NSS Labs and Network Computing, to name a few. n satinder@varindia.com

Movers & Shakers

HCL Services rejigs management

HCL Services has announced three key appointments. Biswanath Bhattacharya as the Chief Executive and will be responsible for the Services business. He joins HCL Services, from HP, where he was the Vice-President and General Manager, Technology Services, HP India.

“The Channel Business is expected to be a unique growth engine in the company’s overall strategy in building marketplace dominance in the Services industry,” commented Biswanath Bhattacharya.

Ravi Venkatraman has been appointed as the Chief Sales Officer for the Enterprise Services Business. He comes on the board with rich corporate experience in organizations like Xerox, Reliance Communications and Kodak Services.

Madhavan P has joined HCL Services as the Chief of Channel Services Business. He too comes on board with over 26 years of experience across FMCG and TELCOs. Until recently, he was the Sr Vice-President & Head of Sales, Enterprise Business, Tata Teleservices. Prior to that, he was the Chief Sales & Distribution Officer, Virgin Mobile. He would be responsible for driving the channel strategy and rapidly expand the channel to deliver “GOLD STANDARDS” in Service Excellence.

Rajesh Rege appointed MD for Red Hat India

Red Hat has appointed Rajesh Rege as Managing Director for Red Hat India. Rajesh will work closely with all the business units to advance the open source benefits of cloud IT to meet customer needs in India.

Rajesh Rege is an IT veteran with more than 26 years of work experience spanning country business management, national sales management, industry business development as well as channel strategy and management roles in various global corporations.

Prior to joining Red Hat, Rajesh was with Cisco for four years as director and country head of Data Center and Cloud Business for Cisco in India, and SAARC. Before Cisco, Rajesh spent 11 years with Sun Microsystems in various leadership roles.

Jayanthi Sethuraman joins Tally India

Jayanthi Sethuraman has joined Tally Solutions as the Global Head of Marketing.

With nearly two decades of experience, Jayanthi has worked with numerous IT companies, including HP, IBM and Fujitsu as a corporate communication executive. Prior to joining Tally, Jayanthi was working as the marketing head for Fujitsu in India and Africa.

Jayanthi holds an M.S. in Advertising from Syracuse University, USA. She has a strong focus on lead generation, business development and contribution to sales pipeline.

Dr. Alok Bharadwaj to take charge at Canon Singapore

Canon India has announced that Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, its Executive Vice-President, will be moving on an international assignment to Canon Singapore, effective 1st January, 2015. Canon Singapore is the headquarters of its South East and South Asia business operations.

Dr Bharadwaj will be heading the Corporate Strategy Group as the Senior Vice-President and will be responsible for strategic business planning and execution as well as corporate communications for Canon’s South East and South Asian regional operations. He will also be overseeing business development in emerging Asian markets in this region. In his new role, he will be reporting to Kensaku Konishi, President & CEO of Canon’s South East and South Asia Operations.

Canon India will have no direct successor to the position of EVP. The President and CEO of the company will continue to head India business operations.

Subroto Das quits Western Digital

The Western Digital DirectorIndia & South Asia, Subroto Das has resigned from his position recently. He was responsible for leading India & South Asia team for Components (Internal Drives), Branded (External Drives) and SMB (Cloud Solutions) businesses, Distributor-Reseller model. He also looked after delivering revenue, growth and market share numbers in the region. He was associated with the company since 2013.

Prior to this he also held responsible positions such as Vice President-System Storage Group-India & South Asia at IBM from 2011-13, Chief Operating Officer-India & SAARC, EMC from 2009 till 2011. Apart from IBM and EMC he was associated with HP from 1997 to 2007 in various positions and also with Cisco.

He started his career as a Regional Sales Manager-Telecom in Wipro Infotech. He holds an engineering degree from Bengal Engineering and Science University and an MBA in Finance from Faculty of Management Studies - University of Delhi.

Sanjay Baweja joins Flipkart as CFO

Flipkart.com has appointed Sanjay Baweja as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Sanjay, who in his earlier role was Global CFO for Tata Communications, brings with him over three decades of valuable experience, having worked with large names like Bharti Airtel, Emaar MGF and Xerox ModiCorp, the announcement adds.

In his current position, Sanjay will be part of the leadership team at Flipkart – contributing to the overall organizational development along with defining the strategic roadmap for profitable revenue growth.

“Flipkart has revolutionized e-commerce in India and I am impressed by their continuous commitment to growth without losing sight of operational excellence. This is a game-changing opportunity and I look forward to contributing to Flipkart’s vision and business strategy in my role as their CFO,” says Sanjay Baweja.

www.varindia.com

November 2014

57

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Epson SureLab D700 T

he Epson SureLab D700 compact photo production inkjet printer is designed for high-quality photo printing of up to one metre in length. It is Epson's first 6-colour compact photo production printer with inkjet technology. It utilizes Epson's Micro Piezo printhead and image processing technology, along with our Epson genuine ink for crisp, vivid results. It is offering a wide range of media and format options. Combining vibrant colour output with reliability and costefficiency, it is ideally suited for small- and medium-sized commercial photo labs in India.

The outstanding flexibility of Epson’s Micro Piezo print head technology used within the Epson SureLab D700 guarantees crisp and vivid image quality.

The printed images are sharp and defined, thanks to its high 1440dpi x 720dpi (max) resolution, variable sized ink droplets and precise droplet placement. The Epson SL-D700 has been manufactured to easily provide print durable colour and black and white images on gloss, lustre and matte media and can produce prints sized from 102mm x 152mm to 205mm x 305mm. It is capable of producing up to 360 6" x 4" production quality photos per hour. Users are able to print directly from common photo applications and also available as an optional Epson proprietary OrderController V3.0 software at additional cost, that has integrated job estimation, scheduling, image editing and colour control to easily manage print jobs. n

58

November 2014

www.varindia.com

6OMFBTIFT VQ UP ()[ PG QFSGPSNBODF BOE DPOUBJOT VQ UP QPXFSGVM DPSFT TP ZPV DBO HBNF PWFSDMPDL BOE HFU UIF NBY PVU PG ZPVS FYQFSJFODF (SBQIJDT ".% '9 ".% '9

$PSFT

1BDLBHJOH

".% 3BEFPO 3 9

()[

5IFSNBM %FTJHO 1PXFS

.#

.#

4PDLFU ".

ON 40*

.#

.#

4PDLFU ".

ON 40*

".% "UIMPOů "16T

&WFSZEBZ DPNQVUJOH KVTU HPU BO VQHSBEF

"XBSE XJOOJOH Å¡,BCJOJÅ¢ "16

'T C 6QHSBEBCMF 4PDLFU

i "EWBODFE .JDSP %FWJDFT *OD "MM SJHIUT SFTFSWFE ".% UIF ".% "SSPX MPHP BOE DPNCJOBUJPOT UIFSFPG BSF USBEFNBSLT PG "EWBODFE .JDSP %FWJDFT *OD 0UIFS OBNFT BSF GPS JOGPSNBUJPOBM QVSQPTFT POMZ BOE NBZ CF USBEFNBSLT PG UIFJS SFTQFDUJWF PXOFST

"VUIPSJ[FE %JTUSJCVUPS

Head Office:

(MPCBM *OGPOFU %JTUSJCVUJPO 1WU -UE Global Infonet Distribution Pvt Ltd. D-98, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-1, New Delhi 110020, (India) % 0LIMB *OEVTUSJBM "SFB 1IBTF /FX %FMIJ *OEJB

5FM

8FC XXX HMPCBMJOGPOFU JO

Branches:

Kolkata : 9163022869, Siliguri : 9832384099, Bhubaneswar : 9337221110, Ranchi : 9576266777, Patna : 9771440963, Lucknow : 9335758907, Gurgaon : 9215602544, Jaipur : 7597252526, Chandigarh : 9780299313, Ludhiana : 9781811151, Dehradun : 9897876014, Ghaziabad : 9711672568, Jammu : 9858282726, Parwanoo : 8283094377, Cochin : 9846910101, Bangalore : 9845945919, Hyderabad : 9246815686, Vishakhapatnam : 9949991414, Chennai : 9600077820, Coimbatore : 9943397583, Mumbai : 9923976699, Ahemdabad : 9925020581, Pune : 9822708777, Nagpur : 9373083295, Raipur : 8889915655, Indore : 8959755669, Jabalpur : 9827745317, Delhi : 9810873064,

www.varindia.com

November 2014

59

COVER STORY

Social Media: A Platform for ‘Entertainment’ or ‘Investment' O

ne of the huge marketing channels which has given corporates great ways to protect and build their digital reputations, is social media. Nowadays, social media is becoming an integral part of life online with the proliferation of social websites and applications. Interestingly, social media platforms have emerged as a brand ambassador for the brands. The usage of social media has now become ubiquitous outside and inside companies. It has given brands a great way to protect and build their digital reputation.

These platforms offer a newer channel to communicate and interact with the consumers.

As a result, brands are clearly no longer being built unidirectional, through messages sent by companies to their customers. In this dawn of a new era, technology is making it easier for

people to converse, and the power is getting transferred from companies to consumers.

Consumers’ final decisions to buy are largely based on recommendations from others who

“Social Media is a very interesting medium through which one can engage and intrigue their consumers, create conversations and connect with them based on their preference.” - Sandeep Aurora, Director – Marketing & Market Development, Intel “The percentage of people adopting social media is very high, especially amongst the people who are able to access internet from their mobile devices.”

- Sandeep Menon, Director of Marketing, Google India

“Irrespective of the channel, a s t r o n g c o m m u n i c a t i o n s t ra t e g y c a n h e l p b u i l d b ra n d r e l e v a n c e a n d c r e d i b i l i t y i n t h e m a r ke t . ” - S a r t h a k S e t h , H e a d – B ra n d & M a r ke t i n g Co m m u n i c a t i o n s , Pa n a s o n i c I n d i a

60

November 2014

www.varindia.com

have already bought or used the products or service in question, and who share their buying and consumption experiences on the Internet. Hence, to emerge as a credible brand and the right choice for consumers, it is important to invest in devising a strong social media strategy. Emphasizing more on the importance of social media, Lloyd Mathias, Head – Marketing, PPS, HP India, exerts, “We are now even amplifying our offline campaigns and messages by integrating them with social and digital. For example, our latest

campaign, “Bend the Rules”, found resonance across various social media platforms. We also created various “webisodes” as a part of our campaign and leveraged it on the Facebook and Twitter to inspire and invite millennials of India to share their unconventional stories and showcase how they bent the rules in life.”

Today, social media presence has become a necessity for entrepreneurs, business owners and organizations. Sandeep Menon, Director of Marketing, Google India, comments, “The percentage of people adopting social media is very high, especially amongst the people who are able to access internet from their mobile devices. The job of a media is to convey your message out, the same way social media is doing its work. Today, corporates are leveraging social media to increase their brand presence.” Social media is used to engage and educate existing and prospective clients in a cost-effective manner, and leverage success

“There are various parameters to measure the success of social media, largely driven by the engagement – measured through its reach and the engagement driven through it.” - Ryusuke Fukushima, Head – Marketing Communications, Sony India for your company or business. It has become an essential tool for business development, building brand awareness and customer retention.

Enterprise social networking provides organizations with an unprecedented level of knowledge within its talent pool. Vinay Pradhan, Country Head, Skillsoft India, adds, “With social media, managements can easily discern who the most valuable contributors are and where organizational knowledge lies.

Some learning solutions incorporate Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social channels which enable learners to communicate effectively with their peers as well as allowing the learning content to be shared on various social media platforms.” Learning management systems (LMS) can incorporate Web 3.0 tools and further be customized in order to manage conversations through blog posts, discussion forums, podcasts, social media, offline messaging, and email as well as through chat rooms and live web conferencing which is highly cost-effective.

So, it is true to say that social media, today, is not just a tool but a way of life and therefore if any brand has to have a meaningful relationship with its consumers, it needs to have a strong presence on these

“We are the largest visited SAP country site in the world across various social media platforms. We have over 1,00,000 followers in India alone across various social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.” - Rajesh Kumar, Head of Marketing – SAP India

media platforms. Any brand should be able to answer the consumer’s biggest question – “What is in it for me?” Promoting the brand and aiding business profitability is the result of having excellent customer engagement.

Here, the need is to not just respond to queries or complaints that come from users, but to create value for the “fans”. Sandeep Aurora, Director – Marketing & Market Development, Intel, expresses, “As a corporate, you should never position your social media presence as a sales platform, because you take away the engagement through these personal platforms. This is a very interesting medium through which one can engage and intrigue their consumers, create conversations and connect with them based on their preference.”

Agreeing to this, Sarthak Seth, Head – Brand & Marketing Communications, Panasonic India, opines, “Communication is the key to make an impact on the audiences. Irrespective of the channel, a strong communication strategy can help build brand relevance and credibility in the market. The same applies to the social media engagement. With a large section of consumers present online today, products from across categories have seen

“We are one of the oldest security vendors who have been securing the port 80 where you access internet and port 443, which we monitor sitting there for almost all large organizations globally.” - Ambarish Deshpande, Managing Director, Blue Coat Systems – India an upsurge in the consumer demand.” The information available to the consumers online creates a holistic and beneficial setting for the consumers. In India, which is one of the most diverse economies in the world, social media has made it possible for companies to reach out to consumers in every nook and corner of the country. This revolution has also helped brands amplify their reach in the regions where they don’t have physical presence in the form of retail outlets and stores. It has also made it possible to be proactive in maintaining, building and protecting you are the brand and help spread word-of-mouth. SAP has invested significantly in the social media space to build reach and connect with its customers, partners and the broader ecosystem. Rajesh Kumar, Head of Marketing, SAP India, says, “We are the largest visited SAP country site in the world across various social media platforms.

“HP recently created various ‘webisodes’ as a part of our campaign and leveraged it on Facebook and Twitter to inspire and invite millennials of India to share their unconventional stories and showcase how they bent the rules in life.” - Lloyd Mathias, Head – Marketing, PPS, HP India We have over 1,00,000 followers in India alone across various social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.”

Successful Social Media strategy Success is based on regular engagement with fans / followers. Every corporate generally looks daily comments on its Facebook posts, gain re-tweets, send questions in their way.

Ryusuke Fukushima, Head – Marketing Communications, Sony India, comments, “There are various parameters to measure the success, largely driven by the engagement – measured through its reach and the engagement driven through it. Both these parameters go hand in hand and play a very important role.”

Reach help in increasing exposure to our communication and engagements confirms its acceptance. Another important parameter which plays an important role is sentiments of fans which help not only maintaining the brand reputation but guide in setting the right approach to success.

In general, social media measurements can be defined at different levels. The first level would be the measurement of Reach.

This is the basic level, denoted in terms of simple numbers including likes on the Facebook page, followers on the Twitter

“Social media for Enterprises is about packaging a company’s offerings in a fashion that appeals to your target audience on the web.” - Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst & CEO, Greyhound Research

www.varindia.com

November 2014

61

COVER STORY

“Breach of organizational privacy is a major setback to social media. Diehard competitors could be using your socially available information to develop counterstrategies by doing counter-promotions, campaigns, or product placements.” Manish Godha, CEO & Founder, Advaiya

“Social media attracts a lot of traffic to the websites. At times, too much of usage can lead to reducing the availability of bandwidth.” - Rajiv Kumar, CEO & Founder, Manusis Technologies

“With social media, management can be able to discern who the most valuable contributors are and where organizational knowledge lies.” - Vinay Pradhan, Country Head, Skillsoft India

profile, connections of LinkedIn, Views on YouTube and so on. This measure provides an idea about how strong or impressive are the outbound marketing efforts. Then, we have measurement of Engagement with customers. Comments, shares, retweets or ratings act as mouth-to-mouth publicity for corporates and brands. The third level could be Returns to the corporate, which refers to the actual gains made by them. Generation of leads, identification of new markets and potential customers, increase in the number of registrations or downloads could be a few artifacts to measure returns.

Manish Godha, CEO & Founder, Advaiya, comments, “Breach of organizational privacy could be another major setback. Die-hard competitors could be using your socially available information to develop counterstrategies by doing counter-promotions, campaigns, or product placements. Besides, there could be even legal implications like unintentional offending or copyright issues, which might sprout out of social media campaigns and activities.”

So, there should be a restriction on the social media outlets and regular monitoring for appropriate usage of information within the organization. Apart from this, a company’s each social media activity must be clearly identified with defined objectives to guide its usage. As security vendors, Blue Coat has been in this space for quite some time. Based on his own experience, Ambarish Deshpande, Managing Director, Blue Coat Systems – India, says, “We are one of the oldest security vendors who have been securing the port 80 where you access internet and port 443. These are the two http and https ports which we monitor sitting there for almost all large organizations globally.” Recently, Blue Coat has added a hybrid cloud offering for its customers, whereby, when a user uses its mobile or laptop behind a firewall or a Blue Coat proxy, in the office, they have an ability to monitor and audit the content.

a lot of traffic to the websites. At times, too much of usage can lead to reducing the availability of the bandwidth. Users exchange files which may contain viruses. If there are some limits to social media, it will help in reducing the risk of malicious software.”

Social media is an effective medium to build relationships and drive conversations between people and brands. While many use social media as a way to broadcast thoughts, the opportunity for a brand to revolutionize the way it is perceived, by way of social media, is immense. . It is also important for brands and customers to apply self-discretion while engaging on the social media and comply with certain do’s and don’ts:

Some risks associated with social media Though social media marketing is a great tool for corporations to boost business and engage with the consumers, it is extremely unpredictable. The risk on social media is the same as talking to someone face to face.

If you say something you are not supposed to, then there is a problem, doesn’t matter whether you tweet it or say it over the phone.

Social media ceased to be just another tool; it has become another communication tool, just like touch or speak. As a brand, your fans follow you because you are respected and they feel that what you say is worth reading.

You should never take that for granted because the same fans who “love” you, could turn against you and all the respect you have earned will be lost. It is better to play it safe on social media and keep doing what has been working so far. At Intel, they have a set of social media guidelines that they follow very strictly. The team also makes sure to not comment or speculate on anything that they are not supposed to, publically.

62

November 2014

www.varindia.com

Limits on social media Limitations are there in every field. As a brand, you are bound by more limitations than an individual, online. Being on social media for a brand is similar to working in an office environment. In the office, you are bound to not talk about something you have no understanding of or to pass comments where your presence is not needed.

Companies have to ensure that their employees don’t use the company’s forum for personal reasons and venting out their personal grudges. Also, employees may waste their time on social networking sites, thus blogging and networking should not lead to interference with work schedule and commitments. Shedding more light to this, Rajiv Kumar, CEO & Founder at Manusis Technologies opines, “Social media attracts

• Be clear and transparent in your communication • Do not disclose any confidential information • Use of accurate information • Avoid any offensive or defamatory comments about competitors or any other individuals • Respond to comments with sincerity and politely; don’t spark controversies As far as a B2B company is concerned, it is important to identify the platform and the audience they would like to communicate with. If it is the C-Level executive, crisp communication with used cases on a product or service needs to be shared on platforms like LinkedIn; LinkedIn groups is a great way to engage with other professionals and showcase users work. Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst & CEO, Greyhound Research, shares, “Social media for enterprises is about packaging a company’s offerings in a fashion that appeals to your target audience on the web. It requires specific skill set to package the information in a manner that will appeal most to different categories of customers.” An organization that is active on the ground but inactive or dormant on social media is likely to lose about 30–40% of prospective customer base. Finally, it is true to say that social media gives an organization the required tools to promote itself, how an organization does it is what companies need to address. n satinder@varindia.com

FACE TO FACE

Celkon aspires to become a 1200 Cr. company In a chat with VARIndia, Murali Retineni, Executive Director - Celkon Mobiles discusses about the growth plans of Celkon along with its immediate goal and importance of Channel community to the company

Please brief us about Celkon.

Celkon started in the year 2010. It’s been a journey of four and a half years. It is a company that witnessed a consistent growth year-on-year ever since it is launched. We have closed our financial year 2010-11 at Rs. 80 crore, in the second financial year it was Rs. 300 crore, in third Rs. 650 crore and in the last financial year Rs. 925 crore. This year we are targeting a turnover of Rs. 1200 to 1300 crore. It’s been a steady journey for Celkon.

This growth is being triggered by smartphone penetration since last year. Till last year our revenue was more dominated by feature phones and this year we are expecting higher revenue generation from smartphones.

Currently, we are operating in 7 international countries and expanded our reach to Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana. We are also opening up in few other countries like Kenya, Mauritius, Bangladesh, Mali and a couple of other West African countries.

While other device makers concentrate on selling, Celkon focuses on after sales support, which is why Celkon has not expanded pan India on the first go. Presently, we sell around

6.5 lakh handsets per month but we are aiming to take it to 10 lakh next quarter. We have 825 service centers at present which is in fact a big number compared to any other Indian brands; 15 are exclusive centers of Celkon.

Who are your Target audience?

We are targeting the young generation between 18-25 years majorly. 25-35 is also our target customers. We are good in feature phone, low-end and mid-end smartphone segment. Through our continuous efforts and quality we are trying to gain that confidence to move up the ladder to offer high-end handsets in good quantity.

Are phablets picking up in Indian market and is it going to substitute smartphones in future?

Phablets will not substitute. Smartphones are always handy in nature, which is something everybody prefers. During a survey conducted in a couple of cities, respondents replied that 4-4.5 inch handset is the ideal size for their usage but Phablets are generally of 5.5 or 6 inches.It is good for enterprise usage or people

Murali Retineni Executive Director - Celkon Mobiles who are in trading business. But it will have its own niche market.

How much of your sell comes from Channel, retail and e-commerce?

E-commerce is picking up but we are not focusing on it. The current financial positioning of the company is purely because of its retail base. So if we launch few models only with online it will hurt the interests of general traders (GT). So it is not the prime focus of Celkon to only supply through e-commerce. If we launch any handset for online traders then we make sure similar handset is also available for a GT. For Celkon the traditional distribution is occupying the lion share. n

www.varindia.com

November 2014

63

F-Secure eyeing “A holistic SaaS” approach for India T

he cyber dependent world is reeling under cyber threat every day and to fight against it every other security company is coming up with various security products. But in the present scenario people need a holistic solution – Security-as-a-Service (SaaS) to meet their necessity. F-Secure is such a company which is serving its customers with it. Emphasizing on it Amit Nath, Country Manager, F-Secure, has also discussed the company’s positioning, competitive strategy and expansion of channel ecosystem.

Company positioning F-Secure is aiming to position itself as a company that provides Security-asa-Service. It has a wide range of products around data center security, messaging security, but the primary product is Protection Service for businesses which is an offering under Security-as-a-Service.

The company is aggressively pushing Security-as-a-Service in India.

The company is very keen that more customers should buy opex licences than capex.

Comprehensive offering Threat scenario is changing, complexity is increasing, data centers

64

November 2014

www.varindia.com

are being consolidated and emergence of virtualization – these are the challenges that the IT industry is facing these days.

A consolidation is happening across customer IT infrastructure whether it is endpoint, building up of data center, introduction of mobile devices, mail infrastructure so customers are looking for a solution that takes care of all the sectors of infrastructure. It should not be confined to protection of endpoints and servers, it should be a holistic approach which customers need to take across on infrastructure part.

When it comes to Cloud offering, F-Secure already has its infrastructure designed as per this platform and is pushing it aggressively across Managed service providers. PSB is the platform which offers protection of endpoint, e-mail service, servers, handheld devices, etc through cloud services.

The vendor is working very closely with Managed service providers. It has identified a few partners across India who are selling Security-as-a-Service and they will be using F-Secure solutions to serve their customers across India.

understand that it is easy to do business with F-Secure.

Channel ecosystem and strategy F-Secure partners are divided into Managed and Unmanaged partners.

Directly, the company is in touch with more than 300 partners in the country.

The security company is aiming to offer its Channel partners a great experience. It believes that the business model is built very strongly around the partners.

To fulfil its aim, F-Secure will launch Channel Partner Program and the F-Secure Partner portal by the end of November.

The portal will give the partners a single click access to everything one needs to do business with the company. There is deal registration, various categories of partners, certifications, etc. Partners can also get to know about the install base, future deals coming up, additional upgradation, price points, documents, etc.

It wants to make sure that partners

Roadmap ahead There are different flavours to our business and will continue to invest money in traditional business which is telecom. In India, there are a lot of telecom companies and F-Secure is investing a lot in them. The company is also launching new solutions in the market.

Apart from investing money in the market, the security vendor is keen to ally with OEMs. “Recently, F-secure has tied up with Samsung for its Alpha smartphone and Note 4 devices. F-Secure mobile security comes in a bundled offer with Samsung devices,” said Amit Nath.

The company has also introduced a scheme for Channel Partners – “Run to Thailand”. It is mainly targeted at field sales persons. On achieving a revenue target, they will get incentives. This scheme is not applicable for the owners; it is for the field sales people. n aparna@varindia.com

Amit Nath Country Manager F-Secure

! " #$ !!! % & ' (($$!"!) ) * ' ) " ! " $ * + , - . ,

, ,/0 & +%+ 1 ' 2,3 4 56 $#"# www.varindia.com November 2014

65

Alcatel One Touch’s major focus is on teenagers and youths E

very company has their own specialities and carve out a niche for themselves. Alcatel One Touch strives towards giving innovative products at an affordable price for a specific price segment.

At the same time, it lays emphasis on being user friendly. Having taken to the smartphone industry in the recent years, ALCATEL ONE TOUCH is continuously expanding its portfolio of mobile and Internet products in India. The company’s aim is to provide innovative products at an affordable price for a precise price segment and be user friendly.

Indian smart device market India is a price-conscious market.

Keeping in mind the customer’s preference, the product should be affordable together with quality, design and style. The Indian

mobile phone market grew at a modest 2% annually, but the smartphone segment grew at a handsome 68% annually as the demand for feature phones fell 16% annually in Q2 2014. Overall, 58.9 million mobile handsets were shipped during Q1 2014, a year-onyear growth of 8.9%, but witnessed a q-o-q decline of 16.4% (70.4 million mobile phones were shipped in Q4 2013). There being a huge demand for smartphones in India, Alcatel One Touch’s major focus is on teenagers and youths. ALACTEL ONE TOUCH aims to sell 5,00,000 pieces of smartphones by December 2014.

As far as India’s tablet market is concerned, the country is experiencing a revolution and will have the second-largest market after China very soon. According to the IDC report, the tablet shipment from India had touched 4.14 million units in 2013 and this number is going to rise in the coming years. This market is expected to grow 9% YOY basis giving enough space for local manufactures to compete.

Steven Zhao, Country Manager, India Business Unit, Alcatel One Touch, opines, “Tablets are also specified as edutainment, which explains that it is a device which is helpful in education and can be used as an entertainment device as well. We would be coming up with four models in tablet by the end of 2014. Alcatel One Touch in India is currently focussing on the smartphone vertical solely.”

Alcatel One Touch’s plans for Indian mobile device market Alcatel One Touch would be coming out with models specifically developed to suit the Indian user requirements designed at global standards and quality at a competitive pricing.

Alcatel One Touch’s strategy around support Alcatel One Touch has a network of highly equipped after-sales service support centres across India and call centre with a toll-free number to provide personalized support. Steven Zhao, Country Manager, India Business Unit, Alcatel One Touch, exerts, “We have also kept our array of

66

November 2014

www.varindia.com

Steven Zhao Country Manager, India Business Unit, Alcatel One Touch

"Our aim is to provide innovative products at an affordable price for a precise price segment and be user friendly." products limited to a few currently in order to do justice to the holistic service provided.

The company will heavily push entry-level phones at mid-price range to tap maximum customers across regions.”

Alcatel One Touch’s Channel and Retail Strategy for India Alcatel’s business is planned according to the different business models, i.e. e-commerce, retail and tradition channel.

There is no overlapping of models offered to e-commerce and open market business.

This encourages the channels to focus on Alcatel’s mobile phone business as their revenue is ensured. n satinder@varindia.com

VAR MOBILITY

T-Series SS909 The T-Series SS909 is powered by a 1.3GHz Quad-Core Processor and runs on the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system. The 3G phone comes with a 512MB RAM and 4GB Internal Memory, expandable up to 32GB. An 8MP Primary Camera with Flash and a 2MP Front Camera, a 4.5� QHD Display and IPS Touch truly helps the SS909 set new benchmarks in the Indian smartphone market. Connectivity options in the T-Series SS909 include 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and Micro USB. It has Air Gestures, Proximity and Gravity Sensor to Multi Language Support, Play Store and Android-Compatible Apps, you name it and the phone has it all. Raising the bar for the industry as a whole, this unmatched device also comes equipped with a Special Voice Command, 3.5mm Audio Jack, GPRS/WAP a 1,600 mAH battery which, according to the company, can deliver 4 hours of talk-time and standby time of 160 hours on a single SIM and it comes with extra flip cover. n

Spice Stellar 526 Spice Stellar 526 is a dual-SIM phablet with 5-inch HD One cell IPS display which gives an enhanced experience with wide angle viewing. The device works on Android KitKat operating system and is powered by a 1.6GHz hexa core processor and 1GB RAM. With a power combination of 1GB RAM, a Hexa-core processor and a powerful 600 Mhz GPU, the Stellar 526 is the perfect smartphone for the unparalleled gaming experience. Go unleash the gamer in you. An 8MP camera is fitted on the backside of the body to capture moments into images and visuals; you can capture detail-rich pictures and videos. Shoot like a pro with advanced modes like Live Camera Mode, Object Tracking, Zero Shutter Delay and more and 3.2MP camera has been given on the front side for video chat and self portrait. With the Stellar 526’s Clear Motion Technology and 60 FPS HD video playback capability, get set to enjoy a blur-free viewing experience. For connectivity, the device has GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and USB. Other features include music player, FM radio, 2500 mAh battery, GPS/AGPS, and 8GB internal and 32GB expandable storage. n

www.varindia.com

November 2014

67

VAR MOBILITY

Lenovo unleashes Vibe X2

L

enovo has introduced Lenovo VIBE X2 – a trendy, bold and

powerful addition to its flagship VIBE series of smartphones. The VIBE X2 grabs eyeballs with its vibrant colours along with enviable features.

The Vibe X2, with its signature three-layer design, captures the essence of today’s multifaceted lifestyle while empowering consumers with the freedom to express their individual styles.

“The VIBE X2 is a trend-setter with its distinctive three-layer

design combined with the all-new VIBE Xtension smart layers. This device is an ideal combination of

cutting-edge technology and innovative features that certainly meet the requirements of our discerning customers, who value best-in-class features in their smartphones,” said Sudhin Mathur, Director – Smartphones, Lenovo India.

The device is ultrathin and sleek in design, and uses MT6595 world’s first 4G LTE Octa-Core processor from MediaTek, promising consumers unparalleled processing power.

Microsoft Devices makes Nokia 130 available in India

M

icrosoft Devices has launched Nokia 130. Nokia 130 boasts of a built-in video player, music player with up to 46 hours continuous playback on a single charge and everyday essentials, including outstanding battery life, a flashlight, FM radio and USB charging. It is ideal for first-time mobile phone buyers or people seeking a reliable backup phone to complement their existing Smartphone.

“Armed with a distinctive design and sound entertainment, our latest device in the first phone range aims to bring the new-age mobile experience at an accessible price point to our consumers. The Nokia 130 is a perfect device for consumers who are looking for their first mobile phone, or for those looking for a

68

November 2014

rock-solid backup phone to use alongside their smartphone. With the Nokia 130, our endeavour is to connect millions to the new mobile experience keeping in tandem with our core philosophy of connecting the next billion,” said Raghuvesh Sarup, Director – Marketing, Nokia India Sales, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobile Oy. Featuring a 1.8” colour display and a standby time of up to 36 days, the Nokia 130 is built to last.

www.varindia.com

Spice Mobiles launches Stellar 362

S

pice Retail Limited has launched its latest affordable smartphone in the Stellar range – Spice Stellar 362, targeted at customers in Tier II and Tier III cities.

In line with the company’s focus on launching affordable smartphones, Spice Mobiles has designed this phone with high utility technology features and an attractive price point, keeping in mind the requirements of the target customers. The phone offers the latest version of Android – KitKat 4.4 providing access to the latest applications and services and is 3G enabled for a superior internet experience, which is increasingly relevant for sub urban customers.

Prashant Bindal, Chief Executive Officer, Spice Mobility Ltd, said, “We have noticed a growing acceptance and demand amongst sub urban customers for good quality smartphones.

At Spice, our vision has always been to offer the best-in-class smartphones to a larger audience, by providing great products at affordable prices. Stellar 362’s combines high utility functions and the latest software to deliver a great customer experience.”

The handset is muscled with a 1 GHz Dual Core processor which supports ultra-fast speed and enables smooth multitasking. With a majestic 8.89cm HVGA capacitive touch-screen, users can enjoy a great multimedia experience as well. The phone also allows connectivity-onthe-go with features like Bluetooth and HSPA. The smartphone comes equipped with a 1300 mAh battery and various applications such as Gmail, Google Play, Google Voice, global positioning will also be available at one touch.

Panasonic announces ELUGA S

T

aking forward from the phenomenal response for the ELUGA smartphones, Panasonic India has announced the launch of its new variant – ELUGA S – for the Indian market. This is in continuity to the already existing ELUGA series, which has become one of the coolest and most sought-after phones from Panasonic India and it is these phones which have always been recognized for their design, superior build quality and unique user interface for single-hand operation.

Redefining technological innovation and software advancement, the company continues to introduce devices which are equipped with top-ofthe-line hardware and the newly-launched 5-inch ELUGA S with HD IPS display features the eye-definition “BLINK PLAY” that lets one click flawless selfies or groupies with a 5MP Front Snapper.

Manish Sharma, Managing Director, Panasonic India, said, “We

are sure that Panasonic’s E L U G A smartphone range has certainly

raised the bar of standard to a great level and has the potential to succeed in the Indian market. This is the third phone in the ELUGA series which defines our willingness to embrace new technology in a market like India. As we launch new devices, we will continue to innovate for our customers.”

The new phone runs on the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system and is powered by True Octa Core (1.4GHz) processor. It has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory which can be expanded upto 32GB.The ELUGA S smartphone sports an 8MP FHD capable autofocus camera along with 2,100mAh battery.

Philips Mobile launches Xenium X2566

P

hilips mobile has announced the launch of Philips Xenium X2566, the firstof-its-kind feature phone exclusively designed for senior citizens.

With features such as large font size, longlasting battery life and SOS function, priced at an affordable price range, the device has features that make technology accessible to the elderly.

S.S. Bassi, Country Manager – SAARC, Sangfei Mobility, said,

"Philips has always pioneered in cuttingedge innovations that matter to our customers.

With changing lifestyles in metros in India and increasing incident of elderly abuse, senior citizens are often left to support themselves by choice or otherwise.

We specially designed this phone to make technology more accessible to and user-friendly for the elderly with minimum intervention from others."

DUPLEX + NETWORK

www.varindia.com

November 2014

69

70

November 2014

www.varindia.com

www.varindia.com

November 2014

71

72

November 2014

www.varindia.com

72 pages including cover