Novermber2014

PLUS

VOLUME 05 | ISSUE 09 | PAGES 44 | NOVEMBER 2014 | RS. 20/-

www.smechannels.com

india’s first IT magazine for sme business

HP Simplifies Data center Deployments /08

Cisco / 34Cisco Will Continue to Disrupt UCS

Guest Column / 42

Grass Roots India: Engaging the Channel

SME CHAT /32

Sparkle: “Our key strength is our technical sound support team”

1

Here we bring to you a round-up of some of the channel best practices

followed by organisations. /24

TAKING THE

RIGHT STEPS

Cover.indd 1 18-11-2014 15:38:16

Advts.indd 2 18-11-2014 16:00:59

www.cyberoam.com

Turning CIO into thenext-generation catalystCyberoam NGFWs enable enterprise CIOs harness IT & network transformation with insights beyond security,

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Key business benefits of Cyberoam NGFWs to CIOs:

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• Wirespeed gigabit performance

• Visibility into BYOD and Virtual environments

• Easy compliance

• On-appliance Web Application Firewall (WAF)

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Centralized Management(Hardware & Virtual)

Centralized Reporting

© Copyright 2014 Cyberoam Technologies Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved. | For more information contact : [email protected]

Also available through

NICSI / NIC

Advts.indd 3 18-11-2014 16:03:21

IBM’s Intelligent Security Portfolio / 08


PLUS

VOLUME 05 | ISSUE 09 | PAGES 44 | NOVEMBER 2014 | RS. 20/-

www.smechannels.com

BEST PRACTICES

EDITORIAL

KARMA [email protected]

CHANNEL PARTNERS ARE THE LIFELINE ; of any business; they are not only crucial to an organisations growth but also play a pivotal role in their growth strategy. They are the vendors face in the market, taking the products in every nook and cranny of the market otherwise a humongous task for the vendors.

With the changing marketing dynamics the role of channel partners has also changed dramatically and vendors say increasing focus is being placed on value for money products and solutions as well as the adoption of new technologies.

Likewise vendors’ go-to-market strategies are also built around how to help channel partners’ reach in terms of marketing the brand and increasing the sales.

And with the ever changing technological landscape it has become important than ever to choose the right set of partners to cater to the right set of customers. And with the coming of the disruptive technologies like cloud-computing and virtualisation what was earlier a need has become a necessity to adopt some channel best practices in this age of channel transformation. And this is the topic we have chosen to discuss in this issue.

Being the backbone of organisations it is imperative to foster a healthy long term relationship with them. Here comes the role of channel enablement in terms of educating them on product, trainings; but it also needs to be kept in mind that channel partners too have expectations from the vendors. Leads, fundings and higher margins are the top most expectations channel partners expect from the vendors.

Vendor-channel relationship is symbiotic in nature; there has to be perfect harmony in this mar-riage for long-term success.

Dell Venue Android OS Tablets

MY EXPERIENCE

OVERALL RATING

SPECIFICATIONS

It comes with a battery life of 4550 mAh

(17.29 WHr) and Intel Processor, Android 4.4,

KitKat OS.

FINAL WORDING

It’s a value for money tablet.

SME CHAT / 32

SPARKLE: “Our key strength is our technical sound support team”

DELL VENUE 7 & DELL VENUE 8 tablets come with voice calling feature and 3G. It comes with a battery life of 4550 mAh (17.29 WHr) and Intel Processor, Android 4.4, KitKat OS, HD display and premium audio. It also features Full HD (1920x1200) display available on the Venue 8 inch tablet, along with MaxxAudio Mobile by Waves.There is also a range of accessories like Dell Duo tablet cases to protect the new Dell Venue Android OS tablets and the Dell Bluetooth portable speakers. Users also have the option of owning a Dell Venue Cradle or a Dell Venue Rotating Folio for the Venue 8 tablet.One can also access files and data anywhere with PocketCloud and 20GB of free Drop-box* storage for one year.

GUEST COLUMN / 42

Grass Roots India: Engaging the Channel

Cisco / 34Cisco Will Continue to Disrupt UCS

CORRIGENDUM

In the September issue of SME Channels in the article of ‘Focussing on Apple Solutions’ under

photograph of Hugo Lee, inadvertently the caption had come as Ted Chang, which is regretted.

SME CHANNELSNOVEMBER 2014

4

Edit.indd 4 19-11-2014 14:48:14

Advts.indd 9 15/02/14 9:43 am

NOVCOVER

STORY

Taking the Right Steps /24

Here we bring to you a round-up of some of the channel best practices followed by organisations.

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

Snippets ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 08

Products ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 40

Guest Column ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 42

more inside

SME CHATSparkle Enterprises /“Our key strength is our tech-nical sound support team”Asshwin Bhoslay, Proprietor, Sparkle Enterprises, Navi

Mumbai

GUEST COLUMNGrass Roots India /Engaging the ChannelGirish KhareDirector Marketing – Grass Roots India

SME BIZCisco /34Cisco Will continue to Disrupt UCS

contentsVOLUME 05ISSUE 09 2014 Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra

Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra

Associate Editor: Karma Negi

Sub-Editor: Soumya Prajna

Executive Editor: Smruti Chaudhury

Copy Editor: Neil D’Souza

Designer: Ajay Arya

Web Designer: Vijay Bakshi

Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan

Satya Sagar Sinha

Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary

MARKETING

Marketing Manager: Shivani Swaroop

Marketing Executive: Rajat Kumar

Circulation and Printing: Panchanan Bhoi

SALES CONTACTS

Delhi 6/102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas

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Phone: 91-11-41055458

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2, Ground Floor, Park Paradise, Kay-Bees

CHS. Ltd.,Opp. Green Park, Oshiwara,

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Ph. +91 22 26338546, Fax +91 22 26395581

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CORRIGENDUM

In the October issue of SME Channels we inadvertently misprinted the designation of Chandrahas

Panigrahi as Director, Channels, AMD. The correct designation is Chandrahas Panigrahi, Director,

Consumer and Mobility, AMD.

Similarly, In the September issue of SME Channels in the article of ‘Focussing on Apple Solutions’ under

photograph of Hugo Lee, inadvertently the caption had come as Ted Chang, which is regretted.


6

Contents.indd 6 19-11-2014 02:30:23

Advts.indd 18 18/03/14 10:49 pm

IBM’s Intelligent Security PortfolioIBM said it has built the industry’s first 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.

“Customers are now moving actual critical workloads to the

HP said it has expanded its network virtualization portfolio with a new Distributed Cloud Networking (DCN) solution.

Legacy networks are constrain-ing the full potential of a unified software-defined data center, limiting IT‘s ability to simplify complex frameworks and enable

seamless multi data center deploy-ments. While IT has the ability to provision, manage and oversee virtualized servers and storage, they are still required to manually configure networking systems.

DCN is a SDN solution that enables service providers and large organizations to automatically

deploy secure cloud networks across a distributed infrastructure in minutes versus months. DCN is also accelerating communica-tion service providers’ journey to Network Function Virtualization by optimizing network resources, increasing agility and speeding time-to-market through dynamic,

service-driven configuration. Through SDN and network virtualization, DCN enables network administrators to control the distributed networking environ-ment from one central location, whether the organization incorpo-rates private, public or hybrid data centers.

cloud and they expect enterprise grade security to move with it,” said Vaidyanathan Iyer, Country Leader, Security Systems, IBM India/South Asia. “We have pivoted our entire security portfolio to the cloud to help customers lock down user access, control data and maintain visibility. With the right visibility into threats, enterprises can more securely connect their people, data and processes to the cloud.”

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—from private data centers, to the cloud—even to an individual employee’s mobile device announced the press release. This unprecedented “single-pane-of-glass” view shows exactly who is using the cloud, what data individu-als are accessing and from where they are accessing it.

Designed to be used with differ-ent users, whether it be a developer or line-of-business executive, the portfolio also includes analytics and security intelligence for public cloud services such as IBM’s SoftLayer.

HP Simplifies Data center Deployments


8

SNIPPETSfor more log on to smechannels.com

PRODUCT | CHANNEL | CONSULTING | SERVICES

Snippets.indd 8 18-11-2014 15:42:13

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Advts.indd 4 18-11-2014 16:05:19

Eaton Alliances with HCL’s DDMSPower management company Eaton has part-nered with Digilife Distribution and Marketing Services (DDMS), a 100% subsidiary of HCL Infosystems. The partnership aims to expand the market presence of Eaton’s electrical power back-up solutions by leveraging HCL’s distribution and retail infrastructure in the India.

With this partnership, Eaton’s uninterruptible power systems (UPS), ranging from 600VA up to 40kVA, will now be available throughout HCL Infosystems’ distribution and retail network.

“Eaton’s alliance with HCL Infosystems will help us expand our partner community and help maximize our market share,” said Syed Sajjadh Ali, Managing Director – India, Electrical Sector, Eaton. “The extensive network of HCL Infosys-tems will enable customers in distant towns and cities have access to Eaton’s industry leading UPS systems that help manage power more efficiently, reliably, safely and sustainably.”

HCL Infosystems is India’s premier distribu-tion and IT services and solutions company. It has one of the largest sales and distribution networks in India that reaches more than 100,000 retail outlets, over 800 direct and micro distribu-tors and over 12,400 channel partners across 15,000 towns and 664 districts in the country.

“Hybrid cloud computing leads the way toward a unified

cloud computing model...”

GEORGE KURIAN,EXECUTIVE VP, PRODUCT

OPERATIONS, NETAPP

MY POINT

IT spending in India is projected to total $73.3 billion in 2015, a 9.4 percent increase from the $67.1 billion forecast for 2014, according to Gartner, Inc.

“India is forecast to be the third largest IT market within the Asia/Pacific region by the end of 2016 and will further progress to become the second largest market for IT by the end of 2018,” said Peter Sondergaard, SVP, Gartner and global

head of Research. “Much of the growth from being the number four market in Asia/Pacific to number three is likely to happen in 2015.”

IT services will record the strongest revenue growth at 15.7 percent in 2015; software will grow at 14 percent. Devices will continue to account for the second largest part of the market with 33 percent share of revenue and will grow 12.6 percent in 2015.

McAfee NGF Empowers EnterprisesMcAfee has launched McAfee Next Generation Firewall, which now seamlessly integrates with several key McAfee solutions and technologies, offering businesses and government agencies an ever-expand-ing ecosystem of threat defenses. Important new integrations with the McAfee Security Connected framework provide McAfee Next Generation Firewall customers with layered protection against the latest threats and evasions, along with improved workflows and operational efficiencies.

“Earlier this year, McAfee outlined our game-changing approach to strengthening network security through a powerful combination of integrated technologies,” said Pat Calhoun, general manager of network security at McAfee, part of Intel Security. “This release represents another significant milestone in bringing that strategy to fruition and further empowers our customers with the tools they need to outmaneuver attackers with even greater ease and precision.”

Perpetuuiti Extends Reach in North AmericaPerpetuuiti Technosoft has partnered with Cyber Innovation Labs (CIL), a provider of enterprise-class managed Infrastructure-as-a-Service solutions and professional services, in North America. CIL will deliver Perpetuuiti’s extensive business resiliency and service availability suite to the North American market.

According to an IT complexity expert and Object Watch founder, Roger Sessions, organiza-tions in the United States lose $1.2 trillion from IT failures every year. The biggest pain points for the North American market are silent IT disasters which have drastic consequences on businesses. Perpetuuiti’s comprehensive end-to-end business continuity and disaster recovery planning includes in-depth plans and action points for silent disasters, thereby ensuring that businesses are protected from unexpected and expected risks.

India to be Third Largest IT Market in APAC by 2016

Gartner Reveals Top 10 Technology Trends Gartner has highlighted the top 10 technology trends that will be strategic for most organiza-tions in 2015. Gartner defines a strategic technology trend as one with the potential for significant impact on the organization in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to the business, end users or IT, the need for a major investment, or the risk of being late to adopt. These technologies impact the organization’s long-term plans, programs and initiatives. “We have identified the top 10 technology trends that organizations cannot afford to ignore in their strategic planning processes,” said David Cearley. “This does not necessarily mean adoption and investment in all of the trends at the same rate, but companies should look to make deliberate decisions about them during the next two years.”The top 10 strategic technology trends for 2015 are: Computing Everywhere; The Internet of Things; 3D Printing; Advanced, Pervasive and Invisible Analytics; Context-Rich Systems; Smart Machines; Cloud/Client Computing; Software-Defined Applications and Infrastructure; Web-Scale IT; Risk-Based Security and Self-Protection.


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Ingram Micro to Distribute Invixium ProductsInvixium Access Inc., a Canadian based manu-facturer of next-generation biometric products and solutions, has expanded its distribution with Ingram Micro whereby Ingram Micro India Ltd. will now distribute Invixium’s IXM product line of modern biometric access control solutions to channel partners throughout India.

The partnership is expected to fulfill the ever growing demand in India for exquisitely designed products with robust quality for various biometric access control installations, including: government, corporate enterprise, IT, healthcare, construction and manufacturing industries announced the press release.

The IXM product line incorporates the industry-leading biometric fingerprint sensing technologies, allowing for multi-factor authen-tication with PINs and access cards all within a slim and stylish enclosure.

HP BRINGS NEW LASERJET MFPS FOR SMBS AND ENTERPRISESHP has expanded its portfolio of LaserJet multifunction printers (MFPs) with the launch of LaserJet Pro MFP M226 series, HP LaserJet Pro M202 Printer series and the HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP M630 series which will come with enhanced manageability and secu-rity features to better manage and protect the print environment of small, medium enterprises (SMBs) and enterprises. They also allow for quick and easy mobile printing announced the press release.

HP LaserJet Pro MFP M226 and HP LaserJet Pro M202 Printer series are compatible with HP Web JetAdmin, HP Imaging and Printing Security Center and allow for remote monitoring with HP Managed Print Services. They are Mopria-certified and simplify printing from mobile devices. With automatic two-sided printing, users can save time and reduce paper cost.

The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M226 series comes in two models - HP LaserJet Pro MFP M226dn and HP LaserJet Pro MFP M226dw, which are priced at MRP of INR 26,171 and INR 27,791 respectively.

Zoho CRM Plus Launched Zoho has unveiled Zoho CRM Plus, the first unified customer-centric software offering that takes cus-tomer relationship management beyond the sales cycle and traditional interaction channels. The new offering features an end-to-end, multi-channel approach that provides insight, context and information throughout the entire customer lifecycle — from the moment a customer clicks on an ad or engages in social media to when he or she buys and is retained as a happy customer announced the press release.

Legacy CRM platforms were designed uniquely around sales force automation. Other companies started to fill in the gaps with email marketing, social media and customer support. This led to siloes of information and IT integration pains. If customer information is not stored in a centralized place, it is hard for companies to be customer centric.

Rodrigo Vaca, VP (marketing), Zoho, said, “Thanks to social media, companies now engage with their customers in a very different manner; thanks to Google they advertise in a very different way; and customer retention is now just as important as sales. Zoho CRM Plus not only covers every single interaction along the customer lifecycle, but brings context to each one of them, making it the only complete customer software designed for this new era.”

Matrix to showcase Solutions at DEFCOMMatrix is participating in DEFCOM’14, Delhi. DEFCOM offers a platform to R&D organizations and Defense personnel to discuss technological challenges and suitable solutions for defense force communication requirements.

Matrix will be showcasing Matrix ETERNITY LE - a powerful defense communication solution designed for large HQs to transcend all tech-nological and geographical boundaries. About the product, Prima Saraiya, Product Manager of Enterprise Solutions, said, “This thorough breed solution offers advanced functionality backed by the reliability and flexibility that today’s defense force expect from a communication solution. ETERNITY LE provides a CNR interface with HF/VHF/UHF Radio Networks, which enable users to communicate between PBX user and Radio Network user seamlessly. Its advanced call capabilities and comprehensive features facilitate to reach distant locations.”

Furthermore to enhance the security and safety of HQ and other branches by centralized management, Matrix will demonstrate a flexible, modular and scalable, palm vein, biometric fingerprint and RFID card based Access Control Solutions.

Genius Holds Dealers’ Meet in ChennaiManufacturers of computer peripherals and smart phone accessories Genius recently organized a dealers’ meet in Chennai.

Attended by over 170 + leading channel partners from all over Tamil Nadu, 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, Sharon Chiang (Business Head from Taiwan), Gaurav Mathur (Country Head - India) and Kumaravel V (Regional Manager – South India).

Commenting on the event, Gaurav Mathur, Country Head ( India), Genius, said, “It has always been Genius’s endeavor to understand the needs of its channel partners and maintain long term relation-ships with them. Chennai is a very crucial market for Genius and our objective was to demonstrate our commitment to the market and reiterate our status as the leading player with cutting edge, 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 look forward to garner-ing a larger share of the market in the next three years.”


12

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VIEWSONIC BRINGS QUAD OUTPUT ZERO CLIENT FOR VDIViewSonic has launched the SC-Z56, a quad video output zero client for the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) market in India. The SC-Z56 Quad Output Zero Client was developed for users needing higher resolution performance and multiple display support announced the press release.

It further claimed that SC-Z56 features Teradici Tera 2 architecture, making it one of the fastest performing zero client in the market. It is VMware Horizon View certified, delivering a secure, manageable and reliable solution for VMware-based networks.

With four DisplayPort outputs and six USB ports, the SC-Z56 provides the connectivity options to drive multiple displays and peripherals for optimal productivity. ViewSonic’s SC-Z56 zero client supports up to four WUXGA (1920x1200) displays or two WQXGA (2560x1600) displays simultaneously, making it ideal for high-end workstations in the government, corporate, healthcare and security industries.

“VDI installations can be taken to a new level of productivity with the SC-Z56,” said Max Hsu, PM director for ViewSonic Asia Pacific. “This quad output zero client provides the fastest pos-sible performance in a VMware environment. It’s feature-rich with connectivity options, so it can support up to four HD displays. And, as a true zero client, the SC-Z56 delivers amazing reliability with little to no configuration or management, boosting productivity levels in a secure setting.”

As a true zero client, the SC-Z56 comes in a compact, 1.2-pound form factor and has no HDD, fan or moving parts. The design allows it to be placed discreetly away from the desktop or even mounted directly onto a display. It offers amazing high-speed virtual desktop performance and supports 2D/3D graphics applications.

EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT

AOC has appointed Atul Jasra as Business Head for Tablets Smart Phones in India & other SAARC Countries

Forrest Norrod has joined AMD as senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom (EESC)

business group, reporting to President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su.

Eka Software Solutions has appointed James Brackenrig as Vice President, Field Operations, Asia-Pacific.

Opus Software has appointed Anand Ramakrishnan as president and CEO of the company.

INDIA IT SPENDING TO REACH $73.3 BILLION IN 2015IT SPENDING IN INDIA IS PROJECTED TO TOTAL $73.3 BILLION IN 2015, A 9.4 PERCENT INCREASE FROM THE $67.1 BILLION FORECAST FOR 2014, ACCORDING TO GARTNER, INC.

INDIA IT END-USER SPENDING FORECAST ESTIMATES ($ MILLIONS OF U.S. DOLLARS)

Source: Gartner (October 2014)

Microsoft’s Study on Indian mid-market Software FirmsMicrosoft Ventures and iSPIRT Foundation has launched a report titled “Indian Mid-market SaaS companies: Forging a new path to disruption”. The report, which was launched under Microsoft Venture’s Think Next initiative, takes a close look at Indian software product companies target-ing the mid-sized enterprise market and the competitive advantages that sets them above their Western counterparts.

It looks specifically at how these companies are adapting their Software as a Service (SaaS) offer-ing to meet the unique requirements of medium sized business. The report establishes mid-market SaaS companies as a unique category within the software products industry. It highlights how the three pillars of their business strategy are setting them apart from those targeting larger enter-prises, including overseas competitors.

Announcing the report, Ravi Narayan, Director, Microsoft Ventures in India, said, “It highlights the unique product development cycle being adopted by these companies and also provides some guidance on how these companies should be evaluated.”

SEGMENT 2014 2015 2016

Devices 21,517 24,228 26,674

Data Center Systems 2,275 2,369 2,451

Software 4,078 4,650 5,250

IT Services 11,441 13,234 15,217

Telecommunications Services 27,747 28,905 29,502

Total 67,058 73,386 79,094


14

SNIPPETS

Snippets.indd 14 18-11-2014 15:43:02

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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 86976; Andhra Pradesh: 90000 77671; Tamil Nadu: 74117 74666; Kerala: 98950 99231

gigabyte22X31.pdf 1 16-09-2014 14:48:16

Advts.indd 7 18-11-2014 16:09:45

R&M Starts Sri Lanka OperationsSwiss cabling specialist R&M has launched its operations in Sri Lanka. The company plans to tap the Sri Lankan market to further strengthen its footprint in fiber and copper solutions. Gaurav Ahluwalia and Shailendra Trivedi were present at the launch event.

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.

The global structured cabling market is evolving faster than ever before, with new network technologies emerging each day. The market is expected to continue to grow from $6.24 billion in 2013 to $8.3 billion in 2020. By establishing a direct presence in Sri Lanka, R&M hopes to firm up its posi-tion in the structured cabling market of Sri Lanka.

India Enterprise Software Mkt to be Worth $4.7 Bn in 2015The enterprise software market in India is projected to reach $4.2 billion in 2014, a 13 per cent increase over 2013 revenue of $3.7 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. The market is projected to total $4.7 billion in 2015.

Compounding the demand for enterprise software is the ongoing tendency for greater customer services along with the continued drive for IT cost savings.

The incorporation of emerging technologies into solutions, such as mobil-ity, social, cloud and business process management is also driving growth. Gartner analysts said these new technologies, as well as the demand for agility, is bringing a sense of urgency, and demand, for IT investments.

Cyberoam’s Training Program Goes Online

Cyberoam has launched the online virtual learn-ing platform for its network-security certification program– Cyberoam Certified Network Security Professional, CCNSP.

The training is available 24*7, can be accessed from a connected device anywhere without any restrictions, comes with the convenience of self-determined pace for the learner. Leveraging behaviour modelling, the training is designed to offer augmented learning to participants and reinforces grasp of technology skills with video and other simulation aids. In addition, to enable online participants with enhanced learning experience, training is delivered over a trusted and fast content delivery network for better speed and quality in accessing rich media content.

Sunil Sharma, VP Sales & Operations, India & SAARC, Cyberoam, said, “With this platform, Cyberoam is extending the strategy by making the training simpler, richer, more interactive & accessible and catalytic to the growth of pool of experts in form of Cyberoam certified professionals.”

Avaya has been awarded the 2014 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Enterprise Networking Customer Value Enhancement Award. At an award presentation on October 16th, Andrew Hindmarch, APAC Networking Leader, Avaya, received the award from Andrew Milroy, VP, ICT Research, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific.

The customer value enhancement award is given to a company which has enhanced customer value through its networking offerings and recorded revenue growth in its networking product line. Criteria include both the business impact achieved – including growth, customer acquisition, growth potential and operational efficiency – and customer impact, based on price performance value, and the customer experience across the entire process.

Avaya Honored by Frost & Sullivan

DR. ALOK BHARADWAJ TO SHIFT TO SINGAPORE Canon India Executive Vice President, Dr. Alok Bharadwaj will be moving on an international assignment to Canon Singapore, which is the headquarters of its South East& South Asia business operations. The change is effective 1st January 2015.

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

Kazutada Kobayashi, President and CEO, Canon India, said, “I wish to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation for the significant contribution made by Dr. Alok Bharadwaj for Canon India. His indomitable spirit has helped shape Canon’s image in India& improved our market leadership, while setting industry benchmarks at the same time. We wish him the very best for his new assignment in Singapore.”

Dr Alok Bharadwaj commented, “It has been an incredible journey for me at Canon India which I joined in 2001. India experience has opened the doors for my international assignment which I am quite excited to take. I look forward to tackling newer challenges in other emerging Asian markets. It is a promising new role and I am eager to start.”

Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Executive

VP, Canon India


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Snippets.indd 16 18-11-2014 15:43:17

Delta Holds Seminar on Energy EfficiencyPower management company Delta hosted a Seminar at Hotel Green Park, Hyderabad on ‘Power Man-agement Approach for Mission Critical Applications’. The Seminar highlighted how energy efficiency can be improved & save cost for the industry owners. Also, showcased Delta’s industry leading offerings that help improve energy efficiency, increase uptime in critical operations and protect people, property and the environment.

The Seminar was a platform initiated by Delta to reach out to customers, influencers and end-users and enable effective market interactions across major regions and key industry segments. More than 240 IT heads, partners, CEOs, consultants from pharma, hospitality, constructions, and manufacturing industries participated in the event announced the press release.

neoteric to Distribute RIVACASE Productsneoteric infomatique ltd. has joined hands with RIVACASE as the exclusive national distributor for its range of ‘protective carrying solutions.’ RIVACASE is one of the global brands in universal cases for laptops, tablets, cameras and hard disks. This includes tablets sleeves and cases, laptop bags, HDD Cases along with SLR bags, compact camera cases and camcorder cases, system and bridge camera bags.

RIVACASE products are assembled for various utilities such as multiple viewing angles, protecting the screen, holding tablets securely in a place and are shock-proof, lightweight, and weather-proof, accident proof, easy-to-carry etc. annd have a warranty of six months on any manufacturing defect.

Antoine Sangers, Sales Director, RIVACASE, said, “India’s growing economy makes it a promising market for us and we are very excited to penetrate into it through our strategic partnership with neo-teric. neoteric’s end-to-end value-added support services, years of experience and robust distribution presence comprising a network of 10,000 partners spread across 500+ cities will definitely help us boost our market share and expand our worldwide presence as a leader in the ‘Protective Carrying Solutions’ space.”

DIGESTEPSON SURELAB D700 PHOTO PRINTER Epson India has launched its new SureLab D700 photo printer, a mini desktop version of its SureLab D3000.

Epsons SureLab D700 will be offered in a package as part of Epson’s Pro Lab Imaging solu-tions. The products in the package are the mini Digital Dry-Photo Lab - Epson SureLab SL-D700 and the A2 Size Professional Printer Pro 4900. The SureLab D700 is also available as standard offering, priced at Rs. 300000 and comes with a standard one year on-site warranty.

KINGSTON GOLD PLATED USB Kingston has introduced a Limited edition 24 carat gold plated DataTraveler GE9 USB drive, which has a symbol of Lord Ganesha engraved on it.

This ultra-slim and capless limited edition USB drive from Kingston is designed by Arman Emami. This limited edition DataTraveler GE9 USB drive is now available at all leading online and retail stores for an MRP of Rs. 700. It is also backed by a 5-year warranty, free technical support and Kingston’s legendary reliability.

QNAPTURBO NASQNAP Systems’ popularQvPC technology supported Turbo NAS TS/SS-x53 Pro and TS-x51 lineup now support Full NAS accelerated-encryption technology, a feature now available for the Turbo NAS operating system - QTS 4.1.1. Full NAS accelerated-encryption technology fully utilizes the power of quad/dual-core Intel Celeron processors on the Turbo NAS to remark-ably increase the efficiency in data encryption/decryption tasks, with overall NAS read speeds improving by over 50% (over 240MB/s for the TS/SS-x53 Pro, and more than 128MB/s for the TS-x51).

NETGEAR TRI-BAND WIRELESS ROUTER NETGEAR has added to its award-winning Nighthawk family of 802.11ac routers. The new Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band WiFi Router (R8000) is the first tri-band WiFi router avail-able for purchase incorporating the powerful new Broadcom 5G WiFiXStream platform.

With six high-performance antennas and three network bands, one 2.4GHz and two 5GHz, the Nighthawk X6 delivers the industry’s fastest combined WiFi speed, up to 3.2 Gbps. It balances the network load to ensure the best WiFi perfor-mance for each device and deliver the maximum wireless range available today.

PLUSTEK PS506U SMALL OFFICE SCANNER Plustek has begun shipment of the SmartOffice PS506U small office scanner. The PS506U features an intelligent misfeed function that uses an ultrasound sensor to spot overlapping pages and versatile document handling that can scan a mixture of plastic or other rigid cards, long docu-ments and normal documents together without any additional adjustments or setup announced the press release.

Eaton Ropes-in DDMSEaton appoints Digilife Distribution and Marketing Services (DDMS), a 100% subsidiary of HCL Infosystems as its partner for distribution and retail. The partnership aims to expand the market presence of Eaton’s electrical power back-up solutions by leveraging HCL’s distribution and retail infrastructure in the India.

With this partnership, Eaton’s reliable and efficient uninterruptible power systems (UPS), ranging from 600VA up to 40kVA, will now be available throughout HCL Infosystems’ distribu-tion and retail network. “Eaton’s alliance with HCL Infosystems will help us expand our partner community and help maximize our market share,” said Syed Sajjadh Ali, MD India, Electrical Sector, Eaton. “The extensive network of HCL Infosystems will enable customers in distant towns and cities have access to Eaton’s industry leading UPS systems that help manage power more efficiently, reliably, safely and sustainably.”

astTECS to Participate at CeBIT- India*astTECS will showcase its Open Source based communication capabilities and advanced enterprise communication product portfolio at CeBIT- 2014, Bangalore.

During the event, *astTECS will engage with customers and partners, share views on upcoming information and communications technology, establish collaboration and display Asterisk based open source communication solution, that can empower enterprises of all sizes and elevate ROI announced the press release.

“At the CeBIT-2014 event, *astTECS will demonstrate cutting-edge products and solutions portfolio, as well as share its vision and technology insights,” said Devasia Kurian, MD, *astTECS. “The event, serves as an ideal platform for *astTECS to highlight its unique Open Source based enterprise com-munications solution, addressing the needs of a wide range of verticals,” he added.


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India Tops in Origi-nating DDoS TrafficAccording to a new global research from security experts at Symantec, India topped the global top 50 ranking of countries that have witnessed the highest volume of ‘originating DDoS traffic’, with 26 percent of all DDoS traffic originating from the country, followed by the USA with 17 percent.

“The sources for DoS attacks are often countries that have a high number of bot infected machines and a low adoption rate of filtering of spoofed packets. While this does not mean that the people behind the attack are located in India, as the attacks are often orchestrated remotely; it is a reflection of India emerging as a hotbed to launch these attacks, potentially because of the low cyber security awareness, lack of adequate security practices and infrastructure,” said Tarun Kaura, Director, Technology Sales at Symantec India.

Brother Takes Partners to SwitzerlandAs a part of the Channel Incentive Program, Brother India took its top 17 Direct Channel Partners (BC1) to Switzerland. The partners were accompanied with their spouse.

These partners won this trip on purchase of products worth specific amount or exceeding the target set under the program. The trip was for 3N/4D to the scenic country of Switzerland from 12th till 16th Oct. The trip was accompanied by Brother India head Office team - Mr. Alok Nigam (General Manager - Sales & Marketing) & Mr. Rishikesh Kane (Manager – Marketing). Every year Brother organise similar trips for the Direct Channel partners to various countries.

People Willing to Embrace More Secure ServicesOn the heels of Edward Snowden’s advice to switch from Dropbox, Facebook and Google to services that place a high priority on security and privacy, F-Secure is releasing survey results that show that many people are willing to do just that. The survey, which polled people in 6 countries, shows that a majority of people have changed some of their Internet habits in recent months due to increased privacy concerns.

In a recent video interview, whistleblower Snowden cautioned viewers, saying such major Internet services are dangerous and should be avoided. And in fact, 53% of survey respondents said they’d be willing to switch from services like Google to other more private services to avoid search-based profiling. 56% of people also said they have become more wary of US-based Internet services in the past year. 46% of people said they would be willing to pay to be sure that none of their personal data transits via the US. And 70% said they are concerned about the potential of mass surveillance by intelligence agencies in countries through which their data may be passing.

68% of respondents said they try to protect their privacy at least some of the time through the use of private browsing or incognito mode or by encrypting their communications. And 57% of people said they are not okay with companies using their profile data in exchange for getting a free service.

Germany, Brazil and the Philippines showed some of the highest levels of concern about data privacy. As an example, when asked whether they’ve changed some of their Internet habits in recent months due to increased concerns about data privacy, an average of 56% of people said they had: 45% in the UK, 47% in the US, and 49% in France, and 60% in Germany and 67% in both Brazil and the Philippines.

neoteric and ALUE to Conduct Road showsneoteric infomatique in association with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise will be conducting channel engagement road shows in India starting the 5th of November through the 5th of Decemberto help small and medium businesses maximize their Return on Investment with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise solutions. This will cover 7 major cities, namely, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi.

The sessions will focus on new enterprise applications, product road maps and their unique selling propositions that deliver more value to the fast growing Indian SMB market. Partners will benefit from hands-on product demonstrations delivered by the neoteric team while sessions sharing how cost-effective Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise products and solutions in the Voice & Data and Wireless segments enhance business results, andcan cater to the future needs of their customers’ and their businesses.

Varun Mata, Business Head- neoteric infoma-tique 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.”

DIGISOL to Take Initiatives to Pro-tect Channel Partners DIGISOL has identified the issue of price discrepancy between the price offered by its channel partners and the price available on E-commerce sites i.e. its online retailers.

“This is posing a major hurdle for DIGISOL’s partners and distributors businesses. Company understands this sensitive issue very well and is looking at taking punitive measures to eradicate the pricing problems that has been an obstruc-tion for the smooth functioning of its channel business. DIGISOL is taking strict steps, by issuing a mandate to all online retailers to take corrective action on selling DIGISOL brand products online at predatory prices and to ensure overall price parity, which will not interfere with the channel’s pricing,” said the official press release.

“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,” said Arati Naik, COO, Smartlink Network Systems Ltd.

Arati Naik, COO, Smartlink


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RAH to Distribute Garland ProductsGarland Technology has signed an exclusive agreement with RAH Infotech to distribute their extensive portfolio of networking and security solutions across India.

Ashok Kumar, MD and CEO, RAH Infotech, said, “ These best-of-breed technologies around network design, intrusion detection, bandwidth management, and computer forensics from Garland Technology offer huge opportunities for channel partners to create a niche for themselves with their enterprise customers. RAH Infotech’s extensive distribution channel will help create a large market for Garland Technology in India.”

Their line of test access points (TAPs) are the foundation of solid solutions in areas including network analyzers, data capture and analysis, IPS, DLP, next-generation firewalls, application performance monitoring, and lawful intercept.

Fortinet Extends Technical Support in IndiaFortinet has expanded its India Technical Assistance Centre by adding support engineers, professional 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 Account Management, ensuring expert and timely deployment of local projects.

In line with this expansion, Fortinet’s main office in India has moved to a new location on MG Road in Bangalore. The company will also boost investment in highly-skilled engineering resources to help customers solve difficult technical issues and deploy complex architectural designs and imple-mentations announced the press release. These resident engineers will have direct access to Fortinet’s developers and support resources for onsite or offsite implementations, and will ensure a timely, precise and complete service experience for customers.

IntelliGrape Named AWS PartnerIntelliGrape, the technology arm of TO THE NEW, said it is one of the first in Asia to receive both Big Data Competency and Managed Service Provider Competency status from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

IntelliGrape was named as part of the new AWS Partner Network (APN) Competency program based on demonstrated technical proficiency and proven customer success in specialized solution areas.

As a Big Data Competency Partner, Intel-liGrape will help customers leverage AWS cloud computing services to effectively manage Big Data by reducing costs, gaining a competitive advantage, and increasing the speed of innova-tion. IntelliGrape has demonstrated success in helping customers evaluate and use the tools, techniques, and technologies of working with data productively, at any scale.

Speaking on the recognition, Deepak Mittal, CEO, IntelliGrape, said, “We are very excited and honoured to be one of the few Indian companies to receive these competencies. As a Big Data Competency Partner, we want to help our customers generate meaningful insights from those ever increasing volumes of data, thus letting them make business critical decisions.”

ADITYA INFOTECH AWARDED AT IISE 2014Aditya Infotech Ltd said it has won wins prestigious CMD’s award for Comprehensive solutions in Security and surveillance category in the recently concluded 17th edition of India International Security Expo 2014.

IISE 2014 event was a premier specialized event of India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) and was organized with an active support of the Ministry of Home Affairs and all paramilitary and state police forces of the country. The event was held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 26-29 September, 2014.

“This award was an acknowledgment of our overtime and best efforts and commitment to deliver excellence to all industry segments the best of services - in pre-sales, designing, logistics, sales, services, commissioning and technical support. This has reaffirmed our commitment and endeavour to ensure better and safe India”, commented Yogesh Dutta, COO, Aditya Infotech.

Each year, IISE attracts foreign delegations looking for cost-effective & state-of-the-art equip-ment being manufactured in India. The 2014 exposition attracted around 15,000 visitors from India and overseas.

Lenovo Unveils 100% Financing on AIOsTo make computers more accessible to the youth population Lenovo is offering 100% financing with zero down payment and zero interest on the purchase of high performance laptops and AIOs. The pay-ment can be broken up across multiple EMIs with no interest fee. Lenovo is joined by Intel in its effort to promote this initiative across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This initiative is being piloted in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as it complements their focus on education to bridge the IT divide.

Speaking about the initiative, Shailendra Katyal, Director- Home and Small Business, Lenovo India, said, “We chose Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as the first region, as they offer immense IT talent. We plan to roll this out in the rest of India too.”

Speaking about the initiative, Anand Ramamoorthy, Director Consumption Sales, Intel South Asia, said , “We believe that the more people know how they can use technology to improve their employabil-ity or livelihoods; the more interested they will be in adopting it and using it right, as one of the biggest barriers to investing in technology are lack of awareness and relevance.”

The offer will be available from mid-November 2014, across all Lenovo stores in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.


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The influence of third platform growing substantially on the modern day business, many of the vendors has preferred to change their business line to give more reasonable solutions and IBM has been the trend setters among all.

Fundamentally, there is a radical shift happening in the market in terms of the way the customers are looking at IT. Definitely third platform comprising

Cloud, Big Data, Social, Mobile and Wireless is dominating the buying behaviour of the custom-ers. Therefore, most of the vendors are changing their strategy to adapt to this requirement.

At IBM STG, the overall strategy has been clearly aligned towards cloud and analytics. Even Social Media and Big Data and Mobility are becoming big for the company.

Sundar N Balasubramanian, Executive, SI, ISV, Channels, STG, IBM India, said, “I think the CXOs are getting involved in the IT and looking at ROI seriously.” “There are couple of things hap-pening in the market. From the STG perspective, we feel that there is a strong drive towards cloud and analytics. The overall customers are shifting from CAPEX to OPEX - where people are starting to getting inclined towards buying IT as a service more than an asset in the books.”

So after IBM x 86 businesses moved to Lenovo, the clear focus of IBM STG has been to align with channel partners from the value business perspec-tive. He added, “We feel that there is a significant amount of value workload which can get onto Power 8 Linux. Similarly, significant workload can continue to grow onto Storwize platform on storage side also. Therefore changing the partners’ landscape with the change in the market and cus-tomers’ dynamic is the need of the hour.”

So increasingly Sundar and his team are enter-

ing into dialogues with the partners now, which they wouldn’t have done three years back. He said, “I am talking to a lot of Big Data companies about the partnership, also talking to significant MSPs to see what both can do from partnering perspective.”

“We will have more new generation partners now and will have our existing partners spe-cialised on new skills so that they can go and talk in the language which the customers would like to hear,” he added.

The market thinks that IBM has given away its entire channel business (with the x86 business sale) to Lenovo. Sundar says, “The way it is specu-lated is right. It was the volume part of business of IBM that we have sold and we are committed to supporting the customers for five years, but the value part of the business around Power 8 Linux Box, where the focus is high, we want to see how we can position it rightly.”

He added, “The 8th generation Power System right now with the very clear roadmap is thrown open for Linux as RedHat Linux has been opti-mised for Power 8. Plus, we have been building skills of the channel for Power 8 and Linux appli-cations so that they can go and position the solu-tions in the market,” he added.

Sundar maintained, “Capacity was never an issue for us from the channel perspective. We had partners who were working with us for decades. Starting of this year, we had taken very strong steps to upgrade the capability of the partners so as to enable our channel partners to go out and

MOBILIZING CHANNEL FOR POWER8 WITH LINUX

SUNDAR N BALASUBRAMANIAN EXECUTIVE, SI, ISV, CHANNELS, STG, IBM INDIA.

“TO THE EARLIER SET OF PARTNERS, WE MAY NOT BE 100% RELEVANT AND THEY MAY NOT BE 100% RELEVANT TO US AS WELL BUT WHAT WE ARE DOING IS TO TAKE EFFORTS TO SPECIALISE THESE PARTNERS AND BUILD CAPABILITIES.”

position value proposition. We wanted to see how autonomous they were able to position this in the market clearly. We have done significant amount of boot camps – both on Power and Stor-wize. Our incentives structures are realigned and recalibrated. To the earlier set of partners, we may not be 100% relevant and they may not be 100% relevant to us as well but what we are doing is to take efforts to specialise these partners and build capabilities. Profitability is the line which they can expect more now from the traditional business.”

Finally…IBM is going through a journey of re-training of the skills at all levels including their own staff. Sundar concludes, “We are actually retelling our partners to go and talk to the market in their language. Very clearly this is the stated direction of IBM and this is the direction of STG now.


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TAKING THE RIGHT

STEPS


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For the smooth functioning of the partners in this highly competitive and ever evolving market investing in the channel through transfer of skill and knowledge, prompt sales support, lead gen-eration and higher margins are some of the criti-

cal ingredients required for their growth and success which goes a long way in scripting the growth of the organisations.

Every now and then companies need to take initiatives to re-evaluate their training tools and processes to better enable their partners with skills and capabilities to help address customers’ most critical needs.

To forge strong partnerships, choosing the right partner is as important as investing in committed, capable partners to drive deeper relationships, who are capable of taking one’s products and solutions not only to the right customers but also present-ing it correctly.

Greyhound Research suggests that vendors should align with their partners on their business objectives to ensure that both are growing their businesses together. They also need to analyze channel ecosystem to determine which partner types would be best suited to deliver the solutions that their customers need, in an optimal way.

Working closely with partners to develop joint business plans, joint solutions and a joint go-to-market strategy that is mutually beneficial is what Symantec follows. It also does several joint marketing programs and campaigns that enable generation of short and long term demand. “These are aimed to support Partner organizations and representatives accelerate their pipe-

Channels partners are an extension of every organisa-tion’s brand, and the way they are treated in terms of their growth and develop-ment defines the success of the organisation. Here we bring to you a round-up of some of the channel best practices followed by organisations.

BY KARMA [email protected]


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“CHANNEL PARTNERS HAVE COPED WITH MAY TRENDS IN THE PAST, AND HAVE ONLY BECOME STRONGER. THEY HAVE TO ADAPT THEMSELVES SMARTLY TO THIS TREND, AND SEE OPPORTUNITIES INSTEAD OF HURDLES.” SUNIL GREWAL, DIRECTOR – SALES & MARCOM, GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY (INDIA) PVT.LTD

“THE OPPORTUNITY LANDSCAPE, CHANNEL LANDSCAPE AND THE NEEDS OF THE CHANNEL ARE ALSO CHANGING AND WE NEED TO ENSURE WE REMAIN IN THE BEST POSITION TO GAIN MARKET SHARE.” AMITABH JACOB, DIRECTOR, CHANNEL, SYMANTEC INDIA.

“KEY TO THE RELATIONSHIPS IS CHANNELS VALUE ADDITION TO VENDOR’S PRODUCT LINE AND IN TURN VENDORS ENSURING CHANNEL PROFITABILITY. THIS CAN BE ACHIEVED BY VARIOUS MEANS AND EVERY ORGANIZATION HAS DIFFERENT STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE THIS. PROFITABILITY.” RAJESH GOENKA, VP SALES & MARKETING, RASHI PERIPHERALS

line development,” says Amitabh Jacob, Director, Channel, Symantec India.

A 100% channel centric company Kaspersky Lab says it has seen an extremely good growth from a select group of partners, who they col-lectively refer to as Dedicated and Focused partners. “These firms have been instrumental for our higher YOY growth, and we are com-mitted to match their growth by increasing our support. We have increased levels of inside sales support, and brought about significant changes in terms of inside system engineering support in relation to pre-sales and post-sales. We conduct regular trainings for our channel partners which gives them a sound level of expertise to pitch and support our solutions,” informs Altaf Halde, MD (South Asia), Kaspersky Lab, India.

The industry also believes in adopting a com-

plimenting style in line with partner needs to win in the market apart from working in a structured and focused way for few select offerings – align-ment, empowerment, engagement and winning together in the market. Time to time select offer-ings are aligned with few partners in line with their current portfolio and customer base to ensure success through relevance for each of our partners in short time with incremental efforts and regularly adds niche, compelling and compli-menting offerings to ensure profitable growth for our partners.

Rajesh Goenka, VP Sales & Marketing, Rashi Peripherals, says,” Key to the relationships is chan-nels value addition to vendor’s product line and in turn vendors ensuring channel profitability. This can be achieved by various means and every organization has different strategies to achieve

this. But the ultimate goal is value addition & profitability.”

Matrix Comsec claims to have a very clear and non-overlapping collaboration with channel part-ners. “We understand very well that Matrix needs channel partners more than they need Matrix. Not surprisingly, we treat our channel partners as our primary customers and we try our best to meet all their expectations from Matrix. Our relationship is based on trust, transparency and respect. We try our best to build long-term partnerships with all our channel partners,” says Sagar Gosalia, Senior VP (Marketing & Sales), Matrix Comsec.

Bringing out ‘so called’ innovative incentive schemes is another favorite channel program that vendors come out with time to time. Emerson recently entered into a strategic agreement with PAYBACK for what it calls ‘a one-of-its-kind incentive program’. Its partnership with PAY-BACK allows them to offer its VARs and NSPs the freedom to select their rewards based on the points that they have garnered from over 50 PAY-BACK partner brands.

Fortinet Synergy 2014 is a quarterly partner update session in the metros. This event helps


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“WE CONDUCT REGULAR TRAININGS FOR OUR CHANNEL PARTNERS WHICH GIVES THEM A SOUND LEVEL OF EXPERTISE TO PITCH AND SUPPORT OUR SOLUTIONS.” ALTAF HALDE, MD (SOUTH ASIA), KASPERSKY LAB, INDIA

to jointly plan go-to-market strategies where Fortinet would fund channel partners for various client-focused activities.

Change, change, changeEven after 150 years Charles Darwin’s evolution-ary theory still remains controversial but when applied to business it seems the most suitable. And yes, I will save myself the time by not explain-ing what it is- as I am assuming we all know a little bit about it (believe me, am not patronizing you

folks!).Getting back to talking in context of channels,

with the changing market dynamics it’s not only the channels but also the channel strategy that has to be tweaked, and we are not talking about overhauling just a teeny weenie change in the strat-egy, to meet the ever changing market demands. Increasing focus is being placed on value for money products and solutions as well as the adop-tion of new technologies. While these changes have resulted in many aspects of channel partners

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Channel Best Practices:l Ensuring utmost channel profitability

under any circumstances

l Lead generation

l Prompt and efficient after-sales services

l Technical certification

l Competency-based enablement

framework

l Transfer of skills and knowledge to

partners

l Develop joint business plans, joint solu-

tions and a joint go-to-market strategy

l Joint marketing programs and cam-

paigns that enable generation of short and

long term demand

l Regular addition of niche, compelling and

complimenting offerings to ensure profit-

able growth for our partners

l Adopting a complimenting style in line

with partner needs to win in the market

l Regular and attractive incentive schemes


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“WE UNDERSTAND VERY WELL THAT MATRIX NEEDS CHANNEL PARTNERS MORE THAN THEY NEED MATRIX. NOT SURPRISINGLY, WE TREAT OUR CHANNEL PARTNERS AS OUR PRIMARY CUSTOMERS AND WE TRY OUR BEST TO MEET ALL THEIR EXPECTATIONS FROM MATRIX.” SAGAR GOSALIA, SENIOR VP (MARKETING & SALES), MATRIX COMSEC. “UNDERSTANDABLY,

WE KEEP ON FINE TUNING OUR CHANNEL STRATEGIES IN REAL TIME POST SHARING AND GAINING FEEDBACK AS WELL AS INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE FROM OUR PARTNERS AS THEY HAVE THEIR EARS CLOSELY PLACED TO THE GROUND.” ANKESH KUMAR, DIRECTOR (MARKETING), EMERSON NETWORK POWER, INDIA.

evolving, their role of taking the brand to the end customer is more important than ever.

Greyhound Research outlines the reasons for the overhauling of channel strategy to SaaS applications which are now easily and directly available for business functions; changing tradi-tional approach towards infrastructure; increas-ing technology maturity among customers and a broader user base opening for sales, for this they need to upscale themselves; increasing shift from simpler to more complicated use cases involving cross functional integration. It further adds that most significantly, reduced budgets and the intro-duction of the Cloud have fundamentally changed the way many organisations view and consume technology.

“New channel strategies help drive partner growth and profitability, while offering incentives to keep partners focused in the areas of greatest opportunity. As compared to earlier situations,

vendors now are more committed to their partners and distributors and focused on helping their part-ners solve customers’ jobs and problems together. This helps both the vendor and the partner to widen the addressable market,” says Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst and Group CEO, Grey-hound Research.

Emerson Network Power says it empowers its channel partners to be solution focused rather than product centric. “By focusing on mutually inclusive growth, we provide development pro-grams for channel partners so that they may adapt their channel practices in a manner that helps them provide the right service mix and cater to their own unique ecosystem and specific audience. Understandably, we keep on fine tuning our chan-nel strategies in real time post sharing and gaining feedback as well as industry intelligence from our partners as they have their ears closely placed to the ground,” says Ankesh Kumar, Director (Mar-

keting), Emerson Network Power, India. Symantec’s Jacob says, “The opportunity land-

scape, Channel landscape and the needs of the Channel are also changing and we need to ensure we remain in the best position to gain market share.”

For Fortinet overhauling of channel strategy is needed to evolve with its partners by maintaining a structured, best in-class channel ecosystem, in which resellers get rewarded on their investment in our brand, technology and products.

Revamping of the channel strategy is not a must it really depends if you feel the need for it. Citrix doesn’t believe that a complete overhauling is required of channel strategy but rather a gradual evolution of the strategy to help the channel partners align themselves with the changing cus-tomer requirements and expectations. Similarly, Gigabyte has not overhauled its channel practices,

How to have a successful marriage:

Symantec:l Focus and invest in the right areas like programs, profitability, technology excellence, world class

enablement and ease of doing business

Gigabyte:l Treat channel partners as extended family members and are totally focused on their profitability

l Incentive schemes, and other program for the channel like training programs, and SI meets, col-

laborative marketing and also, holiday trips in India and abroad

iValue:l Ensuring profitable and sustained growth opportunities for channel is the best way to keep the

relationship healthy

Matrix:l Matrix needs channel partners more than they need Matrix

l We try our best to build long-term partnerships with all our channel partners


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though it has been constantly expanding its T2 channel network.

“Customers today have started looking towards channel organisations as partners who will understand their business challenges, align their offerings with the business need and serve as a strategic partner on their journey. They are looking for partners who can work with them as an “end-to-end” technology partner rather than a point-product-one-time-sale organisation. Partners who evolve themselves into the solution approach have more probability of success. With the plethora of information available, customers have also started evaluating newer technologies such as DaaS or Cloud based approach more aggressively,” informs Kaushal Veluri, Director (Channels & Alliances), Citrix.

Disruptive Technologies The combination of technologies such as

mobility, BYOD, Cloud, and Virtualization has triggered an explosion in data generated everyday and apart from creating various challenges it also brings forth ample opportunities for both part-ners and vendors.

“Symantec sees tremendous value in investing

in committed, capable partners to drive deeper relationships with customers that will help them address information security challenges, and complexities in the areas of cloud, data enter and mobility,” responds Jacob.

Sunil Grewal, Director (Sales & MarCom), Gigabyte Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd, responds, “Channel partners have coped with many trends in the past, and have only become stronger. They can also cope with this situation if they can add value for customers. They have to adapt them-selves smartly to this trend, and see opportunities instead of hurdles.”

Kumar says Emerson is constantly evolving and leveraging to adapt to changes in technology, and they help partners to further their business and provide more value for customers through features such as real-time visualization, power tracking and mobile access through. “Emerson believes that solutions based on enterprise mobil-ity will offer new avenues for partners as organiza-tions warm up to the trend of deploying flexible workspaces.”

The ubiquitous adoption of cloud computing, social networking, BYOD, and mobile communi-cations, has also opened the doors for cybercrimi-

Lead generation:

Symantec: l Symantec Partner Marketing Center is a

free specialty service set up to help partners

market better, sell more and drive new busi-

ness opportunities

l Has a dedicated Opportunity Discovery

team that generates leads that are passed

on to partners via the Inside Sales team (ISO)

l Also support joint marketing programs

and events with partners with specific solu-

tion focus to tap market opportunities.

Gigabyte:l Both Area Sales Managers (ASMs) and

Zonal Managers are closely engaged with

partners, almost on a daily basis

l Focus more on T2 partners (Value Part-

ners) for demand and lead generation

l Started investing in outdoor media adver-

tising as well To enhance our brand aware-

ness among end-users

l Active on the Social Media (especially

Facebook), and have recently increased our

presence and activities on popular online

Tech Forums


29

COVER STORY

Cover_Story.indd 29 18-11-2014 15:52:32

nals who now have unprecedented reach across and into more organizations, databases, desktops and mobile devices than ever before. On the other side business will need better security solutions for protecting their complex networks. “This has opened up more business opportunities for part-ners depending on the area of specialization they have multiple entry points —through Next-Gen firewall space, WAN optimization, secured wire-less routers, WAF, DDOS or ATP,” explains Jiten-dra Ghughal, National Channel Manager, India & SAARC, Fortinet.

CEO at iValue InfoSolutions S. Sriram too informs, “We strongly believe that cloud would expand the addressable market for partners through its affordability and the scope to add value for larger set of customer base can be real-ized through cloud.”

Another interesting turn of events with the advent of these technologies is the changing role of the channel partners who now have become dynamic. Nowadays, customers are demanding to

interact with those channel partners who have an understanding of their business. Hence, organisa-tions are leaving no stone unturned by injecting skills training to their channel partners so as to effectively position its solutions in the market.

Explains Avaya’s Director, Channels (India and SAARC) Hrishi Parthasarthy, “Channel partners are expected to be trusted experts, and to put the customers’ needs first and offer solutions which best fit their needs. As more and more compa-nies are looking at a Cloud-based deployment model, which offers them more rapid deployment times and helps them manage their costs more effectively, we are working with all our partners to ensure they help deliver against the customer’s expectations.”

With customers aggressively evaluating the ability to consume technology as a service rather than as a one-time buy virtualization company Citrix believes that the advent and large scale acceptance of these disruptive technologies will put the onus on the customer to ‘renew’ the

technology based on their satisfaction with them same. Disruptive technologies such as Cloud and DaaS will enable the customers to change partners at short notice, if need be. It further adds that in such a scenario where customers evaluate partners based on their ability to meet the SLAs, partners will need to change their mindset from technology implementation for sustenance to customer satisfaction and customer delight to renew business. “Partners will need to invest heav-ily in technology readiness and sustenance skills to ensure that the customer infrastructure is active and meets the SLAs set jointly,” emphasizes Veluri.

FinallyWhen the time has come for the partners to play the role of an advisor to customers on deployment of adequate solutions and services it calls for their empowerment and enablement and it vendors are doing their part to adopt the best of the channel best practices to keep the vendor-channel partner a strong one.

MOTIVATIONAL TALK

Making some significant

enhancements to our overall

Avaya Connect channel partner

program, with a significant shift

from volume to value in the way

we recognize our partners and

the way they assure their status

in the program

Sharpening partner’s skills in marketing their

products and helping them create comprehensive

solutions as per customers specific domain needs

l Inspire confidence through regular channel

programs between corporates and partners

l Incentive programs and based on their feedback

and expectations

l Believe in giving the partner rep the education in

finding new opportunities, cross selling and up selling

technologies and learning value-selling skills

l Rather than a purely incentivised approach, Citrix

believes that heavily investing in the training of

channel partners on new technologies and how to

better service their customers is the key to long term

success

l Field visits and telephonic calling are

the two effective methods used by us for

demand generation

l Sometimes also use email blast for the

same

In addition

to providing

regular product /

technology training,

it offers partners’

sales members with

incentives for doing

more GIGABYTE

business, in the

form of useful and

handy gifts

l Identify partners who

have experience in wireless

products and enhance

their expertise to become

Fortinet Wireless specialist

l Fortinet certification

helps partners to have

the in-house expertise to

support their customers

l Sales and pre-sales

individuals who contribute

towards Fortinet business

are being recognized and

incentivized through our

promotions


30

COVER STORY

Cover_Story.indd 30 18-11-2014 15:52:33

Advts.indd 11 18-11-2014 16:12:50

Brief us about your company? Sparkle Enterprises was established in

the year 1998. In 2005, we started distribution in telecom. In 2007 we got associated with Matrix. Today, we are committed to providing practical, cost effective wired and wireless solutions to our customers. We are also recognized as a reliable, dedicated telecommunication and security prod-ucts company, offering value added services to our customers.

What is your turnover and growth percentage?

Our turn over is about Rs. 1 .25 crore and we expect to grow by 25% this year.

What is your strength in terms of market reach and others?

Our key strength is our technical sound support team focused on customer satisfaction by offering prompt services which has empowered us to have a good market reach in our region.

What kind of solutions and prod-ucts you are dealing in?

We deal in Matrix EPABX and other brands.

How do you find telecom market in India?

The telecom market in India is growing day by day vastly with many solution based require-ment. It has tremendous scope for upgradation of existing products in terms of IP solutions.

What kind of telecom solutions you have?

We offer wired to wireless connectivity as well as multi-locations connectivity through IP –PBX.

How do you find Matrix products in terms of its advantages vis-à-

vis other brands? Matrix is SUBSTANCE brand. Substance is in the DNA of Matrix solutions. Substance in the form of technology, depth, genuineness and going beyond the mere outer façade and offer more values in all the areas. This is what differentiates Matrix from the lot. Matrix solutions are packed with More. More productivity, more applications, more flexibility, more functions, more features, more cost saving, more reliability, and more sup-port. Matrix positioning is based on offering more of these true inherent values which customers

“THIS YEAR WE PLAN TO ADD NAVAN CNX200 OFFICE-IN-A-BOX SOLUTION TO OUR EXISTING BASKET OF TELECOM PRODUCTS.”

”OUR KEY STRENGTH IS

OUR TECHNICAL SOUND SUP-PORT TEAM”

expect from infrastructure solutions.

What is the potential and chal-lenge for matrix in the market?

Firstly, Matrix is the only indigenous company with wide array of telecom products that are packed with rich features and standout in quality when compared to MNC companies. Secondly, Matrix has its own R&D and manufacturing unit in India so it’s easy to convince the customer for better support.

What the company needs to do to improve the market share?

Company needs to improve the market share by increasing buy back offers and special discounts at festive occasions.

As a partner what kind of prod-ucts you want to add this year?

This year we plan to add NAVAN CNX200 office-in-a-box solution to our existing basket of telecom products.

ASSHWIN BHOSLAY PROPRIETOR, SPAR-KLE ENTERPRISES,

NAVI MUMBAI

Navi Mubai-based Sparkle Enterprises started its operations in 1998. In a chat with SME Channels Asshwin Bhoslay, Proprietor of

the company talks about the telecom market and its association with Matrix.

SME CHAT


32

SME Chat_Sparkle.indd 32 18-11-2014 17:05:27

Data centers are under heavy pressure to meet the demands of ever increasing business requirements to stay agile and competitive and hence it is evolving to meet the demands coming from fronts like increasing data and storage, server virtualization etc. Cisco with its unified computing system, application centric infrastructure, and commitment of $1 billion to Intercloud this year is hell bent on transforming the architecture of data centers.

Last November Cisco launched its ACI, its answer to SDN, and later John Cham-bers declared “they will lead in SDN”. He compared this with their dramatic entry

into the servers with unified computing system (UCS) and more dramatic is their number two position in the x86 blade serve market in such a short time. It’s bullishness on SDN market and

UCS was made amply evident at its recently held Data Center Partner Connection in Phuket, Thai-land where it highlighted its data center vision and strategy, emerging opportunities for unified com-puting system and Intercloud and also introduced new UCS products. The event was attended by 450 representatives from 200 companies.

“Data Center is key focus for us. We are number

CISCO WILL CONTINUE TO DISRUPT UCS

BY: KARMA [email protected]

Saravan Rajendran, VP and GM (Cloud Networking and Services Group), Cloud and Virtualization Group, Cisco.

Frank Palumbo, Senior VP, Global Data Center Sales, Cisco, addressing the event.


34

SME BIZ CISCO

SME Biz_Cisco.indd 34 19-11-2014 15:02:02

22 cm x 31cm

Exclusive National Distributor

Cubix Micro Systems (I) Pvt. Ltd.Pune (H.O.) : 020 - 24251594 - 99, Mumbai: 022-25008968, New Delhi : 011 - 41006505, Bangalore : 080 - 25504640Chennai : 044 - , Kolkata : 09831381672, Hyderabad : 023710918 9866668565/ 09822656393

[email protected]

Advts.indd 12 18-11-2014 16:14:18

one in private cloud, number one in terms of stor-age technology, blade server capability etc. and our growth in recent quarters have been 30% year over year,” says Frank Palumbo, Senior VP, Global Data Center Sales, Cisco. “Cisco boasts of 3,650 plus UCS channel partners and leads the UCS blade server growth in APJC. The next wave of growth it sees coming from internet of everything and Intercloud.” Further asserting that they will continue to lead in data center, cloud variation, unified computing, and now application.

In recent years the networking giant said it has witnessed a growth of 30% year on year with 39% market share in servers and is at no. 1 position globally while in US it holds 43%. “We understand this market very well. And if we look where we are going we want to continue to lead in terms of data center, in cloud variation, lead in unified comput-ing and now application. ...we are talking about how we can change their business; from retail to manufacturing to smart cities... we will drive this industry together along with driving innovation and make a difference,” says Palumbo.

With 3,650 plus UCS channel partners and leading the UCS blade server growth in APJ Cisco is betting big on internet of everything and Intercloud.

Its call to action includes modernisation of the data center, building integrated infrastructure, private cloud, Intercloud and DC solutions. It fur-ther exhorted its partners to transition from 1G to 10 G to 40 G, extend the benefits of UCS beyond the data centers, transform customer operations with ACI and UCS and increase profits and rel-evance with DC solutions.

Talking about their strong channel ecosystem Palumbo further adds that in APJ they supple-ment their channel with a specialist team: sales team and system engineers focused on UCS and compute. On India market he says, “India is very technical market and service provider centric and it’s been ok but we want to do better there hence we recently invested more in terms of expertise for a better traction.”

When asked if the sale of IBM’s low-end server to Lenovo means more business to Cisco a defini-tive yes comes from Palumbo. This move means more business coming to its side with the erst-while IBM partners who do not want to go with Lenovo and are thus opting for Cisco. The event also served as a platform for Palumbo to meet a number of partners at the event and some in US too who have shown interest to join them.

“They want to sell x86 with UCS and then there are those who are selling IBM storage and are looking for package for UCS with IBM storage to sell in the market. We have the ability to recruit those partners and one of the reasons I am here is

to talk with them,” Palumbo adds. With the competition in cloud-computing

market heating up Cisco recently partnered with 20 companies for its Intercloud initiative. Inter-cloud was launched with an initial investment

of $1 billion with the ability to seamlessly move application between public, private and hybrid clouds and service providers. The cloud adoption is on an upward trajectory out of which 70% is dominated by hybrid cloud announces Saravan

John Growdon,Senior Director, Unified Data Center Sales, Worldwide Channels, Cisco.

Satinder Sethi, VP, Data Center Solutions Engineering and UCS Product Management, Cisco.


36

SME BIZ CISCO


Advts.indd 13 18-11-2014 16:16:22

Rajendran, VP and GM (Cloud Networking and Services Group), Cloud and Virtualization Group, Cisco.

He further informs how they are helping their Intercloud provider partners to get more business from their enterprise customers as they get access to Cisco enterprise based customers and Cisco’s go-to-market channels. “Our intention is to create an open ecosystem and deliver our partners software-as-a-service and we will be constantly expanding our ecosystem.”

Out of the three clouds - private, public, hybrid - he says Hybrid is here to stay for a long time and it’s more cost effective. However, there are still number of companies who are showing resis-tance when it comes to accessing cloud, but once they realize their business users going to cloud bypassing IT and the implications of it in terms of security he says they will start realizing the need to adopt it. “And this is a shift we are seeing in the market.”

“Hybrid is real,” asserts Rajendran, “and this can be attested by the fact that till couple of months back Amazon was saying that everything will be on public cloud and hybrid will not exist but now they have changed the story and are talking about hybrid and offering solutions; Azure too wants to do something on similar line.”

An interesting thing that Saravan quoted was tering Public cloud as more expensive than pri-vate clouds. When we are usually told how public clouds are cheaper than private and how small and medium enterprise ans start-ups usually go for public as they are cash strapped this stateent is something unexpected. He explains, “Start-ups

are paying for the agility and are ready to pay a little more. In a survey done by Gartner over 50% of the respondents said they are leveraging public cloud services for the agility rather than the cost.”

He further adds that public cloud services are cost effective when you are using it for workloads for short period of time but if you want to run production workload on constant basis... it comes out to be more expensive.

Intercloud fabric solutions, today, addresses infrastructure-as-a-service in terms of seamless workload, and though the larger Intercloud strat-egy it offers a number of software-as-a-service by Cisco and with ISP partners like Citrix, Microsoft, and SAP. Without revealing a timeline he informs they also plan to offer additional platform-as-a-service in the coming times as well.

Cisco extended its data center portfolio with the announcement of new products both on the hardware and software side. “We are extending ourselves into new market segments but more importantly we feel that software as our go to market strategy is going forward from a data center conversion infrastructure perspective and therefore more and more emphasis on UCS Director but also bring other pieces of software to complete the whole private cloud story together,” informs Satinder Sethi, VP, Data Center Solutions Engineering and UCS Product Management, Cisco.

It has already started shipping UCS rack serv-ers B200 M4, C220 M4, C240 M4, UCS Director, UCS Mini, and C3160 while M series will start shipping in December. It has also started shipping its Enterprise cloud stack.

UCS Mini is mainly targeted at branch office and remote offices like for example an enterprise customer like banks with branch offices spread all across or large retailers with have stores all across the country. Other than these enterprises it’s also ideal for businesses where computing infrastruc-ture requirement is 10-20 servers.

With the announcements of the new launches there are no plans to rope in new partners as of now and plan is to go with the existing partners. “We will go with the existing partners. We always begin the process with the existing partners especially for the data center products and once it’s stabilised we will be open to other partners as well. We are in the process of enabling partners,” says John Growdon, Senior Director, Unified Data Center Sales, Worldwide Channels, Cisco.

One of its enablement program called advanced technology partner program (ATP) for ACI was launched in august and over time it will migrate into a specialisation. Sixty partners are already working with them and plan to increase it to a total of 120 by January. Additionally it is also training hundreds of partners but not brought them formally into the program.

Finally...Data center is considered the cornerstone of any organisation and is undergoing transformation led by virtualization, cloud computing and better performing servers. And vendors like Cisco are trying to make them more efficient. With Cisco swearing on internet of everything as the next wave will put more pressures on data centers.

Ruma Balasubramanian, VP (Partner Organisation), Cisco.


38

SME BIZ CISCO


22 cm x 31cm

Simply Better ConnectionsTM

Exclusive National Distributor

Cubix Micro Systems (I) Pvt. Ltd.Pune (H.O.) : 020 - 24251594 - 99, Mumbai: 022-25008968, New Delhi : 011 - 41006505, Bangalore : 080 - 25504640Chennai : 044 - , Kolkata : 09831381672, Hyderabad : 023710918 9866668565/ 09822656393

[email protected]

Advts.indd 14 18-11-2014 16:16:56

GIGABYTE X99-UD4 - Based on the Intel X99 Express chipset, the motherboard is designed for socket LGA2011-v3 processors. These processors presently con-sist of Core i7 5xxx series CPUs and Xeon E5 1xxx-v3 and E5 2xxx-v3 CPUs. GIGABYTE’s least priced X99 mother-board, GA-X99-UD4 still accommodates all of the extreme performance features of that platform.

All GIGABYTE X99 motherboards feature a unique PCI Express design that utilizes 100% of all 40 lanes from the CPU when in a 4-Way or 3-Way graphics configuration. Standard designs limit all 4 main PCIe lanes to x8 (64Gb/s) bandwidth, but thanks to the onboard external clock gen-erator combined with the direct connection of one of the x16 lanes to the CPU (switchless design), GIGABYTE X99 motherboards can unlock the full bandwidth available and provide the best graphics bandwidth possible.The motherboard offers support for up to 4-Way GPU configurations, 8 DDR4 modules, 10 SATA 3 devices or 8 SATA 3 devices and also, a SATA Express device. You also get dual M.2 ports to facilitate greater storage and optional WiFi/Bluetooth cards.

High quality audio is another prominent feature of GA-X99-UD4.GA-X99-UD4 comes with Intel Gigabit LAN networking, a popular choice with gamers that features sev-eral performance-enhancing utlitities, including advanced interrupt handling to help reduce CPU overhead and Jumbo Frame support for extra large data packets. Additionally, GIGABYTE X99 series motherboards feature cFos Speed, a network traffic management application which helps improve network latency, maintaining low ping times to deliver better responsiveness in a crowded LAN environment.

FEATURESn Supports New Intel Core i7 Processor

Extreme Edition

n 4 Channel DDR4, 8 DIMMs

n Genuine All Digital Power Design with

IR Digital PWM & IR PowIRstage ICs

n 4-Way Graphics with Premium PCIe

Lane

n Dual M.2 Technology for SSD Drive

and WIFI card

n 6x(30µ) Gold Plating for CPU socket,

Memory DIMMs and PCIe slots

n Realtek ALC1150 115dB SNR HD audio

with built-in Rear Audio Amplifier

n Independent Right and Left Audio

Channel PCB Layers

n LED lighting for the audio guard light

path and the back panel LED

n All Stainless Steel connectors on rear

panel

PRICERs. 29,000 (approximately)

CONTACTGIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY (INDIA) PVT.

LTD.Tel: +91-22-40633222E-mail: sales@

gigabyte.inWebsite: www.gigabyte.in

WARRANTY3 years

OVERALL RATING

BY MANAS [email protected]

Designed to be the ideal mobility solution

for medium-sized and large enterprises and

service providers, D-link DWS-3160 empowers

administrators to exercise total control over

their wireless networks by centralizing all

aspects of provisioning and management.

It can efficiently manage up to 48 D-Link

Unified Access Points by itself and up to 192

in a peer group. Additionally DWS-3160 switch

can be configured to act either as a Wireless

Controller in the core network, or as an TL2+

Gigabit Switch at the edge. Thereby enables

it to seamlessly integrate in to any existing

network infrastructure. D-Link DWS-3160-

24PC offers 24 ports with PoE/PoE+ support

for easy.

Features

1. Scalable Unified Wired/Wireless

Network Architecture

2. Robust Wired/Wireless Security with

Access Control Lists, Captive Portal, Rogue AP

detection and mitigation

3. Built-in captive portal

4. Offers Seamless Mobility for continu-

ous connectivity

5. IPv6 ready

D-LINK DWS-3160 SERIES

n Price: Price on request War-ranty: D-Link Lifetime Contact: Toll Free - 1800-22-8998, GSM/CDMA USER- +91-22-27626600 (Local & STD Charges apply)

GIGABYTE X99-UD4 - GRAND SUPPORT FOR MULTIPLE GPUS


40

REVIEWPRODUCT

Products pages.indd 40 18-11-2014 17:09:32

KINGSTON

ASUS

VIEWSONIC QUAD OUTPUT ZERO CLIENT FOR VDI

VIEWSONIC

KINGSTON’S POWERFUL DUO in storage with capacity upgrades to both Class 10 UHS-I microSD and Class 10 UHS-I SDHC/SDXC cards. The Class 10 UHS-I microSD is now available in 128GB capacity. It is perfect for apps, music, photos and videos that take up significant space on a smartphone or tablet. Compatible with microSDHC and microS-DXC devices, its fast UHS-I speed allows users to capture photos and HD videos without interruption. Kingston’s Class 10 UHS-I SDHC/SDXC card features UHS-I technology and and is now available in capaci-ties up to 256GB. It lets users shoot more video in full 1080p HD and 3D without having to switch cards. With speeds up to 90MB/s read and 45MB/s write, this versatile card transfers files much faster than standard Class 10 SDHC/SDXC cards.

n Price: On Request, Warranty: Lifetime Warranty, Free Technical Support Contact: :+91-22-4223 0300, [email protected]

KINGSTON FLASH CARDS WITH DOUBLE THE MEMORY

ASUS DUAL-BAND ADSL VDSL MODEM ROUTERDSL-AC68U is the fastest modem router in the world, providing speeds of 1300Mbit/s for 802.11ac at 5GHz and 600Mbit/s for 802.11n at 2.4GHz. A dual-purpose standalone wireless router and a DSL modem router in a single space-saving device, DSL-AC68U also features dual wide-area network (WAN) support thanks to the inclusion of both a DSL port and a switchable WAN/LAN port.

Compatible with ADSL, ADSL2/2+, VDSL2, fiber and cable services, the high-end DSL-AC68U provides a future-proof home networking solution. With a sleek upright design and USB 3.0 support, the DSL-AC68U delivers perfect balance of performance and manageability for busy home networks that require everything from online gaming to HD video streaming.

DSL-AC68U uses three external antennas to boost Wi-Fi coverage to the next level, so you can enjoy lag-free gaming and streaming almost anywhere around the house. ASUS AiRadar with universal beamforming technology intelligently enhances Wi-Fi stability, and the high power design improves coverage by up to 150% compared to standard routers. Most importantly, the universal beamforming technology brings improvements in signal strength and performance even to older 802.11a/b/g/n clients.

n Price: Rs 18,740, Warranty: 3-year, Contact: ASUS Technology Pvt.Ltd.,Phone : (91)-22-61598700 / 18002090365,E-mail : [email protected]

VIEWSONIC SC-Z56 is a quad video output zero client for the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) market in India. The SC-Z56 Quad Output Zero Client is developed for users needing higher resolution per-formance and multiple display support announced the press release.

SC-Z56 features TeradiciTera 2 architecture, making it one of the fastest performing zero client in the market. It is VMware Horizon View certified, delivering a secure, manageable and reliable solution for VMware-based networks.

With four DisplayPort outputs and six USB ports, the SC-Z56 provides the connectivity options to drive multiple displays and peripherals for optimal productivity. ViewSonic’s SC-Z56 zero client supports up to four WUXGA (1920x1200) displays or two WQXGA (2560x1600) displays simultaneously, making it ideal for high-end workstations in the govern-ment, corporate, healthcare and security industries.

n Price: on request, Warranty: on request, Contact: [email protected], New Toll Free Line No: 1800-419-0959, New Toll No: 120-612-1600


41

PRODUCTNEW ARRIVALS

Products pages.indd 41 18-11-2014 17:10:59

GUEST COLUMN


42

GIRISH KHARE Director Marketing – Grass Roots India

BRIEF PROFILE

Over the last twenty five years of his

professional life, Girish Khare’s passion

has been to build second and third

levels within every organization he has

worked for.

A good channel partner engagement is a necessary investment and some key ingredients are required to make it successful

ENGAGING THE CHANNEL

Engagement indicates the level of authentic involve-ment, intensity, contribution, and ownership. In most industries and businesses, channel partners are key links between a brand and customers. Hence, they are an important part of the company’s success and must be engaged like an important stakeholder.

It is important to remember that channel part-ners are subject to similar drivers and emotions as employees and customers. An added distraction today is the multi-brand channel partners, distribu-tors and stockists, who trade in a number of brands of competing products. It is all the more imperative for organizations to actively foster a culture of partner-engagement so that, like employees and customers, channel partners too become emotionally engaged with the brand. These partners are more likely to take an active interest in the organization’s success. You cannot expect a disengaged channel partner to build engagement around your brand.

In India, we have a vibrant channel partner eco-system across industries. One of the most important ingredients driving channel success is effective and timely communication. Effective communication helps you build strong relationships with your chan-nel partners. To be effective, communications must be role-based. Increase their positive opinion of associat-ing with your company using messages applicable to their roles. Ensure your program targets individu-als who help achieve your goals. This will increase mindshare and develop vital two-way dialogue with partners.

Globally, individuals and businesses are embracing mobile platforms as a means to communicate, trans-act and consume information. This phenomenon is racing ahead in India as well. With the mass adoption of instant communication channels, more and more businesses are using these platforms to communi-cate with partners, employees and customers. As the smart-phone population explodes, we can look forward to a more instant, efficient and transparent medium to broadcast channel communication and empower channel participants with rich channel dashboards and resources.

So how do you build a successful channel partner culture and process? The main requirements are -

recruitment, enablement, management, recognition and eventually reward.

Recruitment: The kind of channel partners you have developed will depend on your brand strength. Even if you do not have a large FOS, you can ensure a constant flow of communication between you and the channel partners by ensuring contact details of your channel partners are well documented.

Enablement: You should empower them to become more productive through a step by step process that gets them involved in two way communication.

Management: Organizations with a positive man-agement culture naturally think more about how they can drive the success of the channel partner and less about how they can squeeze the most out of the relationship for the company. This, in turn, drives engagement and better results for both partners over a period of time. Finally, you should also realize that channel partners have a lifecycle. Your engagement process will be different depending on where your partner is in that cycle.

Recognition: One cannot over stress the impor-tance of making recognition of personal achieve-ments public; as in the case of the employee so also with the channel partner.

Reward: Margins and commissions don’t translate as rewards or recognition. Channel partners tend to respond to measurable rewards and recognition much like other employees, so it is not surprising to find that companies using such programs post better results. Creative rewards can have a significant impact on relationships; a culture of partner engagement requires building true emotional engagement.

A good channel partner engagement is a neces-sary investment. As it always requires out-of-the-box thinking to create something to match individual personality and drive teams to sell the products and services to the end customer. Today, companies are becoming aware of the importance of ROI on such programs; hence the ROI has become the key barometer to gauge program efficacy. Lastly but very importantly, all such programs must be managed by a committed and experienced team, specially chosen for their ability to think out of the box.

guest column_on channel engagement.indd 42 18-11-2014 15:59:29

Advts.indd 15 18-11-2014 16:17:44

RNI NO: DEL ENG/ 2010/ 31962 Postal Reg. No.: DL-SW-1/4145/13-15 Date of Publication: 20 of Every MonthDate of Posting: 22 & 23 of Every Month

Advts.indd 16 18-11-2014 16:18:19

Documents

Novermber2014