DCC November regular issue

Just like vendors go to great lengths to handpick partners, isn't it high time partners also took

caution in selecting their principals?Here's what you must know in advance PAGE 20

CHOOSINGYOUR

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ChannelConnect

Vol 03 | Issue 1 | November 2010 | Rs. 50

Check out the latest HD media players blazing the market PAGE 36

KAPIL WADHWA on Champion Computers’ USP PAGE 18

SHASHIKANT D SATBHAI CMDA Pune President talks about tackling Octroi issuePAGE 26

KHWAJA SAIFUDDIN on Western Digital’s future plansPAGE 8

EXCLUSIVE INSIDE

A 9.9 Media Publication

EDITOR’SNOTE SANJAY GUPTASOUNDING BOARD

N O V E M B E R 2 010DIGIT CHANNEL CONNECT2

Apple’s iconic music player, iPod, is not the first portable MP3 gadget.

Amazon.com is not the first online catalogue for books.

Microsoft Windows is not the first GUI-based software (Okay, this one is the most widely known, but a little reminder doesn’t harm anyone).

So, what is the point I’m making? Well, I’m not making a new point, really, but only reiter-ating that it’s not always the ‘first to market’ products that become leaders in their cat-egory. Quite often, the products that rule the roost are what I call the ‘Best to Market’.

I mean this phrase in two senses. One, these are usually the best products avail-able in the market (Don’t think of Windows, for a moment). And two, these are marketed in the best manner that anyone could (Now we can talk Windows!). Like someone said: “McDonald’s is the not the best burger maker in the world, but it does the best job of mar-keting an average burger”. (I’d rather that McDonald’s made the best burger as well, but never mind.)

The history of the most successful prod-ucts tells us that multiple factors contribute to their phenomenal success. But key among them is how they are marketed and sold. For most products, this can translate to, if I may dare say, how they are ‘channelled’.

While a lot of doomsayers wrote off the intermediaries, including IT channels, at the peak of the dotcom boom, the latter have not just endured but evolved. They have

also become partners in success for many companies that were late to market with their products but who, with the channel members’ help, conquered a significant lead over those that were ‘first to market’. The channel still remains relevant – and will remain relevant – simply because no large company has the wherewithal and expertise to reach out to its end customers wholly on its own. Time and again, vendors have tinkered with the chan-nel, often urging them to evolve but seldom being able to do without them.

So, let’s make this clear: You, the channel, have the power to provide the best route to your vendor. It’s high time your realised your true worth and moved towards becoming a marketing and positioning advisor to the prin-cipals rather than be a mere conduit for sales and fulfilment. You can indeed help them real-ise their ‘Best to Market’ potential if you only identify and acknowledge your own.

Realising Your Potential

SANJAY GUPTA EDITOR

DIGIT CHANNEL CONNECT

“Whenever we freeze upon any vendors, we do random refer-ence checks and feedback from previous associ-ates. Moreover, we analyse the strategic fit of our vendors.” — ANUP NAIR, MANAGER

– STRATEGIC INITIATIVES,

NEOTERIC INFOMATIQUE.

“Since we believe in providing our vendors with excellent support, we also expect that the vendors should have a strong post sales and support policy.” — RAJ RATHI,

MANAGING DIRECTOR,

CYBERSTAR.

“To ensure high business profit-ability and less risk, we look for a clear understanding of terms and condi-tions, ethical busi-ness practices and a proper commu-nication channel with vendors and customers.” — SHASHIKANT D SATBHAI,

PRESIDENT, CMDA PUNE.

INDEXVOLUME 03 | ISSUE 01 | NOVEMBER 2010


INDEX

42 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

32 FRIENDS OR FOES?

SPECIAL REPORT

BEST OF BIZ

TECHNO TOUCH

Convergence of IT and telecom chan-nel is a trend that is being backed by several factors.

26 ETHICAL BIZ PRACTICES

ASSOCIATION CONNECT

INTERVIEW: SHASHIKANT D SATBHAI, PRESIDENT, CMDA - PUNE

28 LEADERSHIPLook at failure as a source of informa-tion to improve your leadership skills and the fortunes of your company.

20 CHOOSING YOUR VENDORS

COVER STORY

COVERSTORY

One often hears of vendors choosing their partners and giving out details of their channel strategy. But what about partners choosing vendors? DCC talks to some partners about what they look for while choosing vendors.

It is very important to analyse and choose the correct stakeholders in a BI implementation.

THEY SAID IT

OTHERS

02 EDITORIAL

08 VENDOR CONNECT

10 UP-TO-DATE

16 PARTNER CONNECT

40 TECHNO TOUCH – SECURITY

48 EVENT – BROCADE PARTNER SUMMIT

52 ANALYST CONNECT

44 STORAGE ON THE MOVE

46 CLOUD COMPUTING

36 HD MEDIA PLAYERS

FOCUS

TRIED-N-TESTED

With the increase in digital content, the portable hard drive market is growing at a steady rate.

Indian firms want to adopt cloud computing services, as per surveys.

A look at the advancements in HD media players in the last few months.

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SPECIAL REPORT

20 COVER STORY

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WEBINDEXwww.digitchannelconnect.comChannel

Connect WEB EXCLUSIVE NEWS

WEB EXCLUSIVE FEATURE

NEWSLETTERS QUERIES

OPINION POLL

AD INDEXSAMSUNG............................................FALSE COVER

EPSON .............................. INSIDE FRONT COVERR

SEAGATE ............................................... BACK COVER

SUPERTRON ....................INSIDE BACK COVER, 9

RASHI...............................................................................1

COMPUAGE ..................................................................3

IBALL ......................................................................... 5,13

FENDA .............................................................................7

PRIYA LTD ....................................................................11

CEOs should seize the iPad opportunity now

A Positive Growth How do your sales numbers look in the ongoing festive season?

Data loss biggest concern for small businesses

The Apple iPad and its ecosystem are likely to disrupt existing technology use profiles and business models, and CEOs should ensure that its potential is being seriously evaluated inside their organisa-tions, as per a new report from Gartner.

Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 88.3 million units in the third quarter of 2010, a 7.6% increase from the third quarter of 2009, according to preliminary results by Gartner.

According to a recent survey by Trend Micro, viruses, trojans, data-stealing malware, and data leaks were rated as big IT concerns among small businesses. The survey included 1600 end users in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan.

PUSHPAM ...................................................................15

JUPITER ........................................................................17

NEOTERIC ...................................................................19

GIGABYTE ...................................................................25

MICROWORLD .........................................................29

CMDA ...........................................................................31

EMERSON ......................................................41,43,45

INDIA ANTI-VIRUS HPC .......................................49

SAKRI ............................................................................51

http://www.digitchannelconnect.com/content/ceos-should-seize-ipad-oppur-tunity-now-gartner

http://digitchannelconnect.com/content/a-positive-growth

http://digitchannelconnect.com/content/newsletters [email protected]

http://www.digitchannelconnect .com/content/data-loss-biggest-concern-small-businesses-trend-micro

The majority opinion: A large number of vendors have had much better sales than they had expected.

Subscribe to web newsletters for constant updates!

For any customer queries and assistance, please contact :

Much better than we thought50%

As expected25%

Cannot say yet25%

Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj Sinha

Publishing Director: Vikas Gupta

EDITORIAL

Executive Editor: Sanjay Gupta

Copy Editor: Akshay Kapoor

Sr. Correspondents: Sandhya Malhotra (Delhi),

Payal Pruthi (Bengaluru)

DESIGN

Sr. Creative Director: Jayan K Narayanan

Art Director: Binesh Sreedharan

Associate Art Director: Anil VK

Sr. Visualisers: PC Anoop, Santosh Kushwaha

Sr. Designers: Prasanth TR, Anil T

Suresh Kumar, Joffy Jose & Anoop Verma

Designer: Sristi Maurya

Chief Photographer: Subhojit Paul

Photographer: Jiten Gandhi

SALES & MARKETING

VP Sales & Marketing: Navin Chand Singh (09971794688)

National Manager - Events and Special Projects:

Mahantesh Godi (09880436623)

National Manager - Channels:

Krishnadas Kurup (09322971866)

Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai: Vinodh K (09740714817)

Delhi: Lalit Arun (09582262959)

Kolkata: Jayanta Bhattacharya (09331829284)

BRAND COMMUNICATION

General Manager: Ankur Agarwal

Asst Brand Manager: Arpita Ganguli

PRODUCTION & LOGISTICS

Sr. GM Operations: Shivshankar M Hiremath

Production Executive: Vilas Mhatre

Logistics: MP Singh, Mohd. Ansari,

Shashi Shekhar Singh

Published, Printed and Owned by Nine dot Nine Interactive

Pvt Limited. Published and printed on their behalf

by Kanak Ghosh.

Published at:

Nine dot Nine Interactive Pvt Ltd Kakson House, A & B Wing, 2nd Floor,80 Sion Trombay

Road, Chembur, Mumbai- 400071 INDIA.

Printed at: SilverPoint Press Pvt Ltd

D- 107, MIDC, TTC Industrial Area, Nerul, Navi Mumbai- 400706

Editor: Anuradha Das Mathur Bunglow No. 725, Sector - 1

Shirvane, Nerul Navi Mumbai - 400706

VOL 03 ISSUE 01 NOVEMBER 2010

For more UPDATES, Log on http://digitchannelconnect.com/resources/ctofconnect


VENDORCONNECTSTORAGE

Q What’s the current market positioning of Western Digital in the Indian market? A WD (Western Digital) has established itself as the lead-er in the Indian storage peripherals market. Business has been good, as the mar-ket registered a record growth of approximately 30 - 35%. We continue to com-mand a sizeable share of the Indian market with our port-able drive segment. Our new media player WDTV Live was quite a hit amongst consum-ers. We plan to further inno-vate in this segment.

Q What’s your R&D strategy going forward? Will you focus on what some of your com-petitors have been bringing to the market? A Our product timeline is dotted with launches that have created new product categories altogether. Further, we understand the way consumers use a certain storage device and incorpo-rate this learning into our products, thereby giving them more control over their storage devices. Our learning has helped us develop great bundled software and inter-faces for our products that in turn offer newer applica-

tions and capabilities. Evidently, our competitors follow suit.

Q WD recently made changes to its distribution structure. Why?A At one point of time, we had nine distributors across regions and product seg-ments. We brought this number down to seven, of which five are carrying our entire range, while the other two are more specialized. The main reason behind this consolidation is to help the partners focus on products.

When you have too many partners, they tend to lose focus on the products and simply pick up the best sell-ing products from the bas-ket. We want to give them an opportunity to grow, verti-cally as well as horizontally.

So, instead of increasing the partner base, we have reduced it. The partners also feel that WD has given them an opportunity to grow in terms of revenues as well as margins.

Q Going forward, how do you plan to strengthen your partner network?A Our main focus this year has been to strengthen our

WD’s launches have created new product categories altogether

channel network in the coun-try, especially in tier 2 & 3 cities. The inherent growth potential in these cities is evident, and we are confi-dent that it will boost our sales volumes.

Though there is scope for brand-building, a lot of effort will also go towards devel-oping relationships with the channel partners. We are also ensuring simultaneous build-up of fast and effective after-sales support and serv-ice in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

WD is also trying to engage with consumers in these markets to increase awareness on storage tech-nology and products by organising road shows in addition to supporting chan-nel partners with ‘Select WD’ programmes and other reseller scheme programmes every quarter.

Q Western Digital is tipped to barge into the 3.5 inch 3TB market? How does the chan-nel stand to benefit from this upcoming line up?A We have announced the Caviar Green 2.5 & 3 TB drives in October 2010. These are the highest capac-ity internal drives available in the market till date, and we are as confident about channel partners’ profitabili-ty from them. Clearly, we are expecting the drives to sell in large numbers and benefit partners.

[email protected]

Khwaja Saifuddin, Director Sales -Middle East, Africa & South Asia, Western Digital.

“Our main focus this year has been to strengthen our firm’schannel network in tier 2 & 3 cities.”

INTERVIEW WITH KHWAJA SAIFUDDIN, DIRECTOR SALES - M.E., AFRICA & SOUTH ASIA, WD

UPtoDATE

N O V E M B E R 2 010DIGIT CHANNEL CONNECT

For more UPDATES, Log on http://digitchannelconnect.com/resources/news 10

7.6% is the expected increase in Asia Pacific enterprise IT spending in 2011, forecast to reach $312.3 billion, according to Gartner

TELECOM MAJOR BHARTI Airtel has announced that it has surpassed 200 million customers and unveiled a new logo to celebrate the achievement. It has also launched a new identity in 19 countries in Asia and Africa.

Announcing the feat, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel said, “As we expand on the global stage, this new brand identity gives us the opportunity to present a single, powerful and unified face to our customers, stakeholders and part-ners around the world. It reinforces our promise to deliver innovative services and a superior brand experience to our 200 million customers across Asia and Africa.”

According to the company, the red colour, which is an integral part of the brand, continues to represent the energy and dynamism that has made Airtel the success it is today. The new curved addition to the logo is a symbol which will help ensure instant recognition across diverse international markets. The Airtel signature tune has also been refreshed by A R Rahman, making it youthful and dynamic in line with the new visual identity. For its customers in India, Airtel also announced that it was on course to launch its 3G services by the end of the year.

Airtel Announces New Global Identity

CHANNEL BUZZ

Ghosh quits ViewSonic, joins MMD PhillipsGautam Ghosh joined MMD Phillips as Country Director for India Operations. He moves from his current role as Country Manager for ViewSonic India. In

his new role, Ghosh will be managing all aspects of the India sales and marketing oper-ations and will be leading the Indian manage-ment team. He will be based out of Delhi.

Logitech has unveiled a new lineup of HD web-cams. The Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 offers HD 720p video calling, full HD 1080p video recording, Fluid Crystal technology and one-click HD-uploading to Face-book and YouTube.

Cisco has launched its latest Linkys E-series routers in India, which are designed to con-nect wireless devices in home. They offer the speed that addresses the productivity and entertainment needs of today’s consumer.

Logitech unveils new HD webcams

Cisco’s Linkys E-series routers

(L TO R) SUNIL BHARTI MITTAL, CHAIRMAN & MD, BHARTI AIRTEL, WITH SANJAY KAPOOR, CEO, INDIA & SOUTH ASIA, BHARTI AIRTEL

UPtoDATE


EFFICIENT DATA CENTRE design will be able to provide a 300% growth in capacity in 60% less space than existing data centers, according to Gartner.

HP Unveils New Rangeof Printers

Novell to be Sold for $2.2 Billion

HEWLETT PACKARD HAS announced the launch of its ePrint enabled OfficeJet printers. Designed for offices and users working out of home, HP’s ePrint tech-nology, incorporated in the new all-in-one printings solutions, provides users with the freedom and convenience to print from any mobile device, wherever business happens.

The all-new portfolio of HP’s OfficeJet printers is available across the Indian market.

Every OfficeJet web-connected and cloud print-enabled printer will have a unique email address that allows the sender to print by just sending an email message.

According to Rajkumar Rishi, Director – Inkjet & Web Solutions, Imaging & Printing Group, HP India said, “With the massive growth of the internet and smartphones, and even touch technology, the new HP web-empowered printers will make access to web content and printing easier for offices from anytime and anywhere in the world.”

NOVELL HAS ANNOUNCED that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Attachmate Corporation would acquire Novell for $6.10 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion.

Attachmate Corporation is owned by an investment group led by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital and Thoma Bravo.

“After a thorough review of a broad range of alternatives to enhance stock-holder value, our Board of Directors concluded that the best available alternative was the combination of a merger with Attachmate Corporation and a sale of certain intellectual prop-erty assets to the consortium,” said Ron Hovsepian, President and CEO of Novell. “This will deliver important benefits to Novell’s customers, part-ners and employees,” he added.

Attachmate Corporation plans to operate Novell as two business units: Novell and SUSE.

HCL’S NEW TECH HUB

SMC LAUNCHES NEW WIRELESS PORTABLE BROADBAND ROUTER

HCL Technology has inaugrated its new tech facil-ity in Manesar, Haryana. The facil-ity was recently inaugrated by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister of Haryana in the presence of the Guest of Honour Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resource Development of the Government The new facil-ity is a “green” and “intelligent” facility which will employ over 3,200 people housed in 9,00,000 square feet of eco friendly buildings with an invest-ment of Rs. 260 Crore.

is the expected growth rate for Worldwide PC ship-ments in 2010: Gartner

is the expected CAGR of the Indian public cloud computing market over next 5 years: IDC

THROUGH THE NUMBERS 14% 40%

SMC Networks, a networking solution provider, has intro-duced the SMCWPBR-3G, a wireless portable broadband router. This router connects to 3G networks using a user’s existing USB wire-less modem. It also connects with wireless periph-erals such as smart phones, notebooks, tablets, gaming devices and other Wi-Fi devices, hence creating a Wi-Fi hotspot from almost anywhere.

QUICK LINE:ChannelConnect.com

EVENT UPDATE

Cloud for Business

Conference 2011:

IDC is going to

hold the ‘Cloud

for Business

Conference 2011’

in the APAC region

in February and

March next year.

The theme of

the event is –

‘Eliminating tech-

nology from IT.’

India 3rd party datacentre serv-ices market estimated to reach by 2015: Springboard Research $1.1bn

HP LAUNCHES DREAMSCREEN IN INDIA: HP has announced the launch of its tablet-like device DreamScreen - a new platform in the interactive digital display space - at a price of Rs. 19,999. India has been the first country where DreamScreen has been unveiled. It took three years for the manufactures to develop the concept, software and user interface of this new device. To offer local content, HP has part-nered with Airtel and Tata Teleservices for providing internet connectivity options, Bill Desk for paying bills online, Edurite for education, Hungama for music and movies, India Games for some games, India Today for media content, Music Today for music, NDTV for news & daily astrology, Yatra for booking air and train travel. The product is available in the market through 700 large retail format stores. – Sandhya Malhotra

INTERESTING READSFOUR

WIKILEAKS FILES DETAIL

U.S. E-SURVEIL-LANCE: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered clandes-tine surveillance of United Nations leadership, includ-ing obtaining “security meas-ures, passwords, personal encryp-tion keys.”

US SHUTS DOWN FILE-

SHARING SITES: Over 70 sites alleged to be sell-ing counterfeit goods or pirated content have been closed by the US government. The action was taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

ROME REBUILT ‘IN

A DAY’ USING Flickr: 3D models of famous landmarks such as Rome’s Colosseum have been recreated using millions of pictures from photo-sharing websites such as Flickr. The images were analysed by a modified home PC and detailed models created in less than a day.

2.5 MILLION KINECT

UNITS SOLD: Microsoft: Microsoft Corp has sold more than 2.5 million of its controller-free Kinect video game systems world-wide, only 25 days after launch, the world’s largest software company said, keeping it on track to hit its target of 5 million sales this holiday shopping season.

1 2

3 4

EFFICIENT DATA CENTRE design will be able to provide a 300% growth in capacity in 60% less space than existing data centers, according to Gartner.

UPtoDATE


BANGALORE-BASED I-NABLE SOLUTIONS has announced a new release of its Kreeo enterprise software, which helps organisations tap into the collective intelligence of their employees in a Web 2.0 environment.

i-nable Solutions Launches New Version of Kreeo

Safenet Announces New Partner Programme

SAFENET HAS ANNOUNCED the launch of a new ‘Channel Partner Recruitment Programme’ in India for partners, offering “SafeWord”, an out-of-the-box One-Time Password (OTP) two-factor

According to the company, Kreeo is a next-generation enterprise platform technology that addresses the chal-lenges of knowledge management, information needs and online productiv-ity of employees through an innovative collective intelligence paradigm and knowledge framework. The platform helps manage knowledge by provid-ing employees, customers and other stakeholders with an easy-to-use inter-face for expressing, organising and co-creating practical knowledge. As per Sumeet Anand, Founder CEO, i-nable, “Improvements have been made to the core technology for better perfor-mance, usability and experience based on feedback from our customers.”

i-nable will consider solution-oriented channel partners for Kreeo.

CISCO INDIA HAS announced the appointment of Rajesh Rege as Sr. VP – Data Centre, for QUICK LINE:

“We continue to com-mand a sizeable share of the Indian market

with our portable drive segment doing

extremely well.”

KHWAJA SAIFUDDIN DIRECTOR SALES -MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA

& SOUTH ASIA, WESTERN DIGITAL

“The increasing com-plexity in our prod-uct offering requires expertise. The new Microsoft Partner Network hopes to

address this.”

RAJEEV MITTAL GENERAL MANAGER, SMALL AND

MEDIUM ENTERPRISES, MICROSOFT

authentication solution, in order to help customers enable secure remote access to their organisations’ most sensitive and confidential resources and applications. The new channel programme rewards partner invest-ment in SafeNet solutions and services. It includes innovative sales incentives for partners and full training on SafeNet SafeWord products.

SafeNet has worked out a gift voucher scheme to incentivize its partners selling its SafeWord range of products.

According to Rana Gupta, Business Head – India & SAARC, SafeNet, “Through this programme, we are planning to add approximately 30 new channel partners in our network and strengthening our reach and offering.”

SUMEET ANAND, FOUNDER CEO, I-NABLE

RANA GUPTA, BUSINESS HEAD – INDIA & SAARC, SAFENET

VENDORVOICE

UPtoDATEIndia & SAARC. Earlier, Rege was working with Alcatel Lucent as VP-Global Alliance.

BUFFALO TECHNOLOGY has announced the LinkStation Pro LS-VL series network stor-age, which offers instant storage expansion and file access on the user’s

home network and over the internet. LinkStation Pro features a fast 1.6 GHz processor for maxi-

mum transfer speeds up to 76 Mbps. As per the company, LinkStation Pro makes central storage and backup easy.

While on the go, the user can use Buffalo’s free WebAccess service for remote access to his files over the internet from any standard web browser and download the free WebAccess i Apps from the iTunes store to access and share files from his iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. LinkStation Pro also Includes NovaBACKUP Professional software for Windows, and Time Machine support provide a home backup solution for every PC and Mac on the user’s network.

The device is available in 2 capacities - 1.0 TB priced at Rs. 12,500 and 2.0 TB priced at Rs. 16,500 with a 3 yr warranty.

BUFFALO LAUNCHES LINK STATION PRO

FUJITSU HAS ANNOUNCED the global availability of Primergy BX400, a new blade system that is designed especial-ly for smaller and mid-size businesses that are looking for scalable efficiencies and consolidation.

The new Primergy BX400 is a fully-featured blade system built from the ground up as a user-friendly and versatile infrastructure designed for midsized customers with large comput-ing and storage requirements, including branch offices.

As per the company, the Primergy BX400 is a green datacentre in a box, providing an optimum combination of up to eight server or storage blades in a small enclosure, supported by a comprehensive set of solutions and services. It combines leading-edge

Fujitsu’s New Blade System Now Available Globally

technology, such as a fully integrated virtual storage appliances using tech-nology from Fujitsu’s partnership with NetApp, with good input/output flex-ibility and bandwidth known from the Primergy BX900 ‘Dynamic Cube’ blade system introduced last year.

The Primergy BX400 allows compa-nies to spend less time on set-up and management and instead focus on the core business processes essential for profitability. Simplified lifecycle management reduces daily operational costs by up to 60%.

Like all Primergy servers, the BX400 ships with Fujitsu’s ServerView software suite, allowing easy and integrated system management and monitoring. Additional software components such ServerView Resource

Coordinator VE and Virtual IO Manager deliver uniform operations for pools of physical and virtual servers combined with cost-effective high availability.

The Primergy BX400 will be available globally in December 2010.

UPtoDATE


SYMANTEC CORP. HAS announced the appointment of Ajay Goel as Managing Director for Symantec in India. In his new role, Goel is responsible for driv-ing the company’s business strategy development and sales operations in the Indian market.

“Ajay brings extensive enterprise experience across a wide range of industry sectors, which will enable us to continue to build strong customer and partner relationships in the Indian market,” said Eric Hoh, Vice President, Asia South Region, Symantec. “Customers continue to grapple with

how to secure and manage their informa-tion environ-ments,” said Goel. “I’m very much looking forward to actively engaging with customers and partners to help them address these challenges,” he added.

Goel brings over 25 years’ engineer-ing and sales leadership experience with leading multinationals, including Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems and Asea Brown Boveri.

Ajay Goel Appointed Symantec India MD

QUICK LINE: EPSON HAS BECOME the Official Office Equipment Partner to Manchester United.

AJAY GOEL, MD, SYMANTEC INDIA

NASSCOM, INDIA’S PREMIER Information Technology (IT) industry body, has announced the appointment of Rita Soni as its CEO.

As per the company, Soni will strengthen the efforts of the IT Industry towards inclusive growth, build strategic relationships and establish effective linkages between industry, non-profits and govern-ment to contribute to the cause of social development.

She will also create innovative, effective and scalable programmes that leverage ICTs for education, health, employability and entrepre-

neurship for under-served communities. She would be orchestrating and cata-lyzing through NF the efforts of the IT industry at promoting inclusive growth. As part of this, she will further enhance relationships between NASSCOM members and NF in all its endeavors including programmes and fund-raising.

“It is a pleasure to be extended this opportunity. NASSCOM Foundation is at a very exciting stage of development. I am thrilled to have been given the opportunity to drive NASSCOM Foundation towards creating a much higher and deeper impact on India’s development”, said Soni on the appointment.

Rita Soni Appointed NASSCOM CEO

RITA SONI, CEO, NASSCOM FOUNDATION

Toshiba’s New Android Laptop

TOSHIBA HAS ANNOUNCED that it has expanded its range of laptops and netbooks with the introduction of its first AndroidTM platform MID, the AC100. As per the company, the AC100 is also the first AndroidTM device with a full-size keyboard.

The AC100 offers up to seven days standby under mixed use, with a rapid start-up time of less than a second. In constant use, the AC100 can provide up to eight hours of battery life.

The AC100 runs on the Android platform, enabling users to customise their device to suit their computing habits. Depending on location or what the AC100 is running, Android can automatically switch to a prefigured home screen to best suit the user. For example, users can set shortcuts for work-related applications, widgets and ‘live-files’ to appear when working in the office, or personal applications and widgets to appear when the AC100 detects they are at home. Users can also manually switch between home screens as they wish – allowing them to access all of their content, wherever they are.

The intuitive user interface also offers the possibility for users to further personalise the device by downloading a range of applications and widgets on-demand. The AC100 is priced at Rs. 18,721.

PARTNERCONNECT

For more UPDATES, Log on http://digitchannelconnect.com/resources/category/33


CHAMPION INTERVIEW WITH KAPIL WADHWA, DIRECTOR, CHAMPION COMPUTERS PVT LTD

“The ever changing distribution policies of vendors and zero commitment are forcing distributors to look for alternatives.”are not putting extra efforts on pushing other vendor’s products. Henceforth, as long as we are easily meeting other ven-dors’ quarterly targets, we are happy doing their business. Nonetheless, we are more interested in pushing other brands where volumes are low and no set targets.

Q How are your products doing in the market and how are you competing with large players?A Today, the Indian market is burgeon-ing. There is a place for all, be it large com-panies or start ups. We have a gamut of products at an affordable price including net books, mouse, power supplies, memo-ry modules, USB, DVD writers, keyboards and portable hard drives etc. All our prod-ucts are assembled locally at our Baddi plant. We are importing the kit from China. Moreover, we are also importing some products from China. We are not only assembling our own brand, but we have also started taking projects from other customers and assembling and building products for other brands. Of late, we have received two such projects from midsized companies, for whom we will assemble notebooks. Going forward,

we will be exploiting this OEM space as an opportunity.

Q From IT products, you are now enter-ing into mobile phone verticals? Can you tell us about this business?A Yes, we have introduced the Champ mobile range of phones recently. It will be a completely separate business for us. Sandeep Popli from Imation has joined on board as Chief Operating Officer. He will be heading our mobile business. We have also bought a new office in Okhla. Initially, we have planned to launch eight models.

Q How has been the ROI on your range of products?A So far, it is growing and we have seen acceptability of our products. 60% of reve-nues are coming from our own range of products and 40% from distributionship. Overall, we are growing 30% Y-Y. For A-class cities, we will be partnering with LFRs. We keep adding innovative products, which give more value for the money. We have strategically positioned our brand as compared to other vendors’ products.

[email protected]

Q How has Champion Computers grown since its inception?A We have been into IT distribution from the last two decades. Champion Computers was established in the year 1994. Since the beginning, we have two line of businesses including parallel import and system component business. We are associated with International ven-dors like Western Digital, Samsung, Imation, Intel, AMD, VIA, Seagate, Samsung, Maxtor, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Pine, XFX, Zida, TIGA, Delta, Imation, LG and Compaq, etc.

Q You have launched a plethora of your own ‘Champion’ brands of IT. Will you continue to focus on vendors’ businesses?A Our focus is more on establishing our own range of products in the consumer segment. However, we are also handling our distribution business in parallel. We

DOSSIERName: Kapil WadhwaDesignation: DirectorCompany: Champion Computers Pvt LtdProfile: The company has focused on products like hard disk drives, keyboards, mouse, speakers, USB flash drives, CPUs, CD ROM drives, display cards, floppy disk drives, laptops and desktop computers from vendor partners.

Just like vendors go to great lengths to handpick partners, isn’t it high time partners

also took caution in selecting their principals? Here’s what you must know in advance

BY SANDHYA MALHOTRA | ILLUSTRATION PC ANOOP

CHOOSINGYOUR

VENDORS

CO

VER

STO

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STRATEGY COVERSTORY

hoosing a vendor is vital to the suc-

cess of every value added reseller. But selecting the correct vendor for the business and customer base of a channel partner can be quite tricky.

Therefore, before signing any ven-dor, it is essential for partners to find out how to find the right ven-dors, which vendors to go with and which ones to pass? Apparently, the trade relations between principals, distributors, dealers and resellers are totally unorganised today and an unprofessional set-up is lead-ing to many unwanted complica-tions, strained relationships and huge financial losses. Therefore, it is imperative for any partner to choose the right kind of vendor and improve trade relations.

Look for long term partnershipThe first thing when seeking a vendor is to look at a long term partner-ship. Rajesh Goenka, VP, Sales & Marketing, Rashi Peripherals says, “We always look for a long term relationship. Most of our vendors whom we work with have been with us from more than 10 years.”

Bengaluru based Raj Rathi, Managing Director, Cyberstar, who has been national authorized distributor for vendors like Adaptec, BPE, Belkin, Creative, Dell, Hitachi, HP, Lexmark vendors and many more says, “We follow the same approach for all our prospective consum-ers whether it is an international company or an Indian company. Our approach however varies from vendor to vendor according to the product and market demand. Overall, we look for a long term vision and commitment to the Indian market, investments in sales and mar-keting operations to grow the market in India and the presence of a local office in India.”

Maintaining a long partnership Sharing his experience regarding maintaining long term relationships, Pondicherry based PN Prasad, Managing Director, Micro Plus Computers and Advisor to Confed-ITA Association says, “In our IT business, we look at a long term association. However, seeking a long term association in today’s scenario is the biggest challenge. We feel there is an acute lack of trust and bonding in dual partnership. Vendors just try to push their products and accomplish quarterly targets; and thus can take the part-nership on the toss. Moreover, the biggest lacuna of our business is that there is no written assurance from the vendor’s side. If a partner fails to achieve the target, the vendor simply chucks non performer partners out of the system.”Such an unreasonable attitude of vendors can hurt the business senti-ments of channel partners and always put them into a dilemma. “In my view, before selecting partners, vendors should take a long time to select the right mix of partners. If a partner is not performing, the vendor should give him value inputs. Nonetheless, off late, some

vendors have rationalized their policies after facing the heat; vendors have understood that they cannot take partners on a ride any longer. Hence, to remain in the business, they have to follow a long term partnership,” says Prasad.

He goes on to cite an example. “Canon has recently scrutinized the performance of partners and carried out SWOT analysis on partner operations. Those inputs were very valuable and encouraging for partners’ growth and they learned about their weaknesses such as a crunch in manpower, working capital, cov-erage of geography, etc. Instead of throwing, demoralising and

Whenever we freeze upon any vendors, we do random reference checks

and feedback from previous associates Moreover, we analyse the strategic fit of

our vendors.” ANUP NAIR

MANAGER – STRATEGIC INITIATIVES, NEOTERIC INFOMATIQUE.

The partnership agreement is the most valuable document that covers standard issues encountered in partnership situations.

COVER STORY STRATEGY

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replacing with new partners, Canon invested time and figured out the key issues. Similarly, other vendors should also do the same exercise to help each other’s business to grow.”

Choose as per customer basePartners should look into their existing customer base. This may seem like an obvious point, but taking a long hard look at your own customers will be vital in choosing vendors. For example, are the majority of your custom-ers in SMBs or enterprises? Are they in selected vertical mar-kets? Or do they operate with a particular focus on certain technologies to help them with their business; etc should also be taken into consideration. According to Anup Nair, Manager – Strategic Initiatives, Neoteric Infomatique says, “Whenever we freeze upon any vendors, we do random reference checks and feedback from previous associ-ates. Moreover, we analyse the strategic fit of our vendors, gaps in our existing portfolio, the roadmap of vendors and India plans, product portfolio, global and Indian ranking of the vendor, marketing and service setup; dis-tribution structure and strategy, etc. Hence, weightage is assigned to each parameter depending on the business need.”

Expectations should be metWhen a vendor appoints any partner, its prime expectation is to expand its footprints and leverage on the strength of the partners. On the contrary, when a partner selects any vendor, its objective is to grow vendor busi-ness vis-à-vis grow its business turnover and profitability. Also, expectations vary from national distributors to regional distribu-

tors. As per Rathi, “We expect that our vendors should look at the Indian market as an important area of business and show commitment through investments in marketing and sales operations to develop and grow their business and brand on a long term basis. Since we believe in providing our vendors with excellent support, we also expect that the vendors should have a strong post sales and support policy. Apart from these factors, we also look for organisational compatibility, inter-est in the same field, experience in the market and resources avail-able.”

Nair says, ”Vendor expectations range from good support to pro-moting the product from service infrastructure to marketing support, assured supplies, margins to justify ROI, etc.”

Ensure profitable operations According to Prasad, “Regional or local partners intend to grow their bottom lines and increase the annual turnover. Ironically, most of the vendors don’t care about the partner’s profitability, which in result discourages partners to not to work for the brand. The bone of contention is that whenever partners build the brand and develop the market, it is killed by the same vendor after a gap, and not by the competition. That is the sad part of our industry. Hence, we want vendors to offer a business model to their partners which can ensure profitable operations in normal circumstances.”

Agreeing with Prasad, Shashikant D Satbhai, President, CMDA Pune says, “Normally, most of the partnerships ends up being more or less one sided, that too vendor driven. Nevertheless, to ensure high busi-ness profitability and less risk, we look for a clear understanding of terms and conditions, ethical business practices and a proper commu-nication channel with vendors and customers.

Necessary documentationThe partnership agreement is the most valuable document that covers standard issues encountered in partnership situations, and ensures that the respective partners put in papers regarding the terms of their understanding. And each party should have copies of the partnership

Vendors should be known worldwide and have a long term vision.

Explore if there are business opportunities in that product segment/brand segment.

Understanding of vendors’ channel strategy.

Long term commitment to the Indian market.

Reasonable margins.

Post sales & marketing support.

Ensure business profitability.

Long term mutually benefiting relationships.

Growth to all partners.

All partners should become part of the solution.

TIPS FOR SELECTING VENDORS

STRATEGY COVER STORY

N O V E M B E R 2 010DIGIT CHANNEL CONNECT 23

COVER STORY STRATEGY

agreement. “However, apart from the contract, it is imperative that both the vendor and the distributor are clear of what is being expected from each other,” says Rathi. As per Nair, “We ensure that the distribution partnership agree-ment and other legal necessary documentation are in place.”

On the flip side, partners do not follow the written agreement or are ready to sign a con-tract. “Majority of the business works on verbal terms. If the vendor decides to terminate its relationship with its partner, there is no written notice. However, we want that vendor should be served at least a 2 months notice period by the partner, that too well in advance. The ven-dor should take back all the unsold stock if the dealer prefers to return the stocks and spares. The vendor should obtain a consent letter from such a dealer before appointing a new partner. Also, it should be communicated to the local association,” says Prasad.

Dos & dont’s of partnershipDepending upon the nature of the partnership, in some cases, it is so thick and the owner-ship from the distributor is so strong that the distributors own up all the aspects end to end, right from product customization, packaging, designing marketing collaterals, designing

companies was to dump material in India with no long term plans to grow their Indian business. Hence, we do research and gather information that is available. We do look for previous track records and when we cannot find it, we safe guard our interests through the partnership agreement.”

ConclusionHowever, there are a lot of options in this competitive mar-ket. But to choose and tie-up with the right vendor is very crucial, as it decides the overall busi-ness growth. In a nutshell, the IT channel is quite complex and there is an immediate need to establish a long run legal relation-ship between all the participants rather than the present adhoc relationships.

[email protected]

schemes, defining distribution strategy etc. On the other side, part-ners have to select vendor with several do’s. Kapil Wadhwa, Director, Champion Computers says, “Watch out for vendors that make a lot of changes to their distributionship. Whenever a vendor frequently adds new distributors into the network, it ultimately harms other existing distributors’ businesses. One or two changes once a year at a partner summit or conference is acceptable. But, vendors who make frequent changes throughout the year are likely to be considered unreliable in the channel.”

Rathi says, “One should see whether the vendor carries viable products in the Indian environment with a good reputation, long term commitment to the Indian market, reasonable margins and post sales and marketing support.” According to Satbhai, “We prefer a company with clear fair trade policies and channel policies, clarity in schemes, the company’s past reputation and clear cut information regarding the vendor’s future growth plan.”

But Prasad cautions, “A partner should ask vendors to fix sales targets for their dealers to reflect the true market size and demand. It should not result in dumping, price cuts and cross territory supplies. Vendors should review the market size of a particular town or district and accordingly fix the number of dealers which should make the operations profitable. Even in large cities, multiple partners can coex-ist with the areas delimited for each partner.”

Rathi also adds, “We have had some bad experiences with some companies based in the Asia PAC region. The only intention of these

We always look for a long term

relationship. Most of our vendors whom we work

with have been with us from more than 10

years.” RAJESH GOENKA

VP, SALES & MARKETING, RASHI PERIPHERALS.


ASSOCIATIONCONNECT CMDA PUNE



CMDA PUNE

DOSSIERYear of CMDA establishment: 1993 Total Member:

384

Calendar events: IT Expo 2010 – scheduled during 10-13th December 2010, Management seminars (For members) – Minimum 3 in a year (1st sched-uled on 19th November), Diwali mela – conducted on 31st October 2010, General body meeting – 2 nos. in a year. (1st conducted on 7th September), Annual meeting – scheduled for June 2011.

Q What are the initiatives taken by the association for its members?A Over the years, CMDA has been conducting various events based on feedback from members. CMDA helps members in resolving disputes by acting as arbitrators, and we are proud that till date, we have resolved more than 45 such disputes. CMDA conducts a minimum of 20 pro-grammes for its members in a year, which includes business related activi-ties, family events, health activities, sports activities, charity activities and technical seminars.

Q How are you tackling the octroi issue?A CMDA started the movement to promote octroi paid material in Pune market. For this, we requested all the vendors to adopt uniform pricing. Almost 32 vendors accepted our request and started adopting uniform pricing. But still, there are few vendors who have not implemented uniform pricing; we are in touch with them to support the channel call. We strongly believe that with the support from vendors, we can promote ethical business practices.

Q Can you tell us about CMDA’s future strategies and growth plans for 2010-2011?A From January 2011, we will be starting our special membership drive to add more members from Pune and

Pimpri Chinchwad region. In the near future, we are planning to build our own facility centre, where we will pro-vide high quality training and presen-tations. Members can use it at very nominal charges.

Q What is your perception on the conver-gence of IT, telecom and retail? A Technology is driving this conver-gence. Retail is a bigger threat to small traders. A lot of vendors are treating LFRs with special treatment and this dual policy is creating a drift in the market. Small channel partners cannot compete on this unequal play-ing ground.

Q How do you see the growth of channel business in the coming years?A Channel business is the key of suc-cess for all vendors. With channel part-ners, vendors can get a deeper entry into the market.

I do not see any reason why chan-nel business should not grow. I think channel too needs to add more value in business and provide innovative solu-tions to customers.

— [email protected]

Promoting Ethical Biz Practices

SHASHIKANT D SATBHAI, PRESIDENT, COMPUTERS AND MEDIA DEALERS ASSOCIATION (CMDA) - PUNE

AKITDA to host five cities IT expo in 2011

ITTA TO ORGANISE COMPEX-2011 FROM 31ST DEC 2010 TO 2ND JAN 2011

For the ninth consecutive year, Information Technology Trade Association (ITTA), Pudhucherry, is organising a three-day IT expo, Compex-2011 at Jayaram Thirumana Nilayam, Sithankudi, Pudhucherry. The event is scheduled to be held between December 31st, 2010 - January 2nd, 2011.

All Kerala IT Dealers Association (AKITDA) has planned to host a five city IT exhibi-tion in 2011. This is part of the state association’s planned projects for 2011-2012, one of which would also be rolling out a pension scheme for its members.

EVENT CALENDAR

CMDA PUNECMDA PUNE


ROUNDUP ASSOCIATION CONNECT

A WORLDWIDE CONSUMER SUR-VEY has shown that people see a real danger in using pirated and counterfeit software.

Agreeing to the results of the survey, Saket Kapur, Secretary, Progressive Channels association of Information technology (PCAIT), says, “The awareness level of buying or using genuine software are high amongst corporates and SMBs. However, in SOHO segment, it’s still laggard and they will take time to shift to genuine software, as they are more cost conscious. Nonetheless, to woo custom-ers, Microsoft has come out with more office and windows variants at an affordable cost. For example, Microsoft Student edition and Microsoft

Security Essentials has been embraced by customers.”

“Besides pirated software, partners are facing threat from counterfeiting or look alike Chinese software. Our part-ners have been cheated many a times. When you buy 100 OEMs packs, the vendor may mix some counterfeit soft-ware. Such software can send updates and can be activated also; hence, it’s very difficult to crack down on them . We have made this communication to all the association members and internally as well. All our 100 PCAIT members have decided to promote IPR. No channel members can take the leverage of selling pirated soft-ware,” he added.

— Sandhya Malhotra

MUTHUSWAMY ELECTED AS CONFED-ITA PRESIDENT FOR 2011-2012

Confederation of IT Association (Confed - ITA) has recently elected its 5 new office bearers and 36 executive mem-bers for 2011-2012. Muthuswamy, the cur-

rent advisor of Confed-ITA and EC Member of CAMS, Madurai, has been elected as President. The new office bearers will take charge during the Confed-ITA Summit 2011. They will take over their responsibilities effec-tive April 2011 to 2012.

– Sandhya Malhotra

PCAIT Speaks Out Against Counterfeit Software

WHAT THEY SAY ON COUNTERFEIT SOFTWARE

“We have taken up this issue with Microsoft and educating our partners on how to detect coun-terfeit software.” SAKET KAPUR, SECRETARY, PCAIT

“The counterfeit software menace has been growing in our state. This is affecting our busi-ness and customer relationship.” JYOTHI SANKAR, STATE GEN. SEC., AKITD

“We have taken an initiative to inform the customer that pirated copies are not only illegal, but also harmful for the computer.” B HARI, PRESIDENT, COMPUTER ASSOCIATION OF EASTERN INDIA (COMPASS)

Top| (Left) Ahsaan Qureshi entertaining the audience with a stand up routine, and, (Right) A little dancer showing her skills.Bottom| Award presentation ceremony at the diwali mela.

CMDA PUNE HOSTS DIWALI MELA

BEST OF BIZ LEADERSHIP



When Failure isGoodLook at failure as a source of information to improve your leadership skills and the fortunes of your companyBY DAVID LIM

ECENTLY, A NEWSPA-

PER reported the demise of a once-lauded business award called the Phoenix Award. The prize, at one time

administered by a well-known publish-ing group, recognised outstanding busi-ness people who had bounced back from failure. Like the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes, the business per-son awarded this accolade was praised for his resilience and ability to learn from failures. However, in recent years, the number of nominees fell to a point

DAVID LIM, FOUNDER, EVEREST MOTIVATION TEAM

The reasons for failure and success are often complex. It is the interpretation of failure that can determine how resilient you are at leading yourself through turbulent times.

PH

OTO

: PH

OTO

S.CO

M

BEST OF BIZ LEADERSHIP


equity firm in the south of France. One of the challenges faced by many of the teams involved in the long and arduous process of buying out a company, was that the seller sometimes made emo-tional and illogical decisions and would sell to another bidder. The team would then have to regroup and start all over again with another prospective target. The people who seemed to do best at this high-stakes financial game were those who only felt sorry for them-selves for a limited period, and took it in their stride.

In short, their reactions mirrored those subjects that Dr Martin Seligman from the University of Pennsylvania studied. Those able to bounce back from failure had these valuable attributes, and having successive fail-ures, in my opinion, only made them even better at their game. After all, as Winston Churchill said: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to anoth-er without any loss of enthusiasm.”

Edison was said to have failed thou-sands of times on his way to creating the first incandescent light bulb. A long time ago, I had the privilege of sitting next to an Israeli innovation expert on a long-distance flight. I asked him how he came up with all his good ideas and he said: “By coming up with a lot of stupid ones first.”

when it became unsustainable to con-tinue with the annual award. The main reason given: Asians are reluctant to talk about their failures.

So, when can failure be good? There are basically two kinds of failure: ‘smart’ ones and ‘dumb’ ones. Smart failures are where you did everything right, had a great team, but perhaps, like a mountaineer, were thwarted by a sudden shift in weather patterns, or an unexpected illness. A ‘dumb’ failure is where your sloppiness and negligence contributed to the failure.

In reality, though, the reasons for failure and success are often complex. It is the interpretation of failure that can determine how resilient you are at lead-ing yourself through turbulent times.

Assume, you had done remarkable planning, displayed great leadership and had a great team. However, you met with a negative response from the client owing to some people making an irrational decision. What happens next determines your ability to bounce back and thrive as a leader. A ‘good’ failure is when you have not only done all that is possible within your competencies and commitment, but also one where you interpreted the failure appropriately.

Studies and research by the University of Pennsylvania’s depart-ment of positive psychology shows that people who attributed failure to exter-nal factors, tended to do better after a failure. They were also those who did not see failure as all pervasive and all-destroying. They also saw failure as a temporary state. Conversely, those who took it personally, believed the failure struck at their core as worthy people, and that they would be totally and permanently devastated, did not have good outcomes post-failure.

In short, the interpretation of fail-ure was integral to how well you did thereafter. People who avoid taking calculated risks and thus the chance of failing ‘cleverly’, can seldom learn powerful lessons that failure can bring. I was recently delivering a leadership presentation to a European private

So here, perhaps, is a practical guide in using failure effectively in your organisation:

1 Calibrate the fear of failure by picking projects and goals where failure will not be fatal to

the organisation, but where a great pay-off could be an outcome. In short, pick the long-shot goals that may make the risk worthwhile, but with a modest downside.

2 Fail quickly and early. Prior to my first Everest expedition, we chose stretch goals that would boost

our learning curve prior to the Everest climb. In the three preceding years, we tackled peaks that were often a bit harder than our perceived abilities at the time. When we failed, we studied the failure, always taking the stance that failure provided valuable informa-tion. The quicker you fail, the more time you have to recover before your actual main event, or goal.

3Reward success, reward the ‘smart’ failures, and punish inaction. It is stultifying to have

people always playing it safe when an organisation has to take calculated risks to grow and succeed. And yet, many companies have compensation structures which punish failure, and reward inaction.

4Treat failure as information allow-ing you to succeed better the next time. Remove, as much as pos-

sible the emotional content of failure (read: fear, sadness, anger and resent-ment), and look at what were some of the best things you learned from it on a purely factual, objective basis. These could be certain structural weaknesses in your plan, unproductive behaviour of a team member, or even weak team-work. Remove the emotions and you will be left with valuable data.

If your organisation is not failing fast enough, you are not winning fast enough.

David Lim is a leadership and negotiation coach,

best-selling author and two-time Mt Everest

expedition leader. , Courtesy: CFO India

A ‘good’ failure is when you have not only done all that is possible within your competencies and commitment, but also one where you interpreted the failure quite appropriately.

SPECIALREPORT

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The current IT distribution landscape in the country is witnessing the convergence of IT and telecom channels. Whether it is a sustainable business model or something which will lead to conflicting interests between partners, is something which most wish to wait and watch.

BY PAYAL PRUTHI |

PHOTO IMAGING ANOOP VERMA

CONVERGENCE

FRIENDS FOESOR ?

CONVERGENCE SPECIAL REPORT


STORY ROI The converging channel concept is not merely a topic of debate or just looking good on paper, but is being backed by several factors which seem to catalyze its adoption.

HE PAST FEW months have witnessed a change of sorts in the IT distribution

landscape in the Indian market. The much talked about move by PC major HP, where the vendor changed its dis-tribution model for consumer PCs on the lines of telecom channels, thereby realigning the portfolio of existing dis-tributors and adding regional telecom distributors, has spurred reactions on the convergence of IT and telecom channels. While many industry observers predict it as a practical and inevitable way of distribution, there are a few who fail to find it a fundamentally sound strategy because of the many challenges involved. “The coming together of the IT and telecom channels is no doubt one of the possi-ble business models; however, it will be an oversimplifica-tion or merely a conjecture to mention that this will be the way going forward. An ‘en-masse’ deployment of telecom-specialized channel partners for all IT products will cer-tainly not fit the bill for the vendor. However, it is definitely one of the future business models,” says Kalyan Banga, Senior Research Analyst, Ami-Partners, India.

Best of both worldsThe converging channel concept is not merely a topic of debate or something that looks good on paper, but is being backed by several factors which seem to catalyze its adoption. Been in the news for sometime now for bringing together both IT and Telco channels for its consumer busi-ness, HP India’s PSG General Manager and Vice President, Sunil Dutt feels that distribution is an evolving phenom-enon. “As newer product categories emerge, it is logical to add new distributors to take products quicker, faster and effectively to the market. In the consumer business, exper-tise lies in terms of distribution knowledge; hence, we roped in a few telecom partners to reach widespread retail partners,” says Dutt. Acer India’s Chief Marketing Officer, S Rajendran too shares similar views, attributing the overlap in the distribution channel to the new form factors. “With new devices like smart phones and tablets coming in, both the telco and IT channels will find a play in the distribution

set up. In the next two to three years, the impact of such form factors will be profound on the channel where both the IT and telco channels will have to do some retooling to make a meaningful sales pitch,” says Rajendran.

While convergence is pushing at both sides of the channel, driving IT solution providers to embrace what have been traditionally telecom offerings and vice versa, industry experts feel it would

“If a company has both PCs and hand phones as part of their product portfo-lio, combining the channels will always be beneficiary.”VISHAL TRIPATHI, PRINCIPAL ANALYST, GARTNER INDIA.

SPECIAL REPORT CONVERGENCE


not be possible to keep the channel of these two interrelated, mutually dependent markets and technologies separate. “PC distributors are looking to increase their reach, as they were losing on the channel market share. Many a times, the owners (dealers) are same, so it’s a pragmatic approach and makes business sense. If a company has both PCs and hand phones as part of their product portfolio, combining the channels will always be benefici-ary,” says Vishal Tripathi, Principal Analyst, Gartner India. Commenting on the same, Ranjit Yadav, Director-Mobile & IT , Samsung India, says, “The new age convergence products require new approaches to selling and that is why we are seeing a convergence in channel as well. It is also a way by which com-panies are strengthening their penetra-tion levels in the market, tapping the existing channel plus reaching out to new channels.”

According to Banga, when a ven-dor wants to venture into innovative fronts and emerging technology arena like unified communications, they can take assistance of traditional telecom partners to push their communication related products to all communities. “Logically, the advent of telecom chan-nel partners in a domain that has been covered by traditional IT vendors is a big step and is justified to some extent, since no vendor should follow a purely restraining policy that limits a certain class of vendors to a set of products,” says Banga. “One should however also take into account the skill sets and capa-bilities of the channel partners to han-dle a new class of product,” he adds.

However, Swaminathan Sethuraman, Technical head of Ahemdabad based distributor Virtual Netcomm Private Limited, feels that convergence of IT and telco channels is not new. “The Indian IT policy egged BSNL to broadbase IT/ broadband prolifera-tion by introducing sub-10K PCs with a leading Indian PC player. Microsoft / Apple battles are no longer in the PC market alone, but have extended to the

plans to come out with netbooks. In such an environment, it’s difficult to define boundaries, and convergence at the distribution level is bound to hap-pen,” he says.

Not without challengesThough the converging channel con-cept may have appealed to many, the coming together of IT and telco chan-nels is something which is riddled with challenges. Many in the industry feel that both operate from different per-spectives, where the IT channel is fix-ated on technology while the telecom channel focuses more on service deliv-ery. “Telco channel works with a more predictable margin within a specified territory or domain. They are used to shorter product life cycle, faster mov-ing inventory - hence low inventory lev-els, lower credit extensions, and there-fore, shorter cycles resulting in high ROI. Also, the major factor between the IT and telecom channels is the expecta-tion of support like pre-sales, training and implementation, application sup-port, etc. which the telecom partner has to adapt to. This may also act as a challenge for the telecom partner to adapt to slow speed of IT business,” says Paras Shah, CEO, Neoteric.

Banga believes that one of the primary challenge faced by telecom channel partners will be the restricted cash flow, in addition to some other problems like – meeting customer service needs, difficulty in identifying and marketing to new customers, lower customer demand for ICT solutions, increased competition, lowered prices/ margins and managing inventory.

“The above set of problems may not be unique only to telecom chan-nel partners. Even IT channel partners are not immune to these,” says Banga. He further explains that if a channel partner is appointed for marketing a set of specialized IT products, then the key criteria should be his distribution expertise, level of technical capabil-ity, willingness to learn and upgrade and availability of technical personnel

Mobile/ Gadget market. Apple clocked its highest revenues and profitability in the last quarter because of the iPhone. The future growth directions for both IT and telco channels is hence quite visible,” says Swaminathan.

Manish Agrawal, Director, Priyanka Communications who is also one of the telecom partners appointed by HP, firmly believes in the benefits of the new distribution model. “HP, Acer, Dell, Lenovo are all coming up with smartphones, a $125 bn market which is probably as big as the personal computing market already. Nokia too

“It will take mini-mum two to three years before this business model becomes com-mon practice.” S RAJENDRAN, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER , ACER INDIA

CONVERGENCE SPECIAL REPORT


with some experience in handling such products. “Expecting channel partners with expertise in basic telecom prod-ucts like hand-sets / cellular phones to market blade servers and virtualisation products will leave both the partners and customers in the dark – since the partner may not be in a position to inform the prospective customer about the efficacy of the blade server and also answer their technical queries. It may not be possible to fill up this knowledge-gap area with mere training sessions from the vendor,” he adds.

Although highly optimistic about overcoming the shortcomings involved in working with both the IT and telco channel, Dutt also maintains that tel-ecom partners are used to a more disci-plined distribution system and are used to working with more working capital investment, and may face some chal-lenges in this regard while operating in an IT scenario.

Mixed response from the channelWithin the partner ecosystem, there has been a bitter sweet response towards the coming together of the IT and telco channels. “It is difficult for both the channels to co-exist. Those dealing with IT products understand the industry better and the pain point of the customer better. Also, on site support service and post sales support is something that the telco channel is not equipped with. In the long run, this will affect our sales and also the rela-tionship with the vendor. The situation will worsen in smaller cities,” says PN Prasad, CEO, Microplus Computers.

Many IT partners also feel that their telco counterparts lack the required technology skills needed to cater to the customer needs. “Whether the telco channel has the ability to understand, design, deploy, configure and sup-port complex systems of integrated networking, storage, security and applications is yet to be seen,” says Toshi Mathew, President of the Kerela Channel Association AKITDA.

Many partners also feel that in case of this new business model, assum-ing that telecom channel partners are appointed for new ICT products, their key challenge will be to increase their own familiarity and learning about new class of products – so that they can be in a position to talk to customers and convince them.

Not willing to be named, one of the channel partners says, “Many a times, it’s the vendor himself who creates a sense of competition between telco and IT partners by favouring one over the other. Also, the traditional IT channel is already faced with lot of competition with large format retail,” says the partner.

However, Rajiv Mehta, CEO, Innovative Enterprise, feels that a con-verged distribution model is required because of the changing market and customer dynamics. “The conventional system has been around for many years now. But the Indian market has evolved, and so, old should make way for the new,” says Mehta.

Looking aheadCall it collision or collaboration, most of the vendors, industry experts and many of the channel partners feel that it’s just a matter of time when the con-vergence of IT and telecom channels becomes a common phenomenon.

“It will at least take two to three years before this business model becomes a common practice. Also, every vendor must see to it that this percolates from the metros to B&C class cities gradually, so that even the channel gets used to it,” says Rajendran.

But, the new business model is being viewed by skepticism even as many follow the wait and watch approach to see how factors, relationships, logis-tics, margins and volumes affect the distribution network.

Going forward, the market might see more convergence of the channels where multiple channels will co-exist, benefiting the end user.

[email protected]

There is a retail boom in the country, with Large Format Retail stores (LFRs) offering consumers a completely new shopping ambience and experience. This boom is attracting a slew of IT vendors to tap into the footfalls at LFRs.

The success story of mobile phones, which are sold in great numbers through snazzy retail outlets, is making the traditional IT sellers follow their cue on sales and display strategies.

Many large corporations and budding entrepreneurs are getting into technol-ogy retail and offering the same platform to mobile as well as IT products. This is changing the dynamics of how IT products are sold.

There are more and more lifestyle-oriented IT products available on the market, which lend themselves to easy selling, based on style or fad quotient rather than solution orientation. This is a far cry from early days when the very word ‘computer’ evoked images of nerds hunched over their machines.

With organised retail offering larger economies of scale to vendors and distrib-utors, price differential of products sold at LFRs compared to the ones available at IT hubs like Nehru Place and Lamington Road will come down significantly. This will further fuel the trend towards convergence of IT and telecom chan-nels, as more people are weaned away from these hubs to the malls.

FIVE KEY REASONS FOR CHANNEL CONVERGENCE

12345

TESTEDTRIED-N-

The growth in the combined serial inkjet and laser printer, copier and Multifunctional Product (MFP) market in India in the third quarter of 2010.

57%

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57%

Reinforcements Have ArrivedA look at the advancements in HD media players in the last few months

BY TEAM DIGIT | PHOTO IMAGING ANOOP VERMA

WE TESTED HD media players in May this year, and there were some clear win-ners. Since then,

there have been many new contenders. New features have been added or have become the norm for these players. We’ve tested some of these new play-ers over the last couple of months. We tested them to see if there were any new features and performance benefits that are worth your money. Here’s what we thought.


Buffalo launches new wireless adapter The AirStation N-Technology Wireless-N150 Ultra Compact USB 2.0 Adapter offers high-speed wireless connectivity to the Windows laptop or desktop through an available USB port.

HCL Infosystems launches educational computer for kidsThis computer has been launched for kids of age-group between 3 to 12 years, with special education content designed for learning through fun for children.

Digisol launches new wireless broadband router Digisol has introduced its new wireless broadband router DG-BR4000N for communication between wireless and wired notebooks/desktop computers in the network.

little bit. The use of background wallpa-pers is new, but not something every-one will like. The content is sorted well. Navigating the menus is a breeze. The use of space on the remote is good.

One of the features is the NAS mode which allows other devices on the network to access drives connected to the player. Live internet streaming, RSS feeds support, Picasa and Youtube are some of the other features avail-able. Streaming performance is good with both wired and wireless connec-tions. Video quality is good, and we experienced absolutely no lag while trying the playback of all formats. Format support is still excellent when compared to most of the other players.

Costing Rs. 13,500 for just the player and an additional Rs. 1,000 for the USB Wi-Fi adapter, it’s definitely much more expensive than the older Xtreamer player. At Rs. 8,990, the older Xtreamer product gives you most of the features.

Xtreamer ProThe new player is somewhat taller and wider than the older Xtreamer. The old one could only accommodate a 2.5-inch internal hard drive, which then seemed like a neat feature. This new one can hold two 3.5-inch drives easily. This makes the product slightly bulkier than most of the media players in the market today.

The chassis is well built. A metal front panel instead of the plastic one would have made it look even more attractive. There is a USB port and an eSATA port in line with the status LEDs at the front. The rear end of the product has an additional USB 2.0 port to connect external drives and one to connect the player to a PC. The player has HDMI, and Composite but no Component. For ideal resolutions, you absolutely need a display sup-porting HDMI.

Bootup time is somewhat long at 19 seconds. The interface has changed a

Buffalo LT V-100The LT-V100 is a compact looking, jet black HD player with a smooth upper surface. The build quality of the prod-uct is not impressive. The body is made of cheap plastic. The remote control bundled with the player is dull colored, flimsy and unimpressive.

There are two USB 2.0 ports and a HDMI connection on the back panel. We wish they had provided us with an HDMI cable though. The nice part is that the remote control works from any angle. It has a LAN port for home network connection. However, it does not feature Wi-Fi. The user interface is user friendly, but it does not segregate according to their format.

The noise reduction feature is not very effective in reducing the amount of noise in the image rendered on screen. An important thing to note is the ability to play almost the file for-mats including MP4, MPG, RMVB, MOV, MKV, AVI, but it fails to play FLV. When connected to the network, playback lags and files take time to open. File transferring is quite slow.

At Rs. 12,000, it is highly overpriced for its build quality and features. Instead, opt for the Xtreamer Pro with

media streaming and other outstand-ing features.

One of the features of the Xtreamer Pro is the NAS mode, which allows other devices on the network to access drives connected to the player. The Compro VideoMate 950 is a full HD media player with network connectivity and storage options.

October 2010

Xtreamer Pro

Buffalo LT V-100

Compro VideoMate 950 The Compro VideoMate 950 is a full HD media player with network connectivity and storage options. It comes in an all black body and has a nice brush metal

TRIED -N- TESTED HD MEDIA PLAYERS


finish. The front panel is made of plastic with a USB port positioned in the bottom left hand corner. There is a string

of LED indicators as well. The body is somewhat bulkier to accommodate either a 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch SATA hard drives.

VideoMate 950 comes with a range of connec-tivity options like an HDMI port, a component, composite audio and video ports, two USB ports, a mini USB port and a LAN port for network connectivity. The player can be opened up to to attach the HDD within. The interiors are pretty compact in the sense - there is no noticeable gap

once you plug in the drive in the chassis. Provisions are made for a 2.5 inch drive - there are some clips provided to hold it in place.

The GUI is one of the most impressive user interfaces we have seen among all the media players tested up until now. The main home screen shows three options like File Copy - which allows you to copy files among your network, HDD and USB drive; Browser - which segregates the various input media like HDD, USB, Network etc and finally Settings which allows you to tweak the audio, video, network settings.

It takes 11 seconds to startup, but movie loading time is a quick 4 sec-onds. Navigating through the menus is quite intuitive. It does not segregate

BRAND AMKETTE ASUS ASUS BUFFALO COMPRO IOMEGA SEAGATE WD WD WD XTREAMER XTREAMER ZEBRONICS

Model Flash TV O!Play Air HDP-R3

O!Play HDP-R1

Link Theatre LT -V100

Videomate NMC950

ScreenPlay Director

FreeAgent Theater+ TV TV Live TV Mini Xtreamer Xtreamer

ProZEB – MP1000HDMI

Price (`) `2,995 `10,000 `9,000 `12,000 `7,000 `12,000 `9,500 `6,500 `8,500 `4,500 `8,990 (WiFi)

`14,500 (WiFi) `2,600

Overall (On 100) 27.23 60.00 57.16 53.47 64.41 69.97 67.86 49.43 62.01 31.08 69.13 79.35 27.75Features (On 50) 7.15 24.40 22.40 21.25 31.15 36.50 32.50 15.90 28.05 10.15 33.15 41.30 9.00Performance (On50) 20.08 35.60 34.76 32.22 33.26 33.47 35.36 33.53 33.96 20.93 35.98 38.05 18.75FEATURESMax resolution supported

1080p (upscaled)

1080p 1080p 1080p 1080p 1080p 1080p 1080p 1080p1080p (upscaled)

1080p 1080p 720p

Ports (USB / eSATA) 1 / 0 2 / 1 2 / 1 2 / 0 2 / 0 3 / 0 2 / 0 2 / 0 2 / 0 1 / 0 2 / 0 2 / 1 1 / 1Network support (Wired/Wireless)

N / N Y / Y Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N N / N Y / N N / N Y / Y Y / N N / N

Video (MKV / FLV / Real video / MOV / MP4)

N / N / Y / N / Y Y / Y / Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y / Y / Y Y / Y / N / Y / Y Y/ Y / Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y / Y / YY / N / N / Y / Y

Y / Y / N / Y / Y

Y / N / Y / Y / Y

Y / Y / Y / Y / Y

Y / Y /Y / Y / Y

N / N / Y / Y / Y

Audio (FLAC, WMA / AAC)

N / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / N Y / Y / N Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y N / Y / N

Web content supportYoutube / Google Videos

N / N N / N N / N N / N N / N Y / N Y / N N / N Y / N N / N Y / N Y / N N / N

Flickr / Picasaweb N / N N / N N / N N / N N / N Y / N Y / Y N / N Y / N N / N N / N N / Y N / N

RSS feeds / Weather / News

N / N / N N / N / N N / N / N N / N / N N / N / N Y / Y / N Y / Y / Y N / N / N N / N / N N / N / N Y / N / N Y / Y / Y N / N / N

ConnectivityWindows shares / FTP N / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N N / N Y / N Y / N N / NRemote web access N N N N Y N N N N N Y Y N

Bittorrent / NAS N / N N / N N / N N / N Y / Y Y / Y N / Y N / N N / Y N / N N / Y Y / Y N / N

HDMI / Component / Composite

N / Y / Y Y / N / Y Y / N / Y Y / N / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / N / Y Y / Y / Y N / Y / Y Y / N / Y Y / N /Y N / Y / Y

PERFORMANCE (OUT OF 10)Startup time (sec) 6.5 8.1 9.6 10 11.62 114 9.03 5.12 7.09 7.8 50.5 19 10AVI (480p) (Performance)

8 8 8 6.5 6 8 8 8 8 8 8 6.5 6.5

AVI (480p) (Quality) 6 7 7 6.5 6.5 7 7 6 6 4 7.5 6 6.5MKV (720p) (Performance)

NA 8 8 5.5 7.5 8 8 8 8 NA 8 6.5 NA

MKV (720p) (Quality) NA 7 7 6 7.5 7 7 6.5 6.5 NA 7.5 6.5 NAMKV (1080p) (Performance)

NA 8 8 5.5 7 7 7.5 7 8 NA 8 6 NA

MKV (1080p) (Quality) NA 7.5 7 5.5 7.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 NA 8 6 NA

Build and Aesthetics 6.5 6.5 6.5 5.5 5 6 6.5 6.5 6 6.5 6.5 6 5.5

Zebronics ZEB-

MP1000H-DMI

HD MEDIA PLAYERS TRIED -N- TESTED


media though. The bundled in remote is decent but the navigation pad in the centre requires a hard press since the entire control is made of poor quality plastic. The location of the Return key is also unconventional.

This player is quite versatile in the sense that it plays anything you throw at it. It played 720p and 1080p videos brilliantly. DVD quality videos appeared stretched on the big screen, but setting the TV system to 480p gave a good out-put. But then, this player is meant for HD videos. Connecting to the network does not take much time, but you will

need an external computer for activating the BitTorrent cli-ent in the player.

At a price point of Rs. 9,000 we feel it’s a tad over priced, but it is completely worth the cost. We would definitely rec-ommend this player.

Zebronics ZEB-MP1000HDMIZebronics is somewhat of a local brand in comparison to all the other big names or popular devices on the internet. Their player comes in a compact form factor with black plastic body. The buttons on the front panel are of poor quality.

Component and composite video ports are on the side whereas the USB and HDMI port are on the rear side. The main menu comprises of options like photos, videos, music and settings. User inter-face is quite intuitive and straight forward.

Media is not segregated according to its type and you have to go to individual fold-ers, which makes it a pain to use. It takes 10 seconds to start up, while movie loading took a mere 6 seconds. It can play DVD quality movies flawlessly. We encountered problems while paying back 720p videos. As it does not support all the video formats, you will have to convert non compatible files beforehand. It plays RMVB vid-eos pretty well, but loading images takes very long.

This player is ideal if you have a huge collection of stand-ard Xvid and DivX AVI files. The player does not support many formats such as MKV and WMV. However, it is one of the cheapest players at just Rs. 2,600, but the lack of video format support makes it hard to recommend.

Is there a new winner?We liked the Xtreamer the last time we tested HD Media play-ers. This time around, the Xtreamer Pro beats the last winner – the Iomega Screenplay Director. It’s much better built, and the ability to connect two internal drives totaling up to 4 TB is a nice feature to have. The product becomes much more than just a media player, and for a little more than the Iomega player, it makes good sense. We’ve seen all kinds of players over the last year, and it looks like manufacturers are watching the growth of the HD TV market with new features. There are still some features we’d like to see. For example, getting e-mail alerts and updates on your Twitter and Facebook accounts would be nice. Audio and video conferencing could be another great possibility. Now that internet connectivity is getting more popular, man-ufacturers ought to plug in a fully-functional browser as well. All these things are bound to happen sometime or the other. It’s definitely not the last we’ve seen of the HD players.

Courtesy: Digit,

www.thinkdigit.com

BRAND AMKETTE ASUS ASUS BUFFALO COMPRO IOMEGA SEAGATE WD WD WD XTREAMER XTREAMER ZEBRONICS

Model Flash TV O!Play Air HDP-R3

O!Play HDP-R1

Link Theatre LT -V100

Videomate NMC950

ScreenPlay Director

FreeAgent Theater+ TV TV Live TV Mini Xtreamer Xtreamer

ProZEB – MP1000HDMI

Price (`) `2,995 `10,000 `9,000 `12,000 `7,000 `12,000 `9,500 `6,500 `8,500 `4,500 `8,990 (WiFi)

`14,500 (WiFi) `2,600

Overall (On 100) 27.23 60.00 57.16 53.47 64.41 69.97 67.86 49.43 62.01 31.08 69.13 79.35 27.75Features (On 50) 7.15 24.40 22.40 21.25 31.15 36.50 32.50 15.90 28.05 10.15 33.15 41.30 9.00Performance (On50) 20.08 35.60 34.76 32.22 33.26 33.47 35.36 33.53 33.96 20.93 35.98 38.05 18.75FEATURESMax resolution supported

1080p (upscaled)

1080p 1080p 1080p 1080p 1080p 1080p 1080p 1080p1080p (upscaled)

1080p 1080p 720p

Ports (USB / eSATA) 1 / 0 2 / 1 2 / 1 2 / 0 2 / 0 3 / 0 2 / 0 2 / 0 2 / 0 1 / 0 2 / 0 2 / 1 1 / 1Network support (Wired/Wireless)

N / N Y / Y Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N N / N Y / N N / N Y / Y Y / N N / N

Video (MKV / FLV / Real video / MOV / MP4)

N / N / Y / N / Y Y / Y / Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y / Y / Y Y / Y / N / Y / Y Y/ Y / Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y / Y / YY / N / N / Y / Y

Y / Y / N / Y / Y

Y / N / Y / Y / Y

Y / Y / Y / Y / Y

Y / Y /Y / Y / Y

N / N / Y / Y / Y

Audio (FLAC, WMA / AAC)

N / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / N Y / Y / N Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y N / Y / N

Web content supportYoutube / Google Videos

N / N N / N N / N N / N N / N Y / N Y / N N / N Y / N N / N Y / N Y / N N / N

Flickr / Picasaweb N / N N / N N / N N / N N / N Y / N Y / Y N / N Y / N N / N N / N N / Y N / N

RSS feeds / Weather / News

N / N / N N / N / N N / N / N N / N / N N / N / N Y / Y / N Y / Y / Y N / N / N N / N / N N / N / N Y / N / N Y / Y / Y N / N / N

ConnectivityWindows shares / FTP N / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N Y / N N / N Y / N Y / N N / NRemote web access N N N N Y N N N N N Y Y N

Bittorrent / NAS N / N N / N N / N N / N Y / Y Y / Y N / Y N / N N / Y N / N N / Y Y / Y N / N

HDMI / Component / Composite

N / Y / Y Y / N / Y Y / N / Y Y / N / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / Y / Y Y / N / Y Y / Y / Y N / Y / Y Y / N / Y Y / N /Y N / Y / Y

PERFORMANCE (OUT OF 10)Startup time (sec) 6.5 8.1 9.6 10 11.62 114 9.03 5.12 7.09 7.8 50.5 19 10AVI (480p) (Performance)

8 8 8 6.5 6 8 8 8 8 8 8 6.5 6.5

AVI (480p) (Quality) 6 7 7 6.5 6.5 7 7 6 6 4 7.5 6 6.5MKV (720p) (Performance)

NA 8 8 5.5 7.5 8 8 8 8 NA 8 6.5 NA

MKV (720p) (Quality) NA 7 7 6 7.5 7 7 6.5 6.5 NA 7.5 6.5 NAMKV (1080p) (Performance)

NA 8 8 5.5 7 7 7.5 7 8 NA 8 6 NA

MKV (1080p) (Quality) NA 7.5 7 5.5 7.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 NA 8 6 NA

Build and Aesthetics 6.5 6.5 6.5 5.5 5 6 6.5 6.5 6 6.5 6.5 6 5.5

Zebronics ZEB-

MP1000H-DMI

For more UPDATES, Log on http://digitchannelconnect.com/resources/category/28/readmore/news


CARVINGENTERPRISE

STANDARDSBusiness objectives point to some information security

concerns, while regulatory compliance necessitates others. Security standards facilitate both and fill the gap

BY DOMINIC K | ILLUSTRATION JOFFY JOSE

very enterprise follows a methodology for risk manage-ment and measurement. The acceptable risk level is defined by the security council or the corporate risk management group who analyses it, based on several

factors that determine their enterprise risk. It is derived from all aspects such as threats, vulnerabilities, probability, impact analysis and their own perception of the threat.

Whether a particular set of information security and risk criterion can be used not only depend on their applicability but on the effort and costs

STORY ROI Security standards provide a benchmark against which an organisation can assess its information security implementation and analyze risk.

INFORMATION SECURITYTECHNOTOUCH

INFORMATION SECURITY TECHNO TOUCH

associated with its use too. These can be different in specific cases, but stand-ard values can be helpful for assess-ment in typical scenarios. Standards help the corporate team define these.

ComplianceSuccessful management of information security processes in the enterprise requires control over an assortment of documentation for compliance and regulatory demands. Efficiently managing the documentation is not easy and usually requires a systematic approach. Information security stand-ards aid CISOs in streamlining the risk, regulatory and compliance demands. According to Burgess Cooper, AVP, Information Security, Vodafone Essar, “Compliance means putting the right systems and processes in place and the ability to respond faster during any crisis. It’s also worthy to note that most of the compliance will have around 40-50% of parameters and aspects common among them. A uni-fied compliance framework that will handle mandatory and obligatory com-pliance needs will make the security processes much easier and efficient for the enterprise.”

Future of StandardsSo what does the future hold for secu-rity standards? Some of the standards that CISOs and the Indian industry need to watch out for are ISO 38500 for IT governance, ISO 31000 for risk manage-ment and ISO 27005 for security risk management standard.

ISO/IEC 38500:2008 or ISO 38500 stand-ard draws upon a number of sources, which defines six principles (establish responsibilities, plan to best sup-port the organisation, acquire validly,

ensure performance when required, ensure conformance with rules, ensure respect for human factors). It is intended to provide guiding principles to any organisation, regardless of size or sector. It provides guiding princi-ples for directors of any organisation (including owners, board members, directors, partners, senior executives) on the effective, efficient, and accept-able use of information technology within their organisations.

Sameer J Ratolikar, CISO, Bank of India, suggests that CISOs should have rationale in implementing any standard. If securing processes for some critical department is the objective, then ISO 27002 should be the way to protect card holder informa-tion opt for PCI-DSS. Similarly, for call centers and helpdesks, setting up ITIL will add value. Finally, to the know value of IT investment, dashboard of IT project imple-mentation, opting COBIT is the way out. The point is that either ways, following one or multiple standards as such does not take an enterprise towards zero risk or incident. It is in practicing correct risk and incident management processes and pro-cedures irrespective of the standard used that add and contribute to the enterprise brand value.

While it may be true that some stand-ards may improve compliance and risk levels but it is the effectiveness of imple-mentation with continuous and relent-less review and improvements that will finally lead to control various incidents and threats.

Courtesy: CTO Forum

KEY CHALLENGES An ever-increasing reliance on IT

based information systems, which are becoming more complex and integrated

A significant increase in the number and scale of threats to applications, computers and networks, which are in turn often based on rapidly changing technology

Continual discovery of vulnerabilities in existing and new technology, which if exploited, can have significant business implications

Organisations’ requirements for improved effectiveness and productivity of systems and staff, while reducing costs

Increased focus on the need to comply with increasing legal and regulatory requirements (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Basel II and Privacy or Data Protection legislation)

The growing drive to meet major information security-related standards, such as ISO/IEC 27002, ITIL, PCI-DSS, COBIT

A general lack of awareness and key skills, expertise and other resources in many important areas of the organisation.

TECHNOTOUCH


BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

For more UPDATES, Log on http://digitchannelconnect.com/resources/opinions

PHOT

OS:

PH

OTO

S.CO

MIt is very important to analyse and choose the correct stakeholders in a BI implementation

BY ALEC SMITH

OLUTION PRO-

VIDERS POSI-

TION business intelligence tools to help “enlighten” businesses

enough to purchase their products. However, a software solution is only as good as the implementation process conducted to leverage the full functionality of the BI tool.

The road map for a BI solu-tion, much like any other IT solution, is to start with who has issues that a new solution can address. The ‘who’ needs to be specifically identified. BI tools are successful in provid-ing insight to operations, hence, functional areas or business units. If the BI rollout is the first of its kind for a company, it’s best to focus on functional areas rather than business units, as they tend to perform specific operations and are easier to define, conceptualise and measure. Based on the experience and lessons learned

STORY ROI Based on the experience from the initial BI rollout, companies should plan for a busi-ness-unit and cross-function projects.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

ImplementationFramework

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TECHNO TOUCH

from the initial BI rollout, plan for a business-unit and a cross-function project, as this level is more about decision making and strategy than process improvement.

After the functional area(s) have been identified, the next level is to determine who will use or has use for a BI tool. Generally, the lower the job position, the greater the need for oper-ational transactional data. As the job position moves up organisationally, the greater is the need for summarised information. Companies need to deter-mine which level of the organisation will benefit from a BI tool. Basic inquir-ies should be examined at each level to discover BI opportunities.

Determining what information offers the most value is fundamental to the process. This step is crucial to find-ing value in a BI tool. It needs to be patiently performed, diving into the details, asking lots of questions and is best conducted by people with deep understanding of the business.

BI reporting is broken down into three distinct segments of meas-ures, dimensions and level of detail. Measures are the quantifiable values of a business such as total sales and volume of product sold for a given period. Dimensions describe measures. A common way to describe dimensions is to think of measures by something such as sales by product line, sales by region, sales by quarter and so on. Consider which dimensions are critical and then associate measures with them. Each functional area has its unique dimensions. Take the time to identify all potential dimensions.Identifying measures and dimensions is a business exercise to gain insight into the business to look for opportunities,

to improve, to pinpoint inefficiencies and to spot trends both positive and negative. Therefore, business questions need to be asked such as what are the margins for a particular product line? What is the ratio of won deals to lost deals for a particular sale rep? Once the list of business questions has been documented, translating them into measures and dimensions is relatively easy. Depending on the completeness of the business questions, a library of measures and dimensions will develop. It might be surprising how creative business questions will bring to surface more measures and dimensions then thought possible. Don’t dismiss any metric as irrelevant, as they might lead to new measures and dimensions that might not have been thought of without making that left turn. The preliminary list of measures and dimensions should be documented in a spreadsheet so to allow the ability to rank and sort each combination as each metric is reviewed and prioritised.

Once the combinations of measures and dimensions have been identified, the next step is to screen them and grade their plausibility. At this point, its time to bring in the technical team to transition theoretical wants to practical terms, as some metrics may not be programmatically possible. For example, can data from different

sources be joined where a single data source does not contain the necessary fields? Grading the library of metrics for a given functional area should be based on the degree to which the library is actionable, materially impacting and whether the metric is tactical or strategic. Based on being actionable, will the BI tool generate a material impact if actions are pre-formed from the information provided by the BI tool, and finally - will the BI tool impact short term operational results or generate competitive advan-tage for strategic planning? As the library of measures and dimensions were listed in a spreadsheet, the three criteria as well should be entered into a spreadsheet to facilitate grading. List the criteria across the columns with the functional areas on the rows and apply a ‘high,’ ‘low,’ ‘strategic’ and ‘tactical’ value to each applicable column. Depending on the outcome of this grading, the proposed BI tool may or may not generate the expected value. If not, additional brainstorming sessions can be held with a new set of participants with a fresh point of view or the initiative can be canceled if the stakeholders warrant it.

Alec Smith is VP- Projects at SWK

Technologies, Inc. US

Courtesy – CTO Forum

If the BI rollout is the first of its kind for a company, it’s best to focus on functional areas rather than business units, as they tend to perform specific operations. Business questions are important while implementing BI.

FOCUSPORTABLE HARD DRIVES

N O V E M B E R 2 010DIGIT CHANNEL CONNECT44 For more UPDATES, Log on

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“We’ll expand in 2.5 & 3.5-inch segment.” - Ramesh Raajamani, Business Development Manager, Hitachi India

The growth rate of the portable hard drive market (which is 1.5 to 2 times the PC growth).

15-20%

THE HARD DISK drive market in India is experiencing a substantial growth, with 3.5-inch drives continuing to make up the majority of shipments. Increasingly, con-sumers are opting for high-performance drives with extremely high capacities. The industry is maturing and moving away from a low-capacity, price-conscious mar-ket to greater demand for higher capacity, performance and throughput from HDDs.

According to Rajesh Khurana, Country Manager – India and SAARC, Seagate Technology, “We are focusing more on bringing hard drives that provide the best combination of security, data protection, simplicity, capacity, speed and reliability.

Besides this, the product design is also very important. Consumer products are very personal. So, the external hard disk drives should look good and stylish, so that it represents a personal style statement.”

Market sizeAs per an industry analyst, the portable hard drive market has been growing at a steady rate of 15-20% growth (1.5 to 2 times the PC growth), but it still remains under served. Penetration of external HDD is too low at less than 10% of the annual market of PC shipment.

In fact, the market has a huge poten-tial, as consumers’ awareness about

STORAGE ON THE MOVEWith the proliferation of digital content, the portable hard drive market is moving ahead at a steady rate

Evolution of hard disk drives - A timeline

In 1956, IBM invented the first computer disk storage system, the 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control). In 1980, Seagate Technology introduced the first hard disk drive for microcomputers, the ST506. In 1997, Seagate introduced the first 7,200 RPM, Ultra ATA hard disk drive for desktop computers.In 2007, the first 1 TB hard drive was launched by Hitachi GST - Deskstar 7K1000.

Quick Take

“Consumers want things faster. They don’t want to spend forever accessing their content.”KHALID WANI, SALES DIRECTOR, WESTERN DIGITAL

BY SANDHYA MALHOTRA

E-WASTE | MOBILITY

PORTABLE HARD DRIVES FOCUS

data backup has increased. For these reasons, manufacturers have drasti-cally brought down prices of personal storage devices over the past couple of years. All these factors have resulted in an ideal market for Indian buyers, thereby driving demand and consump-tion of portable hard drive.

New innovations Innovation is not just focused on higher capacities in smaller form factors. Key innovations that are shaping the porta-ble segment are in the area of ‘utility.’ For instance, newer interfaces like USB 3.0 and FireWire are being offered in portable drives that make them suit-able for Mac users, creative profession-als, or for any consumer who demands faster data transfer.

According to Khalid Wani, Sales director, Branded products, India, Middle East & Africa , Western Digital, “Consumers want things faster. They have more and more content that they want to share and use, and they do not want to spend forever accessing it.”

“We plan to capitalize on the growth anticipated in 3.5 inch consumer elec-tronics areas like DVR/set top boxes and surveillance applications. Hence, we will expand in the 2.5-inch segment and continue to grow our presence in the 3.5-inch segment,” says Ramesh Raajamani, Business Development Manager, Hitachi India.

“Partners need to keep them abreast of the latest trends. Today, a number of partners are taking an interest in selling portable hard drives, since the drives are very easy to deploy, with manage-ment and backup features,” says Delhi based Manoj Gupta, Director, and Fortune Marketing.

Scope for channel partnersThe growth of the portable hard drive sector has made it an extremely competitive market, with resellers and retailers having to think carefully about which brands they back.

According to Praveen Sahai, Director of Sales - India & SAARC, Iomega, “We have 4 distributors in India – Venktron, Neoteric, Beetel and Redington. While Beetel is focused on the B2C segment, Redington helps us in the B2B segment with a specific focus on the network

storage product line. There is a specific focus to build business volumes with LFRs and help them deliver on this new category of business which has a promising potential in the future. We are currently working closely with LFRs like Croma, Reliance Digital, etc.”

Future roadmapPortable storage is a robust market and is set for continued growth. As USB 3.0 becomes available on more and more 2.5” products, both are slated to become industry standards. Wani points, “In the long run, leading brands will consolidate their distribu-tion structure and start interacting with the end consumer more directly. Also, improved features and functions such as auto-back up, recovery, cloud connect, etc., as well as allowing end users the ability to easily access and share their stored media, will be a major differentiating point for consum-ers, which will become increasingly important as time goes by.”

Consumers are looking for what the storage product can do for them beyond just raw storage capacity. Network Attached Storage (NAS) and connectivity will be the main area of focus for manufacturers. The adop-tion of Ethernet ports on electronic devices like TV, gaming consoles, etc will provide a way to store and access this data from different locations and with different devices. Moreover, cloud storage for consumers will also take a positive turn, storing data online, preventing data loss and many more such technological changes that will create space for the utility of external hard drives.

[email protected]

“WE ARE FOCUSING MORE ON BRINGING HARD DRIVES THAT PROVIDE THE BEST COMBINATION OF SECURITY, DATA PRO-TECTION, SIMPLICITY, CAPACITY, SPEED AND RELIABILITY.” RAJESH KHURANA, COUNTRY MANAGER – INDIA AND SAARC, SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY

FOCUS CLOUD COMPUTING



ONE BILLION DOLLARS. That is what crystal ball gazers expect the size of the nascent cloud computing market in India to be by 2014. While the billion dol-lar figure may sound disconcerting to those heading the finance functions of their firms, since this will mean a not so insignificant re-organisation of the annual budget, studies and surveys carried out by at least three independ-ent agencies seem to confirm that Chief Financial Officers (CFO) and Chief Information Officers (CIO) of over 70% of Indian companies are keen to see this new technology being adopted.

Surveys carried out by Ernst & Young, Gartner and Zinnove Management Consulting over the past two months, have come to more or less the same conclusion: that an overwhelming majority of CIOs have given a thumbs up to the platform where software applications and related

WELCOMINGThree different

surveys indicate that CFOs and CIOs across Indian firms are keen to adopt cloud computing services even if it means increased

spends.

BY DHIMAN CHATTOPADHYAY The Cloud


CLOUD COMPUTING FOCUS

resources can be shared online. Interestingly, the surveys also come to another similar conclusion - that cost is not the decisive factor for adoption of cloud computing in a company.

“India’s cloud computing market is expected to be around USD 1 billion over the next five years,” a spokes-person for consulting firm Zinnov Management said, commenting on the study findings. The cloud computing platform is expected to mainly benefit enterprise SMBs, SOHOs and consumer segments. The results of an unrelated survey, carried out this September by Ernst & Young, agreed that over 72% of India’s IT infrastructure companies are set to adopt cloud computing in a big way over the next 2-3 years and that at least 81% of CIOs were already familiar with cloud computing concepts.The study, titled “Cloud adoption in India - Infrastructure as a Service

(IaaS)”, is based on interviews with 50 CIOs and CFOs from leading SMBs, enterprises and IaaS ecosystem play-ers. According to Milan Sheth, Partner, Technology Advisory Practice, Ernst & Young, “Virtualisation, often seen as the first step in a cloud strategy, has begun to be more widely implemented across data centres, and this could contribute to a rapid implementation of IaaS in India. The ongoing impact of open source, the whole concept of IaaS meeting the cloud, will prove to be a major trend for cloud adoption in India. High awareness levels and the positive perception of cloud indicate a market that will see robust growth rates in the next two years.”

While moving to a cloud computing platform will mean greater efficiency and accuracy in data storage and address security concerns, it will also obviously mean higher costs, at least in

the short-run. A global survey published in August by Gartner noted that cloud-computing services consumed from External Service Providers (ESPs) are estimated to be 10.2% of the spending on external IT services for firms.

From April through July 2010, Gartner surveyed 1,587 respondents in 40 countries to understand general IT spending trends and spending on key initiatives such as cloud comput-ing. 484 respondents participated in the drill-down on cloud computing and were asked how their organisation’s current budget for cloud computing was distributed, as well as what their estimate was for spending next year.

“The cloud market is evolving rapidly, with 39% of survey respon-dents worldwide indicating they allo-cated IT budget to cloud computing as a key initiative for their organisation,” said Bob Igou, Research Director at Gartner. “One-third of the spending on cloud computing is a continua-tion from the previous budget year, a further third is incremental spending that is new to the budget, and 14% is spending that was diverted from a different budget category in the previ-ous year,” he added.

46% of respondents with budget allocated to cloud computing indi-cated they planned to increase the use of cloud services from external providers. Gartner analysts said there was a clear shift toward the “utility” approach for non-core services, and increased investment in core func-tionality, often closely aligned with competitive differentiation.

With both the manufacturing and the service sectors doing relatively well in the previous two quarters and with India’s growth story on track, CFOs should set aside a tidy sum in the budget for this purpose, so that they are part of the ‘cloud revolution’ when it finally does happen.

Courtesy:- CFO India

81% of Indian CIOs are familiar with cloud computing concepts.

72% of of Indian CFOs and CIOs cited data privacy and security issues as a concern area for their business while adopting cloud computing services.

58% consider the ability to focus on core activities and usage based payments as the top business benefits of cloud computing services.

92% of India CFOs and CIOs want to buy cloud services from data centre service providers and IT systems integrators.

39% of finance function heads said they allocated IT budget to cloud computing as a key initia-tive for their organisation.

EYEING THE CLOUD PIE

EVENT



PSP programme has been launched to ena-ble channel partners to retain all potential rev-enue generated from the sale of professional service offering.

Channel initiativesAmong the new initiatives, the PSP programme has been introduced to enable channel partners to retain all potential revenue generated from the sale of professional service offer-ing. The company informs that the programme is open to all of its APN partners of Elite or Premier status who fulfill a set of programme requirements that include completion of standard industry certifications and compliance with on site audits. Also, the revamped SDP programme has been transitioned to a value based model with simplified discount and rebate calculations that operate on a pay-for-performance scale. The SDP programme is designed to aid partners to deliver scalable support services for IP products.

Brocade expects that its revamped programmes would attract core special-ization and certification from its partner base. “The certifications would assist partners to deliver a better service to the end user, hence creating a differen-tiating factor from all of our competi-tors,” said KP Unnikrishnan, Marketing Director, APAC for Brocade.

The networking player has further declared to reward those partners who will develop and invest in practices to address new technology trends such as virtualisation, network convergence and cloud computing, under its optimized APN network. The company though emphasized that it will continue to provide direct support in all the major implementations, to all of its clients.

“The qualified partners will also receive access to Brocade’s tools and resources, which will help them promote and sell these offerings,” informed Unnikrishnan.

The company is expected to launch a series of collaboration tools, includ-ing Global Partner Locator, a product configuration tool and a partner syndi-cation tool within the next five months. The tools will aid and assist partners to sell and share information about Broacade’s products and services with customers in a cost effective way.

NETWORKING

BY JATINDER SINGH

Offering New OpportunitiesBrocade announced a host of new partner initiatives and services during its annual Asia Pacific Partner Summit 2010 in Bali, Indonesia

KEEPING IN MIND the rapid shift in technology and rising demand of service driven purchase from buyers, Brocade—a networking solution provider, has unveiled a slew of new services and support programmes to boost the profitability of its channel partners across Asia pacific. The announcement was made dur-ing its second Asia Pacific Partner Summit 2010 hosted at Bali, Indonesia, recently.

The summit saw the launch of the APAC version of the newly updated Alliance Partner Network Programme (APN) along with the revamped professional services (PSP) and Support Delivery Programmes

(SDP). The company said that the changes are in line with its strategy to better the support and needs of partners, so that they could help their customers make the transition towards network convergence.

MEDIAPERSONS GEARING UP FOR THE SUMMIT

NETWORKING EVENT

Driving new goalsThe company expects to pump in sig-nificant investment in its India R&D efforts to improve its market share in IP based products. “In India, we have a high focus to build a portfolio of SAN partners and have an interest in anoth-er group of larger IP partners, largely Cisco houses,” said Unnikrishnan.It is important to recall that in its effort to expand the data centre capability, Brocade, in 2008, had acquired the US based network switching and router player Foundry Networks. “We are now in a much better position to address the customer’s demand than any of our competitors,” said Deb Dutta, Brocade Communications’ Vice President – APAC. In June this year, Brocade had intro-duced Brocade one, the unifying net-work architecture and strategy that simplifies the complexity of virtualising applications and enables the migra-tion to a world where information and

services are available anywhere in the cloud. “Our tagline is - ‘The entire net-work is your data centre’. If you think about that statement, it has two impli-cations: one is that the entire network is actually impacted by this transition that is happening and ultimately, we’ll

have to deal with how well customers’ solutions operate and how agile their IT system is,” said John McHugh, the Chief Marketing Officer for Brocade Communications. [email protected]

DELEGATES AT THE SUMMIT

ANALYSTCONNECT



OVERALL INDIA PC market sales touched 27.9 lakh units during the July-September 2010 quarter, recording a 27% year-on-year (July-September 2010 over July-September 2009) and an 18% quarter-on-quarter (July-September 2010 over April-June 2010) increase.

Desktop PC sales accounted for nearly two-thirds of total PC sales at 16.7 lakh units, representing a 15% increase year-on-year (July-September 2010 over July-September 2009). The sales of notebook computers grew at 52% year-on-year (July-September 2010 over July-September 2009), to cross 11.1 lakh units for the quarter.

In the overall PC (notebooks and desktops combined) market, Dell retained the market leadership with an increased market share of 16.7% while both HP (13.7%) and Acer (10.6%) retained the second and third spots respectively, albeit with reduced market shares.

In terms of desktop PC sales, Dell clinched the top position for the first time in the Indian PC market, with a

growth of 18% in overall India PC sales in 3Q 2010, points to the strength of the economic recovery and an increas-ingly positive consumer sentiment,” states Anirban Banerjee, Associate Vice President, Research, IDC India.“Large enterprises responded to the improving global economic cues by ramping up IT infrastructure spending, resulting in overall improved traction, particularly for desktop PCs. With the momentum likely to continue in 4Q 2010, the release of revised rate con-tracts for government sector buying should further bolster the prospects of the commercial PC segment”, states Sumanta Mukherjee, Lead PC Analyst, IDC India.

“However, the rate of growth of mini notebook PC shipments dipped mar-ginally in 3Q 2010. This points to the need for vendors to add more function-alities to cater to evolving consumer demand”, Sumanta concluded.

[email protected]

share of 9.8%, followed by HP and Acer in second and third spots, respectively during 3Q 2010. For the notebook PC, Dell retained its position on the top with a market share of 27% in 3Q 2010; HP and Acer remained at the second and third places, respectively.

“Normally, the July-September quar-ter shows a sales growth driven by both the consumer and commercial segments. A double-digit sequential

IDC: India overall PC sales grow to 27.9 lakh units in Q2, 2010; high growth indicates strong economic recovery

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Desktop PC sales accounted for nearly two-thirds of total PC sales at 16.7 lakh units, representing a 15% increase year-on-year.

*SOURCE: IDC’s India Quarterly PC Tracker, 3Q 2010, November 2010

Dateline: July-September 2010 vs. April-June 2010 and July-September 2010 vs. July-September 2009

Form Factor3Q 2009 (Jul-Sep 2009)

2Q 2010 (Apr-Jun 2010)

3Q 2010 (Jul-Sep 2010)

Growth (3Q 2010 over 2Q 2010)

Growth (3Q 2010 over 3Q 2009)

Desktop PC’s 14.6 15.6 16.7 7% 15%

Notebook PC’s 7.3 8.1 11.1 38% 52%

Total PC 21.9 23.7 27.9 18% 27%

INDIA PC SALES (LAKHS OF UNITS) BY FORM FACTOR* AND GROWTH TRENDS

DCC November regular issue

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Transcript of DCC November regular issue