SME BIZ /45

D-Link: Owners pride and Neighbors Envy

TREND SETTER /54

TCS: TCS Ahead of the Curve

SME BIZ /52

NEC: NEC India to intensify business in SME Segment

Bharat Goenka Conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award /08PLUS

VOLUME 02 | ISSUE 09 | NOVEMBER 2011 | RS. 20/-

india’s first IT magazine for sme business

The UTM market is making steady progress in the Indian market as its appeal increases among enterprises of all sizes and across verticals. /30

UTM EMBARKED ON A

STEADY GROWTH

01

Securing enterprise systems is a top

priority, especially in a connected

world. A fundamental truth for

organizations worldwide is that

protecting their mission-critical

applications, sensitive electronic data, and under-

lying computing infrastructure is a challenging

and never-ending task—a grim scenario wherein

IT and security personnel will always have their

hands full.

With increasing connectivity, a company’s

vulnerability and risk of security compromises

increase manifold. More signiicantly, a shit in

hackers’ motivation and the growth in corporate

espionage have increased the security threat to

enterprises. herefore, it is not only large enter-

prises but even the SMBs that is scurrying for

cover with robust security products.

Earlier security deployments meant point

solutions for a variety of requirements such as

irewalls, intrusion detection systems, VPNs,

anti-spam gateways, etc. However monitoring,

managing and scaling them as the enterprise

grows becomes a huge challenge for the technol-

ogy department. Over the years, vendors have

started clubbing their oferings in order to dif-

ferentiate their products and also to make it easy

for deployment and maintenance. Gradually such

deployments became more common, and the

term Uniied hreat Management (UTM) became

mainstream when analyst irm IDC used it in a

2005 publication on threat management.

he term has since been used to refer to uniied,

multi-use security threat management devices. It

helps enterprises reduce the number of vendors,

manage the ugrade cycle of diferent products and

simpliies trouble shooting. According to IDC, a

UTM typically comprises a irewall, antivirus and

intrusion prevention and detection.

With increasing proliferation of connectivity, the

threats and complexities in security management

have grown tremendously. he scope and expanse

of UTM oferings have also kept pace by providing

very high-end and sophisticated capabilities. his

eliminates the need for systems administrators to

maintain multiple security programs over time.

herefore sophisticated versions of UTMs can

ofer much more with capabilities that can manage

URL iltering, spam blocking, spyware protection,

content management, data leakage protection.

Oten these devices ofer centralized monitoring

and management of security deployments across

locations and incident logging. hese multi-

function security products provide many beneits

for customers, which combined with new features,

have spurred market growth. here is also a trend

for service providers to ofer UTM-as-a-service

from their datacenters, but it is still early.

“Security consolidation via UTMs represents

not just a better security and convenience but

also opportunities—an opportunity to reduce

network traic, an opportunity to ease integration

of VoIP and Web 2.0 applications, and an oppor-

tunity to boost IT productivity,” says Shubhomoy

Biswas, Country Director – India & SAARC,

SonicWALL.

The Market in Indiahe UTM market for appliances in 2009 stood at

$42.25 million and is poised to keep growing at a

steady CAGR of 35-40% over the next 3-4 years.

he market is slated to cross $100 million by 2012.

According to a report by research irm IDC in

October 2008, UTM products, which passed the

$1 billion mark in market size in 2007, will make

up 33.6 percent of the total network security

market by 2012.

IDC has identiied the UTM market segment

as the fastest growing segment of the broader

network security market globally, and expects

UTM to represent approximately 30 percent of

The UTM market is making steady progress in the Indian market as its

appeal increases among enterprises of all sizes and across verticals.

BY SANJAY MOHAPATRAsanjay@smechannels.com

STEADYGROWTH

UTM EMBARKED ON A

SME CHANNELSNOVEMBER 2011

30

COVER STORY UTM MARKET

THE UTM MARKET IS SLATED TO CROSS

$100 MILLION BY 2012 AND IS EXPECTED TO

GROW 35% OVER NEXT TWO YEARS.

COVER STORYUTM MARKET

31SME CHANNELSNOVEMBER 2011

ment. It further expanded its capabilities for the

SRX series with the new AppTrack sotware.

Building on Juniper’s recently announced AppSe-

cure suite of applications, AppTrack sotware

provides tight services integration that enables

application-level visibility and improved data

lows and adds application identiication infor-

mation to the IPS session log. Juniper AppTrack is

part of the AppSecure suite of applications, which

provides business logic denial-of-services preven-

tion for the the SRX series.

Astaro is a relatively new entrant in the Indian

network security market. he company is still

relatively small and is poised for much higher

growth than other vendors. In the last two years,

the company has already built a foundation for

explosive growth in its UTM business. However,

India revenue still represents a small percentage

of its worldwide business, but it is now growing

rapidly.

“Most of our partners have chosen our prod-

uct line for its capabilities and ease-of-use. Since

we are relatively a late entrant in India market,

our partners typically used some other network

security product before, and now use Astaro to

realize a broad variety of networking and security

projects. he margins our partners make, posi-

tions our products as second to none,” says Sunil

Sapra of Astaro. Astaro solutions are sold more

on the basis of value than price, enabling partners

to package their services well with the solutions.

A service-led approach builds customer relation-

ship and improves the margins. Aastaro has a

solid line up of products with Sophos next gen

UTMs. Cisco looks at the market and customer

requirements from a holistic perspective and

ofers an End-to-End Self Defending Approach

and Integrated Security. As per Bipin Phase I

UTM is deined by consolidation: he initial

intent of UTM is the consolidation of multiple

security-related technologies into one system.

Initially, UTM solutions were integrated Firewalls

with Intrusion Detection/Intrusion Prevention

Systems (IDS/IPS). Now, most UTM solutions

also include Anti-X (SPAM and malware) and

VPN functionality. UTM continues to evolve with

expanding functionality.

Nevales Networks ofers small and medium

a secure environment to conduct their business

on a ‘pay-as-you-use’ model. Nevales’ platform is

delivered over the Internet with free 24x7 support

and is free from licensing, scalability and mainte-

nance hassles, thereby providing the best value for

money and allowing SMBs to focus on their core

businesses.

Nevales’s security-as-a-service’ ofering

bundles everything into a single subscription

fee, including comprehensive security features,

automatic updates, patches, and 24x7 technical

support, thus enabling organizations to elimi-

nate upfront costs, providing a predictable cost

structure, ensuring quality of service, and the

freedom to re-evaluate the solution decision at

any time.

Nevales Networks closely works with its part-

ners through regular distribution meets and

promotions in key channel media. “We support

our partners with regular training and product

updates to help them reach out to their customers

better,” says Ravishankar.

Dominique MEURISSE - Executive Vice Pres-

iden, NETASQ, says, “Everyone is looking for

an integrated security solution to reduce main-

tenance costs and have a more comprehensive

control over their network security. We foresee a

phenomenal growth in this sector. We at NetASQ

have UTM products from SOHO to enterprise

class networks¡”

The Future Landscapehe future UTM solutions are likely to include

one-stop solutions with features such as irewall,

VPN, anti-virus, anti-spam, IDS and IPS, content

iltering, bandwidth management, multiple load

balancing and gateway failover.

More and more enterprises will look for

easier management with plug and play kind of

capabilities. As more enterprises look to simplify

infrastructure management, they will look for all-

in-one security appliances to ease their manage-

ment burden.

UTM solutions will be an integrated ofering

and will be able to handle blended threats. UTM

solutions has emerged out of the need to stem the

increasing number of attacks on corporate infor-

mation systems via hacking/cracking, viruses,

worms—mostly an outcome of blended threats

and insider threats. herefore future demand for

UTM solutions will be for blended capabilities

to thwart such threats. Such oferings will enable

customers to have higher return on investment

and lower total cost of ownership.

Integrated security appliances are witnessing

high penetration in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Future

demand from these markets will be strong and

these markets will lead market growth. he lack

of skilled manpower in these cities makes deploy-

ment of UTMs a simpler choice due to the inte-

grated nature of these devices.

In conclusion, the UTM market is on the

growth track and the demand for UTM products

will increase from all sizes of enterprises. his is

because the security threats are increasingly get-

ting complex and the IT department is looking

for simpler management processes so that they

are able to focus on innovation. At the same time,

as enterprises cope with business growth they

will be increasingly looking for simpler and easy

to roll out solutions, which is an advantage with

UTM solutions as they are easy to deploy. here

is increasing awareness and understanding in

the market about the beneits of UTM markets

in metros and smaller cities. here is likely to be

balanced growth from all these market segments

with the SMBs demonstrating the strongest appe-

tite for UTM products.

However, Asheesh Pandia, Sr. Brand Man-

agement, Communications & PR Professional,

maintains, “he evolution of original irewall is

what came up as UTM in early 2000s followed by

XTM (eXtensible hreat Management) - as the

threats kept on becoming more dynamic, stealthy

and pervasive. Today it is not just the threat part

that is being addressed by XTM but also greater

networking and management capabilities. he

market in India for UTM and XTM seems very

promising despite the issue of sustainable difer-

entiation amongst the various competitors. he list

of players has been ever expanding and of course

analysts have positioned the key vendors appropri-

ately including Fortinet, WatchGuard, SonicWall,

Cyberoam, Quick Heal and GajShield others.”

“TAKING AN END-TO-END

SECURITY APPROACH

HELPS INFORMATION

SECURITY MANAGERS

BUILD REASONABLE

CONFIDENCE ON THEIR

SECURITY STRATEGY AND

DEPLOYMENTS.”

BIPIN KUMAR AMIN, PRINCIPLE CONSUL-

TANT, BORDERLESS NETWORKS, SECRITY,

CISCO,

SME CHANNELS

NOVEMBER 201140

COVER STORY UTM MARKET

UC

If one goes by the dictionary meaning of

Uniied Communications (UC), it is the

integration of real-time communication

services such as instant messaging (chat),

presence information, telephony (includ-

ing IP telephony), video conferencing, call control

and speech recognition with non-real-time com-

munication services such as uniied messaging

(integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax). he

evolution of the UC has been gradually over a

period time. UC is not a single product, but a

set of products that provides a consistent uniied

user interface and user experience across multiple

devices and media types.

For the lay man, it is nothing but managing

communications and getting quick and timely

response. he business turnaround entirely

depends on the response of the communications.

A delayed communication or collaboration can

incur huge amount of revenue loss. herefore, UC

is as critical to SMEs as it is to the large enterprises.

As per Frost & Sullivan study, the total size of

the UC market in India will grow more than $1

billion by the end of 2010 and expected to grow

manifold in coming times also. Similarly, as per

Dell’Oro Group, despite pockets of weakness

reappearing, the uniied communications market

will expand signiicantly in 2010 as existing ven-

dors continue to invest and expand their sotware

oferings and Microsot begins to actively push

Lync.

When the overall UC market is growing at the

CAGR of 7.9 percent, the individual components

of uniied communications are already witnessing

healthy double digit growth number. For example

the audio video conferencing market is estimated

to grow at 60%, e-mailing and IP telephony is

growing at 20% and 30 percent CAGR.

In this scenario, globally SMEs play major

role in the growth of UC market. But in India

the market is yet to pick up because they face a

lot of challenges. he irst and foremost is they

have budget constraints and they think too much

about interoperability. Secondly, the UC vendors

have not been much focussed on the Indian SME

market.

Adil Doctor, Director SMB Sales (India), Avaya

India, says, “Since, SMEs have limited resources

they are gradually exploiting the beneits of Uni-

ied Communications to help increase eiciency,

productivity, and sales. However, SMEs or com-

panies with up to 999 employees in the Indian

subcontinent beneited the most from Uniied

communication.”

According to a survey by Access Markets

International (AMI) Partners, Inc. SME in India

market spent around US$48.8 million on uniied

communication (UC) in 2009.

Majority of this includes enterprise IP tele-

phony, applications like telepresence, mobility,

conferencing and collaboration are still used to

a limited extent by organizations and therefore

comprise only 10 per cent of the market.

Unified Communications (UC) has always been the tool of the large

enterprises but with the market slowdown and the growth of the SMEs,

it had also come to the space of the SMEs. But the fact is that the ven-

dors are not able to understand the market as yet and thus have not

been very aggressive also.

BY SANJAY MOHAPATRAsanjay@smechannels.com

ACT IN UNISON TO

TAP SME

OPPORTUNI

SME CHANNELSDECEMBER 2010

28

COVER STORY UC

AS PER FROST & SULLIVAN

STUDY, THE TOTAL SIZE OF

THE UC MARKET IN INDIA WILL

GROW MORE THAN $1 BILLION

BY THE END OF 2010.

NITY

COVER STORYUC

29SME CHANNELSDECEMBER 2010

Asheesh Pandia, Manager Communications,

Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEN

India), says, “UC is precisely as relevant as ‘cost-

containment’, ROI or productivity to SMEs, as it

is to the large enterprises. Speciically all those

verticals where the resource size is bigger, travel

OPEX is higher or communications is process

critical, they need UC more than others. Also,

categories with proven needs and interest with IT/

ITES, BPO, Petroleum, Manufacturing, Banking

& Finance, Healthcare and Professional Services

need UC.”

“UC clearly ofers proitability, savings,

improved decision making, better collaboration

and mobility to them. Although pure IP adapta-

tion is seen more in Greenield projects so far,

overall, we can see quantiiable growth. Adapta-

tion is rising with the awareness and develop-

ments in security. At this rate, the 100% growth

dreams over next three years sound real,” he

added.

In its February 2009 report, “Market Overview:

Sizing Uniied Communications”, Forrester also

predicts that “companies will deploy enhanced

UC capabilities to about 60 per cent of employees

in functions that will beneit most from embed-

ding communications features like wireless and

video directly into their business applications.

Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager, Uniied

Communications, Cisco India and SAARC,

says, “Indian SMBs are growing and adding more

business partners nationally and internationally.

With many of them also opening new branches,

networking will play an important role in keep-

ing employees connected. According to a Frost &

Sullivan study, currently, India leads the SAARC

region’s UC market in terms of total spending and

better overall awareness of UC. India has a good

potential for growth of UC applications as dem-

onstrated by the CAGR of 7.9 per cent during the

period from 2008 to 2015.”

He added, “he SMB-potential for UC is tre-

mendous as UC oferings span across budgets

and requirements. he bouquet of UC oferings,

currently available in the market, is so versatile

that any organization, large, medium or small, can

ind technology that best suits both, its needs and

budget. Interestingly, according to a NASSCOM

report, approximately 50-60 per cent of IT spends

in the country is expected to come from the lour-

ishing SMB segment.”

Clearly, there is a huge market waiting out

there to be tapped and companies are focused on

addressing it. However, in order to efectively tap

this segment, it is important that vendors develop

customized solutions, which ofer a cost-efective

and easy to deploy alternative. Indian SMBs are

looking at UC as a low-cost tool to communicate

efectively with customers and suppliers as well as

facilitate communication across multiple branch

locations. It’s important that SMBs are shown

how, by streamlining communication infrastruc-

ture, they will be able to ind smarter ways to

cut travel costs maximize operational eiciency

and improve business & customer strategies.

Conferencing and collaboration tools such as

video, audio, web conferencing and instant mes-

saging will account for a majority of the total UC

spending.

As per Minhaj with the expansion of Uniied

Communications from the enterprise space into

mid-level and smaller organizations, a growing

number of SMEs are gradually exploring how

Uniied Communications has the potential of

increasing eiciency, productivity, and sales. As

uniied communications applications become

more prevalent in the extended workspace, more

organizations are realizing the associated beneits.

Results documented by Sage Research dem-

onstrate a multitude of beneits - both in terms

of employee time savings and inancial savings.

Organizations using uniied communications

clients saved an average of 32 minutes daily per

employee because presence technology enabled

staf to reach one another on the irst try.

Use of sotphones resulted in an average sav-

ings of $1,727 per month in cell phone and long

distance charges. Mobile workers also saved 40

minutes each day, enjoyed greater business com-

munications convenience, and generated annual

productivity gains of 3.5 days per year through

business continuity impact.

Organizations using uniied messaging

reported that employees saved 43 minutes per day

from more eicient message management while

mobile workers saved 55 minutes per day.

Companies using integrated voice and Web

conferencing reported a 30 percent reduction

in conferencing expenses (by making integrated

conferencing capabilities available in-house and

on-network) and an average savings of approxi-

mately $1,700 per month in travel costs basis the

Sage report.

Uniied business communications applications

not only facilitate productivity improvements for

employees wherever their work takes them, they

can also enhance the way in which all employees

communicate.

More speciically for SMBs, the biggest USP of

opting for UC solutions is the cost savings that

they present in terms of travel, communications,

etc. Many SMBs also appreciate that enhanced

geographical collaboration that comes with the

adoption of UC.

For example, CoStar has made a signiicant

investment in a broadcast-quality video confer-

encing system from Polycom to connect 3,000

“AS SMES HAVE LIMITED

RESOURCES THEY ARE

GRADUALLY EXPLOITING

THE BENEFITS OF UNIFIED

COMMUNICATIONS TO HELP

INCREASE EFFICIENCY,

PRODUCTIVITY, AND

SALES.”

ADIL DOCTOR, DIRECTOR SMB SALES, AVAYA

INDIA

“UC IS PRECISELY AS

RELEVANT AS ‘COST-

CONTAINMENT’, ROI

OR PRODUCTIVITY TO

SMES, AS IT IS TO THE

LARGE ENTERPRISES.”

ASHEESH PANDIA, MANAGER COM-

MUNICATIONS, SIEMENS ENTERPRISE

COMMUNICATIONS (SEN INDIA)

SME CHANNELSDECEMBER 2010

30

COVER STORY UC

CoStar workers in the US and abroad. hey’ve

worked hard to build out their network -- dealing

with bandwidth allocation, traic shaping and

end-user training -- to keep users satisied with

and using the system.

According to CoStar’s Sergio Soto, “When we

irst started with video conferencing a few years

ago, we simply wanted a way to reduce travel costs

for our sales team. Now we have developers and

researchers on both coasts that use our video

conferencing rooms eight hours a day.” Video has

helped them cut $4-$5M in travel costs.

Neeraj Gill, Managing Director, India &

SAARC, Polycom, says, “SMEs have always faced

an uphill battle when competing with larger, more

established companies. he challenge is even

more daunting in the current economy of slower

business growth, reduced sales opportunities,

and sometimes lower revenues. SMEs are turn-

ing to these solutions because they can help them

Improve productivity, Higher return on invest-

ment (ROI), Enhance their corporate image,

Make better decisions faster, Reduce costs, etc.

Company-wide Communications,Vendor/Sup-

plier Relationships ,Employee Training/Distance

Learning etc are few more points for which SMEs

need the UC solutions.”

he other vendor of UC is NEC, which is

present in India since 2006 and among other

products, the company has a strong foothold on

UC space. Ravinder Raina, Country Head – Pri-

vate Network Solutions, NEC India, says, “In the

post recession scenario, Uniied Communications

is fast emerging as a business necessity. Large

organizations and SMBs have become optimistic

about uniied communications and use it for

integrating communication tools with real-time

business processes. Over the years, uniied com-

munications has helped in easing communication

hassles and now, even SMEs have started to realize

these advantages.”

He added, “Uniied Communications has come

a long way from a simple uniied messaging inbox

for email, voice and faxes, to enhanced mobility,

multi-modal mashups of various forms of com-

munications. hough, the market for UC tech-

nologies is still at its infancy. Currently, the UC

market in India stands at $549 mn, while $321mn

comes from enterprise telephony that includes

17% share of contact center applications, 11%

email and messaging, 10% tele-presence and con-

ferencing while 1% comes from mobility, which is

still a long way to go.”

Similarly, Business Octane is another player

who contributes large to UC space through its

large presence in the telepresence space.

Sanjay Bansal, Chairman of the Board & Man-

aging Director, Business Octane, says, “Immersive

Telepresence is gaining momentum and has a

huge potential in India. he SME market in India

is growing tremendously. he SME segment is

already a heavy user for virtual collaboration

technologies. he Immersive Telepresence Suites

available in the marketplace are majorly suitable

for large enterprises given the inancial band-

width and quantum of usage in such enterprises.

However, these factors difer for the SME seg-

ment where the demand will be driven by such

innovations that can replicate in the most efective

manner as possible the experience of immersive

telepresence at reduced costs to vindicate the

investments being made.”

He added, “Business Octane has gone ahead in

terms of innovation with its customized range of

Immersive Telepresence Suites & Solutions for the

SME segment that will help these enterprises ben-

eit from a faster ROI. We had recently introduced

CollaboratorPOWERMAXTM an afordable

immersive telepresence collaboration suite that

ofers media-rich, immersive dynamic telepres-

ence experience. he customized suite creates a

meeting experience over telepresence which is as

efective as meeting face-to-face with distant par-

ticipants with high deinition studio quality video

and high deinition stereo spatial audio, together

with near actual physical sizing and natural eye

contact.”

he company has advanced video collabora-

tion solution: AltraCOLLABORATOR that also

caters to the SME segment; it is a customizable

collaboration solution to be retroitted in existing

video meeting rooms.

Sanjay Manchanda, Director-Microsot Busi-

ness Division, Microsot India, says, “In today’s

fast evolving competitive global market, SMBs

need cost-efective technologies that allow lex-

ibility and adds value to their organization. As an

initial step towards adopting a UC solution, SMBs

are increasingly turning to Sotware + Services

solutions to meet the needs of their businesses.

Keeping these changing trends and requirements

in mind, Microsot announced the launch of

Microsot Online Services last year in India that

will help fulil the communication and collabora-

tion needs of these small businesses. his suite

combines services such as email, ability to chat,

work together simultaneously on documents,

have a meeting online and maintain a common

calendar at a cost-efective price with lexible pay-

ment options”

he online services of the company ensures reli-

able email communication, work and collaborate

“SMES ARE TURNING

TO THESE SOLUTIONS

BECAUSE THEY CAN HELP

THEM IMPROVE PRODUC-

TIVITY, HIGHER RETURN

ON INVESTMENT (ROI),

ENHANCE THEIR CORPO-

RATE IMAGE, MAKE BETTER

DECISIONS FASTER, REDUCE

COSTS, ETC”

NEERAJ GILL, MANAGING DIRECTOR, INDIA &

SAARC, POLYCOM

“INDIAN SMBS ARE

GROWING AND ADDING

MORE BUSINESS PART-

NERS NATIONALLY AND

INTERNATIONALLY.”

MINHAJ ZIA, NATIONAL SALES

MANAGER, UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS,

CISCO INDIA AND SAARC

SME CHANNELSDECEMBER 2010

32

COVER STORY UC

faster with a common library of all documents at

one location, engage and ask for opinions using

media-rich presentations and option to switch

video and audio with multiple parties and ind

the right colleague quickly and chat on messenger,

audio or video.

From the vendors perspective, Siemens is very

focused on the SME space. As Asheesh says, “We

highly focussed on it with a comprehensive port-

folio of exclusive UC oferings for this segment.

SEN has a track record of consistent product and

solution innovation for small and medium busi-

nesses. Moreover, our marketing and service/sup-

port are aligned rightly to get us an edge on SME

space.”

SEN provides platforms that best suit smaller

business - be it integrating uniied communi-

cations functionality into Microsot Outlook,

launching conferencing from desktop or using

existing infrastructure, such as analogue tele-

phones or entry phones. SEN communications

systems and platforms support small businesses

with up to 500 employees. SEN OpenScape Oice

is the industry’s irst UC application designed

speciically for small- and medium-sized busi-

nesses, HiPath 1100 is designed to give high-

performance telephony to small/medium sized

businesses with up to 140 users and HiPath 3000

is our lexible uniied communications plat-

form that scales from 20 to 500 users. he latest

OpenScape Oice MX is an all-in-one, uniied

communications appliance built upon reliable,

secure, serviceable, and manageable OpenSmart

architecture with network connectivity that sup-

ports upto 150 users. Among Siemens Enterprise

Communications other oferings are OpenScape

Oice Contact Center, Network Infrastructure

& Security portfolio and a whole range of voice/

data/video products and solutions.

Similarly, Cisco also takes SMBs very seriously.

Cisco’s SMB division customizes networking

solutions. hese products and solutions are under

the umbrella solution-packs of Cisco Small Busi-

ness Pro, Cisco Smart Business Communication

System, backed by a host of service & support, and

inancing ofers.

Channel presence and technical support. Cisco

qualiies businesses with less than 100 PCs as

Small businesses.

Adil says, “Looking at the current trends, IP

based systems like SIP; IP PBX and telephony sys-

tems are gaining ground. Avaya ofers a platform

speciically tailored for SME needs, such as Avaya

IP Oice.”

Avaya IP Oice is simple yet sophisticated

platform which can also scale to provide UC &

CC features. SMB customer can start small and

add application later as they grow. He adds, “Avaya

is the worldwide leader in the SME market, with

leadership in both revenue and line share. With

Avaya IP Oice 6.1, the company accelerates uni-

ied communications and contact center technol-

ogies in the SME market, helping SMEs compete

more efectively, but in a cost-conscious manner.”

As per Sanjay, Business Octane’s immersive

telepresence collaboration suites and customized

collaboration solution are equipped with a user

interface that allows for simple and elegant use of

all the functionalities. All the immersive telepres-

ence collaboration suites and speciic advanced

video collaboration solution incorporate a new

revolutionary user interface SimpliUSE+ that

incorporates TeleconnectWIZARD for connect-

ing multiple locations with extreme ease of usage

and without any external help. In addition, Busi-

ness Octane’s Immersive Telepresence empowers

users to collaborate seamlessly with other com-

munication applications. Meeting participants

whether on audio, desktops, and video confer-

encing sites can seamlessly collaborate with the

company’s immersive telepresence suites.

As per him, the return on investment with our

immersive telepresence suites is so compulsive

that companies can start reaping returns on their

investment within 3 to 6 months.

On the other hand, Polycom is farming up a

strategy speciically aimed at the SME segment.

As a part of this strategy Polycom has recently

appointed a global head for the SME segment. he

company provides a wide-range of desktop, wire-

less and multimedia communication solutions for

small and medium enterprises. For example, Poly-

com SoundPoint IP family of phones leverages the

capabilities of SIP-based VoIP networks to deliver

breakthrough voice quality and advanced features

that make calls more eicient and productive.

Polycom SoundStation Conference Phones are

the industry standard for clear productive confer-

ence calls.

Similarly, Polycom’s recently introduced QDX

6000 is the irst videoconferencing product of its

kind to address the cost-conscious SME segment

that at the same time seeks ease of use and high

quality.

However, the biggest challenge the SMEs

today face isn’t so much relevant to cost, but the

“BUSINESS OCTANE HAS

GONE AHEAD IN TERMS

OF INNOVATION WITH ITS

CUSTOMIZED RANGE OF

IMMERSIVE TELEPRESENCE

SUITES & SOLUTIONS FOR

THE SME SEGMENT THAT

WILL HELP THESE ENTER-

PRISES BENEFIT FROM A

FASTER ROI.

SANJAY BANSAL, CHAIRMAN OF THE

BOARD & MANAGING DIRECTOR, BUSINESS

OCTANE

“OVER THE YEARS,

UNIFIED COMMUNICA-

TIONS HAS HELPED IN

EASING COMMUNICA-

TION HASSLES AND

NOW, EVEN SMES HAVE

STARTED TO REALIZE

THESE ADVANTAGES.”

RAVINDER RAINA, COUNTRY HEAD

– PRIVATE NETWORK SOLUTIONS, NEC

INDIA

SME CHANNELSDECEMBER 2010

34

COVER STORY UC

complexity of IT. he interoperability is no more

relevant now as most the vendors have addressed

the issue with open standards based solutions.

he lack of awareness and value perception is

one of the key roadblocks to SME IT adoption.

And, these challenges can only be mitigated by

the aggressive engagement of partners to play a

consultative role to the customers. Some partners

have already understood the value proposition

some are not. For example GoIP Global Services

is one of the channel partners of multi brands

and understand the market very well. hey must

have gone through gruelling sessions and have

acquired the knowledge hard way.

Shiv Sharma, Director - Strategy & Alliance,

Go IP Global Services, says, “Uniied Com-

munications (UC) has emerged as an impor-

tant milestone in the evolution of enterprise

communications. UC seeks to break down the

communications silos in the enterprise and add

collaboration functions. Using a diferent tool

for each communications mode (phone, fax, and

email) hinders productivity, wastes time, and

causes frustration. Business users no longer want

to juggle multiple devices and phone numbers,

multiple message stores, and multiple directories

when instead they can access multimedia com-

munication and collaboration tools in a single

interface on the desktop. UC breaks down barri-

ers and integrates communication and collabora-

tion tools, making them more easily accessible

and saving signiicant time and resources.”

He adds, “UC solutions, such as Microsot Lync

Server 2010 typically combine several traditional

communications functions (including presence,

instant messaging, real-time voice and video

communications and uniied messaging) into

an integrated, uniied solution. UC can improve

productivity, accelerate information transfer, and

reduce costs. UC solutions, such as Lync Server

2010 and Microsot Exchange Uniied Messaging,

can also replace traditional PBX and messaging

systems in remote oice locations.”

Cisco’s SMB market strategy involves help-

ing customers create a sustainable competitive

advantage, improve their operational eiciencies,

increase their employees’ productivity, and ulti-

mately boost their returns and proitability. he

strategy includes focusing on new customised

SMB products/solutions and inancing schemes

like the Easy Lease program, and the 0% inance

ofering for SMBs. To increase awareness of its

products and programs among these businesses,

Cisco will continue to invest heavily in partner

enablement and innovative marketing initiatives

such as the Network on Wheels and the Sales and

Marketing Services Organisation.

Cisco is developing domain speciic solutions

to help SMB customers in each sub-vertical,

which will help them plan, design and operate

business critical networks more eiciently.

he Company has also launched a small busi-

ness partner proitability program. Cisco also

makes available a lot of product literature and

support material to partners to support their sales

eforts. In fact Cisco has a separate division called

the Sales and Marketing Support Organisation

(SMSO) that takes care of the marketing collateral

needs of the channel partners.

Similarly, Avaya in India has been moving

towards a High-Touch, channel centric (HTCC)

sales model. hey now have two national level dis-

tributors in Redington and Bharti Teletech help-

ing the company reach out to the SMEs across the

country. hese distributors further sell to a large

set of System Integration (SI) partners, across

geographies in India & SAARC.

he company has a fantastic Channel Partner

Program called “Avaya Connect”, which helps SI

partners take advantage of enhanced technical

and marketing beneits. his in turn helps them

build capability on Avaya Technologies and serve

customers better.

he company is gung ho about 2011 and has a

slew of marketing initiatives in the pipeline, one

of which is already rolled out. hat is the 6 city

Experience roadshows to showcase the integrated

product roadmap and Avaya technologies to the

customers and partner community.

he company is investing heavily in the chan-

nel partners, by way of partner enablement,

Demo Gear, Ex-Stock product availability, Solu-

tion bundles, Toll free Support line for Pre-sales

& Post-sales, Partners Rewards & Rebates. Avaya

has ambitious plans on marketing online, print,

road shows for SMB partners who are certiied

and invested in Avaya.

SEN’s indirect channel structure is extensive

and so is its reach. he company has over a hun-

dred partners with pan-India presence, including

tier II cities. he company has also an excellent

partner program that focus on their empower-

ment in terms of knowledge - trainings & certi-

ication, engagement - partner communication,

presence & messaging - marketing and branding

support, references and rewards & recognition.

On global level, the company has programs like

‘Go Forward’ that are meant for channel empow-

erment and recognition.

Polycom is also working on a strategy to reach

bigger number of SME throughout the country for

which they are appointing more channel partners.

hey have 3 distributors and more than 50 chan-

nel partners spread across India. he company

will soon appoint some more channel partners to

reach out the wide spread SMEs in India. By irst

quarter of 2011, Polycom will launch “Polycom

Choice Programme” for its channel partners,

which will encompass certiication, growth and

deining the channel partners.

NEC’s channel network for PNS (Private Net-

work Solutions) is pretty strong including the

names like Enkay Technologies, Syntel and Intel-

licon. Very recently they have tied-up with Avaya

Global Connect Networks as its national distribu-

tor for the PNS solutions.

Finally…he entire assortment of opinion says that most

of the vendors are ready with SME solutions and

they have addressed the pricing and interopera-

bility issues with due care. he only thing they are

struggling waiting is the educating the customers

about the utility and R0I of the UC solutions. his

is surely a challenge and the large vendors should

take the foot forward by engaging the customers

in various platforms explaining them about the

beneits, which will include aggressively engag-

ing with the partners. Another trend - hosted

communication services or cloud services - is

also picking up in the market which is very much

relevant to the SME market and it is waited to be

seen how the things are panning out. But the sen-

timent is UC is high with the SMEs.

“UC SEEKS TO BREAK

DOWN THE COMMUNI-

CATIONS SILOS IN THE

ENTERPRISE AND ADD COL-

LABORATION FUNCTIONS.

SHIV SHARMA, DIRECTOR - STRATEGY &

ALLIANCE, GO IP GLOBAL SERVICES

SME CHANNELSDECEMBER 2010

36

COVER STORY UC