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The unified communications (UC) market in India is growing significantly and is expected to surpass $1 billion by the end of 2010. While UC has traditionally been used by large enterprises, the market slowdown and growth of SMEs in India has brought UC into the SME space as well. However, SMEs in India have been slow to adopt UC due to budget constraints and concerns about interoperability. Additionally, UC vendors have not focused their efforts on the Indian SME market. As SMEs exploit the benefits of UC to increase efficiency and productivity, analysts believe spending on UC by Indian SMEs will continue to grow substantially in the coming years.
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- 1. PLUS Bharat Goenka Conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award /08 india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 02 | ISSUE 09 | NOVEMBER 2011 | RS. 20/- SME BIZ /45 TREND SETTER /54 SME BIZ /52 D-Link: Owners pride and TCS: TCS Ahead of the NEC: NEC India to Neighbors Envy Curve intensify business in SME Segment UTM EMBARKED ON A STEADY GROWTH The UTM market is making steady progress in the Indian market as its appeal increases among enterprises of all sizes and across verticals. /30 01
- 2. COVER STORY UTM MARKET UTM EMBARKED ON A STEADY GROWTH 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 MOHAPATRA sanjay@smechannels.com S ecuring enterprise systems is a top for deployment and maintenance. Gradually such for customers, which combined with new features, priority, especially in a connected deployments became more common, and the have spurred market growth. here is also a trend world. A fundamental truth for term Uniied hreat Management (UTM) became for service providers to ofer UTM-as-a-service organizations worldwide is that mainstream when analyst irm IDC used it in a from their datacenters, but it is still early. protecting their mission-critical 2005 publication on threat management. “Security consolidation via UTMs represents applications, sensitive electronic data, and under- he term has since been used to refer to uniied, not just a better security and convenience but lying computing infrastructure is a challenging multi-use security threat management devices. It also opportunities—an opportunity to reduce and never-ending task—a grim scenario wherein helps enterprises reduce the number of vendors, network traic, an opportunity to ease integration IT and security personnel will always have their manage the ugrade cycle of diferent products and of VoIP and Web 2.0 applications, and an oppor- hands full. simpliies trouble shooting. According to IDC, a tunity to boost IT productivity,” says Shubhomoy With increasing connectivity, a company’s UTM typically comprises a irewall, antivirus and Biswas, Country Director – India & SAARC, vulnerability and risk of security compromises intrusion prevention and detection. SonicWALL. increase manifold. More signiicantly, a shit in With increasing proliferation of connectivity, the hackers’ motivation and the growth in corporate threats and complexities in security management The Market in India espionage have increased the security threat to have grown tremendously. he scope and expanse he UTM market for appliances in 2009 stood at enterprises. herefore, it is not only large enter- of UTM oferings have also kept pace by providing $42.25 million and is poised to keep growing at a prises but even the SMBs that is scurrying for very high-end and sophisticated capabilities. his steady CAGR of 35-40% over the next 3-4 years. cover with robust security products. eliminates the need for systems administrators to he market is slated to cross $100 million by 2012. Earlier security deployments meant point maintain multiple security programs over time. According to a report by research irm IDC in solutions for a variety of requirements such as herefore sophisticated versions of UTMs can October 2008, UTM products, which passed the irewalls, intrusion detection systems, VPNs, ofer much more with capabilities that can manage $1 billion mark in market size in 2007, will make anti-spam gateways, etc. However monitoring, URL iltering, spam blocking, spyware protection, up 33.6 percent of the total network security managing and scaling them as the enterprise content management, data leakage protection. market by 2012. grows becomes a huge challenge for the technol- Oten these devices ofer centralized monitoring IDC has identiied the UTM market segment ogy department. Over the years, vendors have and management of security deployments across as the fastest growing segment of the broader started clubbing their oferings in order to dif- locations and incident logging. hese multi- network security market globally, and expects ferentiate their products and also to make it easy function security products provide many beneits UTM to represent approximately 30 percent of 30 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2011
- 3. UTM MARKET COVER STORY THE UTM MARKET IS SLATED TO CROSS $100 MILLION BY 2012 AND IS EXPECTED TO GROW 35% OVER NEXT TWO YEARS. SME CHANNELS 31 NOVEMBER 2011
- 4. COVER STORY UTM MARKET ment. It further expanded its capabilities for the SRX series with the new AppTrack sotware. “TAKING AN END-TO-END Building on Juniper’s recently announced AppSe- SECURITY APPROACH cure suite of applications, AppTrack sotware HELPS INFORMATION provides tight services integration that enables application-level visibility and improved data SECURITY MANAGERS lows and adds application identiication infor- BUILD REASONABLE mation to the IPS session log. Juniper AppTrack is CONFIDENCE ON THEIR part of the AppSecure suite of applications, which provides business logic denial-of-services preven- SECURITY STRATEGY AND tion for the the SRX series. DEPLOYMENTS.” Astaro is a relatively new entrant in the Indian BIPIN KUMAR AMIN, PRINCIPLE CONSUL- network security market. he company is still TANT, BORDERLESS NETWORKS, SECRITY, relatively small and is poised for much higher CISCO, growth than other vendors. In the last two years, the company has already built a foundation for explosive growth in its UTM business. However, automatic updates, patches, and 24x7 technical customers to have higher return on investment India revenue still represents a small percentage support, thus enabling organizations to elimi- and lower total cost of ownership. of its worldwide business, but it is now growing nate upfront costs, providing a predictable cost Integrated security appliances are witnessing rapidly. structure, ensuring quality of service, and the high penetration in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Future “Most of our partners have chosen our prod- freedom to re-evaluate the solution decision at demand from these markets will be strong and uct line for its capabilities and ease-of-use. Since any time. these markets will lead market growth. he lack we are relatively a late entrant in India market, Nevales Networks closely works with its part- of skilled manpower in these cities makes deploy- our partners typically used some other network ners through regular distribution meets and ment of UTMs a simpler choice due to the inte- security product before, and now use Astaro to promotions in key channel media. “We support grated nature of these devices. realize a broad variety of networking and security our partners with regular training and product In conclusion, the UTM market is on the projects. he margins our partners make, posi- updates to help them reach out to their customers growth track and the demand for UTM products tions our products as second to none,” says Sunil better,” says Ravishankar. will increase from all sizes of enterprises. his is Sapra of Astaro. Astaro solutions are sold more Dominique MEURISSE - Executive Vice Pres- because the security threats are increasingly get- on the basis of value than price, enabling partners iden, NETASQ, says, “Everyone is looking for ting complex and the IT department is looking to package their services well with the solutions. an integrated security solution to reduce main- for simpler management processes so that they A service-led approach builds customer relation- tenance costs and have a more comprehensive are able to focus on innovation. At the same time, ship and improves the margins. Aastaro has a control over their network security. We foresee a as enterprises cope with business growth they solid line up of products with Sophos next gen phenomenal growth in this sector. We at NetASQ will be increasingly looking for simpler and easy UTMs. Cisco looks at the market and customer have UTM products from SOHO to enterprise to roll out solutions, which is an advantage with requirements from a holistic perspective and class networks¡” UTM solutions as they are easy to deploy. here ofers an End-to-End Self Defending Approach is increasing awareness and understanding in and Integrated Security. As per Bipin Phase I The Future Landscape the market about the beneits of UTM markets UTM is deined by consolidation: he initial he future UTM solutions are likely to include in metros and smaller cities. here is likely to be intent of UTM is the consolidation of multiple one-stop solutions with features such as irewall, balanced growth from all these market segments security-related technologies into one system. VPN, anti-virus, anti-spam, IDS and IPS, content with the SMBs demonstrating the strongest appe- Initially, UTM solutions were integrated Firewalls iltering, bandwidth management, multiple load tite for UTM products. with Intrusion Detection/Intrusion Prevention balancing and gateway failover. However, Asheesh Pandia, Sr. Brand Man- Systems (IDS/IPS). Now, most UTM solutions More and more enterprises will look for agement, Communications & PR Professional, also include Anti-X (SPAM and malware) and easier management with plug and play kind of maintains, “he evolution of original irewall is VPN functionality. UTM continues to evolve with capabilities. As more enterprises look to simplify what came up as UTM in early 2000s followed by expanding functionality. infrastructure management, they will look for all- XTM (eXtensible hreat Management) - as the Nevales Networks ofers small and medium in-one security appliances to ease their manage- threats kept on becoming more dynamic, stealthy a secure environment to conduct their business ment burden. and pervasive. Today it is not just the threat part on a ‘pay-as-you-use’ model. Nevales’ platform is UTM solutions will be an integrated ofering that is being addressed by XTM but also greater delivered over the Internet with free 24x7 support and will be able to handle blended threats. UTM networking and management capabilities. he and is free from licensing, scalability and mainte- solutions has emerged out of the need to stem the market in India for UTM and XTM seems very nance hassles, thereby providing the best value for increasing number of attacks on corporate infor- promising despite the issue of sustainable difer- money and allowing SMBs to focus on their core mation systems via hacking/cracking, viruses, entiation amongst the various competitors. he list businesses. worms—mostly an outcome of blended threats of players has been ever expanding and of course Nevales’s security-as-a-service’ ofering and insider threats. herefore future demand for analysts have positioned the key vendors appropri- bundles everything into a single subscription UTM solutions will be for blended capabilities ately including Fortinet, WatchGuard, SonicWall, fee, including comprehensive security features, to thwart such threats. Such oferings will enable Cyberoam, Quick Heal and GajShield others.” 40 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2011
- 18. COVER STORY UC UCACT IN UNISON TO TAP SME OPPORTUNI 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 MOHAPATRA sanjay@smechannels.com I f one goes by the dictionary meaning of As per Frost & Sullivan study, the total size of have budget constraints and they think too much Uniied Communications (UC), it is the the UC market in India will grow more than $1 about interoperability. Secondly, the UC vendors integration of real-time communication billion by the end of 2010 and expected to grow have not been much focussed on the Indian SME services such as instant messaging (chat), manifold in coming times also. Similarly, as per market. presence information, telephony (includ- Dell’Oro Group, despite pockets of weakness Adil Doctor, Director SMB Sales (India), Avaya ing IP telephony), video conferencing, call control reappearing, the uniied communications market India, says, “Since, SMEs have limited resources and speech recognition with non-real-time com- will expand signiicantly in 2010 as existing ven- they are gradually exploiting the beneits of Uni- munication services such as uniied messaging dors continue to invest and expand their sotware ied Communications to help increase eiciency, (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax). he oferings and Microsot begins to actively push productivity, and sales. However, SMEs or com- evolution of the UC has been gradually over a Lync. panies with up to 999 employees in the Indian period time. UC is not a single product, but a When the overall UC market is growing at the subcontinent beneited the most from Uniied set of products that provides a consistent uniied CAGR of 7.9 percent, the individual components communication.” user interface and user experience across multiple of uniied communications are already witnessing According to a survey by Access Markets devices and media types. healthy double digit growth number. For example International (AMI) Partners, Inc. SME in India For the lay man, it is nothing but managing the audio video conferencing market is estimated market spent around US$48.8 million on uniied communications and getting quick and timely to grow at 60%, e-mailing and IP telephony is communication (UC) in 2009. response. he business turnaround entirely growing at 20% and 30 percent CAGR. Majority of this includes enterprise IP tele- depends on the response of the communications. In this scenario, globally SMEs play major phony, applications like telepresence, mobility, A delayed communication or collaboration can role in the growth of UC market. But in India conferencing and collaboration are still used to incur huge amount of revenue loss. herefore, UC the market is yet to pick up because they face a a limited extent by organizations and therefore is as critical to SMEs as it is to the large enterprises. lot of challenges. he irst and foremost is they comprise only 10 per cent of the market. 28 SME CHANNELS DECEMBER 2010
- 19. UC COVER STORY NITY 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. SME CHANNELS 29 DECEMBER 2010
- 20. COVER STORY UC facilitate communication across multiple branch “AS SMES HAVE LIMITED locations. It’s important that SMBs are shown RESOURCES THEY ARE how, by streamlining communication infrastruc- ture, they will be able to ind smarter ways to GRADUALL EXPLOITING Y cut travel costs maximize operational eiciency THE BENEFITS OF UNIFIED and improve business & customer strategies. COMMUNICATIONS TO HELP Conferencing and collaboration tools such as video, audio, web conferencing and instant mes- INCREASE EFFICIENCY, saging will account for a majority of the total UC PRODUCTIVITY AND , spending. SALES.” As per Minhaj with the expansion of Uniied Communications from the enterprise space into ADIL DOCTOR, DIRECTOR SMB SALES, AVAYA mid-level and smaller organizations, a growing INDIA number of SMEs are gradually exploring how Uniied Communications has the potential of Asheesh Pandia, Manager Communications, and requirements. he bouquet of UC oferings, increasing eiciency, productivity, and sales. As Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEN currently available in the market, is so versatile uniied communications applications become India), says, “UC is precisely as relevant as ‘cost- that any organization, large, medium or small, can more prevalent in the extended workspace, more containment’, ROI or productivity to SMEs, as it ind technology that best suits both, its needs and organizations are realizing the associated beneits. is to the large enterprises. Speciically all those budget. Interestingly, according to a NASSCOM Results documented by Sage Research dem- verticals where the resource size is bigger, travel report, approximately 50-60 per cent of IT spends onstrate a multitude of beneits - both in terms OPEX is higher or communications is process in the country is expected to come from the lour- of employee time savings and inancial savings. critical, they need UC more than others. Also, ishing SMB segment.” Organizations using uniied communications categories with proven needs and interest with IT/ Clearly, there is a huge market waiting out clients saved an average of 32 minutes daily per ITES, BPO, Petroleum, Manufacturing, Banking there to be tapped and companies are focused on employee because presence technology enabled & Finance, Healthcare and Professional Services addressing it. However, in order to efectively tap staf to reach one another on the irst try. need UC.” this segment, it is important that vendors develop Use of sotphones resulted in an average sav- “UC clearly ofers proitability, savings, customized solutions, which ofer a cost-efective ings of $1,727 per month in cell phone and long improved decision making, better collaboration and easy to deploy alternative. Indian SMBs are distance charges. Mobile workers also saved 40 and mobility to them. Although pure IP adapta- looking at UC as a low-cost tool to communicate minutes each day, enjoyed greater business com- tion is seen more in Greenield projects so far, efectively with customers and suppliers as well as munications convenience, and generated annual overall, we can see quantiiable growth. Adapta- productivity gains of 3.5 days per year through tion is rising with the awareness and develop- business continuity impact. ments in security. At this rate, the 100% growth Organizations using uniied messaging dreams over next three years sound real,” he reported that employees saved 43 minutes per day added. from more eicient message management while In its February 2009 report, “Market Overview: mobile workers saved 55 minutes per day. Sizing Uniied Communications”, Forrester also Companies using integrated voice and Web predicts that “companies will deploy enhanced conferencing reported a 30 percent reduction UC capabilities to about 60 per cent of employees in conferencing expenses (by making integrated in functions that will beneit most from embed- conferencing capabilities available in-house and ding communications features like wireless and on-network) and an average savings of approxi- video directly into their business applications. mately $1,700 per month in travel costs basis the Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager, Uniied Sage report. Communications, Cisco India and SAARC, Uniied business communications applications says, “Indian SMBs are growing and adding more not only facilitate productivity improvements for business partners nationally and internationally. “UC IS PRECISEL AS Y employees wherever their work takes them, they With many of them also opening new branches, RELEVANT AS ‘COST- can also enhance the way in which all employees networking will play an important role in keep- communicate. ing employees connected. According to a Frost & CONTAINMENT’, ROI More speciically for SMBs, the biggest USP of Sullivan study, currently, India leads the SAARC OR PRODUCTIVITY TO opting for UC solutions is the cost savings that region’s UC market in terms of total spending and SMES, AS IT IS TO THE they present in terms of travel, communications, better overall awareness of UC. India has a good etc. Many SMBs also appreciate that enhanced potential for growth of UC applications as dem- LARGE ENTERPRISES.” geographical collaboration that comes with the onstrated by the CAGR of 7.9 per cent during the ASHEESH PANDIA, MANAGER COM- adoption of UC. period from 2008 to 2015.” MUNICATIONS, SIEMENS ENTERPRISE For example, CoStar has made a signiicant He added, “he SMB-potential for UC is tre- COMMUNICATIONS (SEN INDIA) investment in a broadcast-quality video confer- mendous as UC oferings span across budgets encing system from Polycom to connect 3,000 30 SME CHANNELS DECEMBER 2010
- 21. COVER STORY UC CoStar workers in the US and abroad. hey’ve worked hard to build out their network -- dealing “SMES ARE TURNING with bandwidth allocation, traic shaping and TO THESE SOLUTIONS end-user training -- to keep users satisied with and using the system. BECAUSE THEY CAN HELP According to CoStar’s Sergio Soto, “When we THEM IMPROVE PRODUC- irst started with video conferencing a few years TIVITY HIGHER RETURN , ago, we simply wanted a way to reduce travel costs for our sales team. Now we have developers and ON INVESTMENT (ROI), researchers on both coasts that use our video ENHANCE THEIR CORPO- conferencing rooms eight hours a day.” Video has RATE IMAGE, MAKE BETTER helped them cut $4-$5M in travel costs. Neeraj Gill, Managing Director, India & DECISIONS FASTER, REDUCE SAARC, Polycom, says, “SMEs have always faced COSTS, ETC” an uphill battle when competing with larger, more NEERAJ GILL, MANAGING DIRECTOR, INDIA & established companies. he challenge is even SAARC, POLYCOM more daunting in the current economy of slower business growth, reduced sales opportunities, and sometimes lower revenues. SMEs are turn- Telepresence is gaining momentum and has a He added, “Business Octane has gone ahead in ing to these solutions because they can help them huge potential in India. he SME market in India terms of innovation with its customized range of Improve productivity, Higher return on invest- is growing tremendously. he SME segment is Immersive Telepresence Suites & Solutions for the ment (ROI), Enhance their corporate image, already a heavy user for virtual collaboration SME segment that will help these enterprises ben- Make better decisions faster, Reduce costs, etc. technologies. he Immersive Telepresence Suites eit from a faster ROI. We had recently introduced Company-wide Communications,Vendor/Sup- available in the marketplace are majorly suitable CollaboratorPOWERMAXTM an afordable plier Relationships ,Employee Training/Distance for large enterprises given the inancial band- immersive telepresence collaboration suite that Learning etc are few more points for which SMEs width and quantum of usage in such enterprises. ofers media-rich, immersive dynamic telepres- need the UC solutions.” However, these factors difer for the SME seg- ence experience. he customized suite creates a he other vendor of UC is NEC, which is ment where the demand will be driven by such meeting experience over telepresence which is as present in India since 2006 and among other innovations that can replicate in the most efective efective as meeting face-to-face with distant par- products, the company has a strong foothold on manner as possible the experience of immersive ticipants with high deinition studio quality video UC space. Ravinder Raina, Country Head – Pri- telepresence at reduced costs to vindicate the and high deinition stereo spatial audio, together vate Network Solutions, NEC India, says, “In the investments being made.” with near actual physical sizing and natural eye post recession scenario, Uniied Communications contact.” is fast emerging as a business necessity. Large he company has advanced video collabora- organizations and SMBs have become optimistic tion solution: AltraCOLLABORATOR that also about uniied communications and use it for caters to the SME segment; it is a customizable integrating communication tools with real-time collaboration solution to be retroitted in existing business processes. Over the years, uniied com- video meeting rooms. munications has helped in easing communication Sanjay Manchanda, Director-Microsot Busi- hassles and now, even SMEs have started to realize ness Division, Microsot India, says, “In today’s these advantages.” fast evolving competitive global market, SMBs He added, “Uniied Communications has come need cost-efective technologies that allow lex- a long way from a simple uniied messaging inbox ibility and adds value to their organization. As an for email, voice and faxes, to enhanced mobility, initial step towards adopting a UC solution, SMBs multi-modal mashups of various forms of com- are increasingly turning to Sotware + Services munications. hough, the market for UC tech- solutions to meet the needs of their businesses. nologies is still at its infancy. Currently, the UC Keeping these changing trends and requirements market in India stands at $549 mn, while $321mn “INDIAN SMBS ARE in mind, Microsot announced the launch of comes from enterprise telephony that includes GROWING AND ADDING Microsot Online Services last year in India that 17% share of contact center applications, 11% will help fulil the communication and collabora- email and messaging, 10% tele-presence and con- MORE BUSINESS PART- tion needs of these small businesses. his suite ferencing while 1% comes from mobility, which is NERS NATIONALL AND Y combines services such as email, ability to chat, still a long way to go.” INTERNATIONALL .” Y work together simultaneously on documents, Similarly, Business Octane is another player have a meeting online and maintain a common who contributes large to UC space through its MINHAJ ZIA, NATIONAL SALES calendar at a cost-efective price with lexible pay- large presence in the telepresence space. MANAGER, UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS, ment options” Sanjay Bansal, Chairman of the Board & Man- CISCO INDIA AND SAARC he online services of the company ensures reli- aging Director, Business Octane, says, “Immersive able email communication, work and collaborate 32 SME CHANNELS DECEMBER 2010
- 22. COVER STORY UC Small businesses. “BUSINESS OCTANE HAS Adil says, “Looking at the current trends, IP GONE AHEAD IN TERMS based systems like SIP; IP PBX and telephony sys- tems are gaining ground. Avaya ofers a platform OF INNOVATION WITH ITS speciically tailored for SME needs, such as Avaya CUSTOMIZED RANGE OF IP Oice.” IMMERSIVE TELEPRESENCE Avaya IP Oice is simple yet sophisticated platform which can also scale to provide UC & SUITES & SOLUTIONS FOR CC features. SMB customer can start small and THE SME SEGMENT THAT add application later as they grow. He adds, “Avaya WILL HELP THESE ENTER- is the worldwide leader in the SME market, with leadership in both revenue and line share. With PRISES BENEFIT FROM A Avaya IP Oice 6.1, the company accelerates uni- FASTER ROI. ied communications and contact center technol- SANJAY BANSAL, CHAIRMAN OF THE ogies in the SME market, helping SMEs compete BOARD & MANAGING DIRECTOR, BUSINESS more efectively, but in a cost-conscious manner.” OCTANE As per Sanjay, Business Octane’s immersive telepresence collaboration suites and customized collaboration solution are equipped with a user faster with a common library of all documents at Similarly, Cisco also takes SMBs very seriously. interface that allows for simple and elegant use of one location, engage and ask for opinions using Cisco’s SMB division customizes networking all the functionalities. All the immersive telepres- media-rich presentations and option to switch solutions. hese products and solutions are under ence collaboration suites and speciic advanced video and audio with multiple parties and ind the umbrella solution-packs of Cisco Small Busi- video collaboration solution incorporate a new the right colleague quickly and chat on messenger, ness Pro, Cisco Smart Business Communication revolutionary user interface SimpliUSE+ that audio or video. System, backed by a host of service & support, and incorporates TeleconnectWIZARD for connect- From the vendors perspective, Siemens is very inancing ofers. ing multiple locations with extreme ease of usage focused on the SME space. As Asheesh says, “We Channel presence and technical support. Cisco and without any external help. In addition, Busi- highly focussed on it with a comprehensive port- qualiies businesses with less than 100 PCs as ness Octane’s Immersive Telepresence empowers folio of exclusive UC oferings for this segment. users to collaborate seamlessly with other com- SEN has a track record of consistent product and munication applications. Meeting participants solution innovation for small and medium busi- whether on audio, desktops, and video confer- nesses. Moreover, our marketing and service/sup- encing sites can seamlessly collaborate with the port are aligned rightly to get us an edge on SME company’s immersive telepresence suites. space.” As per him, the return on investment with our SEN provides platforms that best suit smaller immersive telepresence suites is so compulsive business - be it integrating uniied communi- that companies can start reaping returns on their cations functionality into Microsot Outlook, investment within 3 to 6 months. launching conferencing from desktop or using On the other hand, Polycom is farming up a existing infrastructure, such as analogue tele- strategy speciically aimed at the SME segment. phones or entry phones. SEN communications As a part of this strategy Polycom has recently systems and platforms support small businesses appointed a global head for the SME segment. he with up to 500 employees. SEN OpenScape Oice company provides a wide-range of desktop, wire- is the industry’s irst UC application designed less and multimedia communication solutions for speciically for small- and medium-sized busi- “OVER THE YEARS, small and medium enterprises. For example, Poly- nesses, HiPath 1100 is designed to give high- com SoundPoint IP family of phones leverages the performance telephony to small/medium sized UNIFIED COMMUNICA- capabilities of SIP-based VoIP networks to deliver businesses with up to 140 users and HiPath 3000 TIONS HAS HELPED IN breakthrough voice quality and advanced features is our lexible uniied communications plat- EASING COMMUNICA- that make calls more eicient and productive. form that scales from 20 to 500 users. he latest Polycom SoundStation Conference Phones are OpenScape Oice MX is an all-in-one, uniied TION HASSLES AND the industry standard for clear productive confer- communications appliance built upon reliable, NOW, EVEN SMES HAVE ence calls. secure, serviceable, and manageable OpenSmart STARTED TO REALIZE Similarly, Polycom’s recently introduced QDX architecture with network connectivity that sup- 6000 is the irst videoconferencing product of its ports upto 150 users. Among Siemens Enterprise THESE ADVANTAGES.” kind to address the cost-conscious SME segment Communications other oferings are OpenScape RAVINDER RAINA, COUNTRY HEAD that at the same time seeks ease of use and high Oice Contact Center, Network Infrastructure – PRIVATE NETWORK SOLUTIONS, NEC quality. & Security portfolio and a whole range of voice/ INDIA However, the biggest challenge the SMEs data/video products and solutions. today face isn’t so much relevant to cost, but the 34 SME CHANNELS DECEMBER 2010
- 23. 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 “UC SEEKS TO BREAK one of the key roadblocks to SME IT adoption. DOWN THE COMMUNI- And, these challenges can only be mitigated by the aggressive engagement of partners to play a CATIONS SILOS IN THE consultative role to the customers. Some partners ENTERPRISE AND ADD COL- have already understood the value proposition LABORATION FUNCTIONS. some are not. For example GoIP Global Services is one of the channel partners of multi brands SHIV SHARMA, DIRECTOR - STRATEGY & and understand the market very well. hey must ALLIANCE, GO IP GLOBAL SERVICES have gone through gruelling sessions and have acquired the knowledge hard way. Shiv Sharma, Director - Strategy & Alliance, Go IP Global Services, says, “Uniied Com- to help SMB customers in each sub-vertical, partner program that focus on their empower- munications (UC) has emerged as an impor- which will help them plan, design and operate ment in terms of knowledge - trainings & certi- tant milestone in the evolution of enterprise business critical networks more eiciently. ication, engagement - partner communication, communications. UC seeks to break down the he Company has also launched a small busi- presence & messaging - marketing and branding communications silos in the enterprise and add ness partner proitability program. Cisco also support, references and rewards & recognition. collaboration functions. Using a diferent tool makes available a lot of product literature and On global level, the company has programs like for each communications mode (phone, fax, and support material to partners to support their sales ‘Go Forward’ that are meant for channel empow- email) hinders productivity, wastes time, and eforts. In fact Cisco has a separate division called erment and recognition. causes frustration. Business users no longer want the Sales and Marketing Support Organisation Polycom is also working on a strategy to reach to juggle multiple devices and phone numbers, (SMSO) that takes care of the marketing collateral bigger number of SME throughout the country for multiple message stores, and multiple directories needs of the channel partners. which they are appointing more channel partners. when instead they can access multimedia com- Similarly, Avaya in India has been moving hey have 3 distributors and more than 50 chan- munication and collaboration tools in a single towards a High-Touch, channel centric (HTCC) nel partners spread across India. he company interface on the desktop. UC breaks down barri- sales model. hey now have two national level dis- will soon appoint some more channel partners to ers and integrates communication and collabora- tributors in Redington and Bharti Teletech help- reach out the wide spread SMEs in India. By irst tion tools, making them more easily accessible ing the company reach out to the SMEs across the quarter of 2011, Polycom will launch “Polycom and saving signiicant time and resources.” country. hese distributors further sell to a large Choice Programme” for its channel partners, He adds, “UC solutions, such as Microsot Lync set of System Integration (SI) partners, across which will encompass certiication, growth and Server 2010 typically combine several traditional geographies in India & SAARC. deining the channel partners. communications functions (including presence, he company has a fantastic Channel Partner NEC’s channel network for PNS (Private Net- instant messaging, real-time voice and video Program called “Avaya Connect”, which helps SI work Solutions) is pretty strong including the communications and uniied messaging) into partners take advantage of enhanced technical names like Enkay Technologies, Syntel and Intel- an integrated, uniied solution. UC can improve and marketing beneits. his in turn helps them licon. Very recently they have tied-up with Avaya productivity, accelerate information transfer, and build capability on Avaya Technologies and serve Global Connect Networks as its national distribu- reduce costs. UC solutions, such as Lync Server customers better. tor for the PNS solutions. 2010 and Microsot Exchange Uniied Messaging, he company is gung ho about 2011 and has a can also replace traditional PBX and messaging slew of marketing initiatives in the pipeline, one Finally… systems in remote oice locations.” of which is already rolled out. hat is the 6 city he entire assortment of opinion says that most Cisco’s SMB market strategy involves help- Experience roadshows to showcase the integrated of the vendors are ready with SME solutions and ing customers create a sustainable competitive product roadmap and Avaya technologies to the they have addressed the pricing and interopera- advantage, improve their operational eiciencies, customers and partner community. bility issues with due care. he only thing they are increase their employees’ productivity, and ulti- he company is investing heavily in the chan- struggling waiting is the educating the customers mately boost their returns and proitability. he nel partners, by way of partner enablement, about the utility and R0I of the UC solutions. his strategy includes focusing on new customised Demo Gear, Ex-Stock product availability, Solu- is surely a challenge and the large vendors should SMB products/solutions and inancing schemes tion bundles, Toll free Support line for Pre-sales take the foot forward by engaging the customers like the Easy Lease program, and the 0% inance & Post-sales, Partners Rewards & Rebates. Avaya in various platforms explaining them about the ofering for SMBs. To increase awareness of its has ambitious plans on marketing online, print, beneits, which will include aggressively engag- products and programs among these businesses, road shows for SMB partners who are certiied ing with the partners. Another trend - hosted Cisco will continue to invest heavily in partner and invested in Avaya. communication services or cloud services - is enablement and innovative marketing initiatives SEN’s indirect channel structure is extensive also picking up in the market which is very much such as the Network on Wheels and the Sales and and so is its reach. he company has over a hun- relevant to the SME market and it is waited to be Marketing Services Organisation. dred partners with pan-India presence, including seen how the things are panning out. But the sen- Cisco is developing domain speciic solutions tier II cities. he company has also an excellent timent is UC is high with the SMEs. 36 SME CHANNELS DECEMBER 2010