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Follow UsUnited Networks
(erstwhile Bay Networks)
Derrick Kon, Marketing Manager, South Asia
Importance Of Indian Market: India
is an important market for Bay. It is the third largest revenue contributor in the region.
We have an office in New Delhi with a complete team in place.
China v/s India v/s other Asian countries: China is one of our top revenue
contributing regions. Singapore and Malaysia are the other big markets currently.
Strategies For India
PRICING: India is a very competitive market. We are not the lowest priced product/service
provider but our prices are based on market dynamics and we are competitive.
DISTRIBUTION: Here, we have two key partners, Ramco Systems and Microland.
TRAINING/SUPPORT/SERVICE: We offer two types of training-re-training to our partners and a
quarterly authorized certification course. We also have a support team and will continue
to invest further to strengthen it.
COMPETITION: With the merger of Bay Networks with Nortel, we now have complete end-to-end
IP optimized products and solutions.
color="006699">Cisco Systems (USA) Pte Ltd
Joseph Puthussery, Director, Marketing, South Asia.
Importance Of Indian Market: We made a modest beginning in the Indian market, which
was later expanded through local channel partners. There has been a dramatic increase in
market potential in India in the last couple of years and we have been growing at over
40%. India is the second largest in the region. Deregulation of telecom sector is the key
to the country's growth, as this will help in the strengthening of the infrastructure for
the internet services.
China v/s India v/s other Asian countries: Both India and China are large and complex
markets. However, China has been more aggressive than India in building its
infrastructure, including airports and harbors. We look forward to a similar environment
in the new era of internet economy in India. And we foresee a rapid increase in
infrastructure spending. Geographically, India needs a higher market presence in various
cities when compared to Singapore. In Singapore, we have just one office, whereas in India
you need offices in New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and so on. The high availability of IT
savvy software developers in India has enabled us to make significant investments in
developing value-added software development from India.
Strategies For India
DISTRIBUTION: It is through local channel partners. By the end of 1998, Cisco is planning
to launch a program called 'the new world of telecom.' Few product launches are also
expected between Q4'98 and Q1'99 in the areas of voice over IP, virtual private networks,
IP and network integration etc.
COMPETITION: We have had a tremendous growth and are #1 in switches and ports in almost
all categories.
INVESTMENT: The investments we are making is much high when compared to the revenues we
are getting from the Indian market. We have taken a long-term view to become a leading
service provider. Worldwide, we expect the acquisitions to continue. In fact, you may see
anywhere between 8-12 acquisitions in the next one year.
Seagate
Technology International
BS Teh, Country Manager, Asean/South Asia
Importance Of Indian Market: India is an important market for us, given the huge
potential in the domestic market. The PC penetration is low and the potential for growth
is big for many years to come. The Indian IT industry is fully developed and there is a
lot of local talent available. India is a large market even from a global perspective.
China v/s India v/s other Asian countries: Both India and China are huge markets
where volumes are concerned. And the potential is pretty much the same.
Strategies For
India
DISTRIBUTION: Availability and distribution has been one of Seagate's key strengths. We
have our distribution network in place throughout India. Our distributors have been with
us for the last 10 years. Commitment is one of the prime reasons for end-users to go for
Seagate disk drives. Karma is the most recently appointed distributor. The company has
support centers in most of the major cities in India.
TRAINING/SUPPORT/SERVICE: At the first level, support comes from channels and thereafter
at the distributor level. We regularly organize training programs in every quarter.
Engineers who work with our channels/distributors are aware about handling and servicing
disk drives.
COMPETITION: In the high-end SCSI, we have no competition. In the desktop segment, we are
currently the #1. The second place has not been quite as steady. Last year, it was
Quantum, six months back it was Samsung and only three months back it was Fujitsu. We have
not been as fast as we should have been in bringing new technology to market. India, we
expect, will adopt 4GB as the entry level early next year as the price differential will
be minimal. The migration in India has been slower.
INVESTMENT: The investment will not be in the form of a manufacturing facility but in
terms of expansion in marketing and sales and support. We plan to continue our brand
building exercise in the country.
color="006699">Best Power Technology Pte Ltd
Michael Chng, Regional Sales Manager
Importance Of Indian Market: India is a very large and potential market which still
remains to be tapped.
China v/s India v/s other Asian countries: Asia itself is a potential market
worldwide and the two countries that are growing ahead of the rest of the markets in the
region are China and India. We have found it easier to do business in China. We also find
the market there much bigger than in India.
Strategies For India
DISTRIBUTION: We have distributors in Chennai and Bangalore. We also have presence in most
of the major cities including Delhi and Mumbai. We are planning to increase our reach
through channels and expand both our product range and brand awareness in the Indian
market. We recently announced four models of NEW Fortess, a rackmount UPS with a range
starting 750 VA available right upto 2250 VA.
COMPETITION: Many MNC UPS manufacturers as well as the local manufacturers have a
headstart over us. We are currently in the process of developing our channel. And we are
also targeting the mid and large capacity segment, both of which show potential. We are
aiming for a 20% marketshare in India in the next two years.
Philip Phay, Country Manager
Importance Of Indian Market: For us, India is one of the countries in the region
where the IT sales growth and potential is about 40%. Many state governments are inviting
IT investment, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and latest being the Government of
Kerala. It is also one of the few countries not to be affected by the economic crisis of
the region. We plan to have a fully-owned subsidiary in India. However, given the current
economic situation we are doing a feasibility study on ROI and considering investing close
to $2 million in a manufacturing facility in the country.
China v/s India v/s other Asian countries: The IT adoption is higher in most
segments, particularly in government departments. For an MNC to set up a trading
subsidiary is far more easier in China than in India. Low duty structures being the
primary reason. China is, probably, few years ahead of India in terms of IT adoption.
However, where sales growth is concerned we expect a growth figure of 40%. In countries
like Thailand and Indonesia, we are seeing a negative growth.
Strategies For India
PRICING: Our prices are affected by the high duty rates. However, we have also worked out
a special pricing for the Indian market and ensure that these products go only to India.
Data storage products continue to be strong.
DISTRIBUTION: Our products are distributed through our partner distributors. We also have
160 authorized dealers in small cities across India.
TRAINING/SUPPORT/SERVICE: Our authorized dealers are trained by us and are given out
dealer binders. These binders will have product details, competition cross reference,
brochures, tech bulletins, product compatibility guides etc.
COMPETITION: In terms of marketshare, it is Sony. However, we feel we have grown
significantly over the last 18 months and have made dent into the marketshares of Sony and
Maxell. We are certainly growing faster than our competitors.
OUTLOOK: If the duties for computer consumables are brought down to the levels existing in
the region (it varies between 10% to 15% in China and Thailand), the grey market will
disappear-like it did in Thailand. Everybody stands to gain by this, be it the consumer or
the government. Today, consumables are also adding to the cost of ownership of a PC. If
duties could be brought down, this surely will give boost to PC penetration in homes and
small and medium establishments.
Quantum
Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd
David J Rawcliffe, Marketing Director
Importance Of Indian Market: It is a very large market with relatively low
penetration. Because of its strong corporate and middle-class segment, we expect IT
product buying growth to be quite good. In the last couple of years, India has seen a
change in the importation duties and tariffs.
China v/s India v/s other Asian countries: China is quicker to react and therefore
IT adoption is much quicker. Though India has a large pool of talent in software and
hardware design, Indian firms are generally slower to take advantage of the latest
technology. I do not know whether this is the culture here, but there is definitely a gap
when it comes to adoption of newer technologies when compared to China.
Strategies For
India
BUSINESS: Instead of having a direct presence in India our strategy is to work with a
single distributor. We feel it prevents internal price wars and results in better service
to the end customer. Also, it will be difficult for us to justify setting up offices all
over India, as under current ROI it is not a viable proposition. Quantum will bring out
newer technology products every six months.
DISTRIBUTION: Spectra is our distributor in India. From our presence in four major cities
last year, we are now targeting 10 cities. Our growth in these cities is part of our own
expansion plans. We have set up a network of about 30 resellers and conducted a seminar on
Quantum products. We have now made a shift from addressing only large OEMs.
TRAINING/SUPPORT/SERVICE: Educating resellers about the benefits and advantages of the
drives really helped and we will continue with this activity every six months and will
also expand it in other cities. We are aiming to get a 30% marketshare in the coming year.
After our recent reseller program, we have sold more disk drives in 10 days than we did in
last six months.
COMPETITION: Our main competitor is Seagate. Whenever Quantum launches a new product that
has higher capacity or a faster drive, there is a marketshare advantage to Seagate, as it
is able to retain its products for an additional three-to-four months. And since Indians
are quite price conscious, they prefer the low-priced hard disks as opposed to the higher
capacity disk drives even though they are only slightly more expensive. For Quantum,
time-to-market 30K drives is a matter of three to four weeks while competition may take
much longer.
Compex Systems
Pte Ltd
Katherine Ang
Importance Of Indian Market: While the whole region is undergoing an economic
crisis, India seems to be the least affected country. The country's market contributes
significantly to Compex's worldwide revenues.
China v/s India v/s other Asian countries: We are not very strong in China. We are
concentrating on India and other countries like Russia. In China, the market is dominated
by vendors from Taiwan.
Strategies For India
DISTRIBUTION: We are happy with the numbers we are selling. We are also helping our
distributors to penetrate deeper into the local markets. We are addressing systems and
solutions companies and OEMs like HCL, Wipro, Zenith etc.
TRAINING/SUPPORT/SERVICE: One-to-one repair is possible as we have stocked spares and
trained engineers who work with our distributors to ensure local support.
COMPETITION: In the low-end segment, competition is from D-Link, LanBit and Acton and in
the high-end, competition comes from 3Com and Intel. Value wise our marketshare is around
40%. But we are #1 in NIC and #2 in hubs. We are planning to maintain the #1 in the low
end and gain market share in the high-end hubs segment.
Low Chee Seng, VP/GM, Asia-Pacific Group
Importance Of Indian Market: Indian growth rate is very high-PCs are growing at
nearly 30%. The focus on educating the young is very high.
China V/s India v/s other Asian countries: The PC market is growing fast. Even
though India has a higher English speaking population, China has more awareness.
Strategies For India
DISTRIBUTION/INVESTMENT: We have a strong distributor network and so are in no hurry to
set up an office in India. We have no major investments for India at the moment.
COMPETITION: In India, we are the #1 in audio, with no close second. However, in graphics
we are competing worldwide with Diamond.