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SECURITY: Anti-virus Firms on a Roll

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DQI Bureau
New Update

When the likes of nakedwife and Anna Kournikova hit you out of the blue, you

need not wait for upgraded solutions to reach you from the industry bigwigs

overseas any longer. You can get hold of a local anti-virus provider to clean

the systems and get back to work without delay.

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Get hold of Chennai-based K7 Computing, which has been in the business of

providing indigenous anti-viruses for DOS, Windows 2000, Windows NT server and

Novell NetWare for the last ten years, with its latest anti-virus Vx 2000, or

perhaps Prognet Technologies, with Fire anti-virus. Both companies have made a

dent in the marketshare of international anti-virus providers such as McAfee or

Symantec.

"Since an anti-virus should be capable of supporting a wide range of

operating systems and file servers, the solution provider should have a good

understanding of the technologies, its applications and should keep abreast of

changing trends. If a local provider has the technological expertise and the

experience, it can take on international viruses and provide solutions like

McAfee or Symantec," says J Kesavardhanan, CEO, K7 Computing.

"Moreover, proximity with the solution provider has become a deciding

factor for computer users now. People go in for indigenous anti-virus solutions

because of the quick service support they get from indigenous solution

providers. The fact that we have survived for ten years in the market as an

anti-virus provider supports our thinking that people are switching over to

indigenous solutions," Kesavardhanan adds. K7 Computing’s anti-virus Vx

2000 has a user base of 4,000, including banks, corporates and individual users.

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Backing K7’s claims is Stanley Rakesh, CEO, Prognet Technologies. "It

is a tedious process to buy a product from the international market and then

update it periodically. Whenever a critical situation arises, people are not

satisfied with online support. Large corporates are going in for both local and

global solutions," he says.

"There is a huge potential in Chennai itself, with investments of nearly

Rs 40 lakh per month being made every month on anti-virus products. And we want

a major chunk of that share," says Kesavardhanan.

So what stops these companies from leveraging on their advantages and

increasing revenues? K7 Computing has registered a slow but steady growth chart

and recorded a turnover close to Rs 1 crore in the last fiscal, while Prognet

showed revenues of Rs 1.2 crore. "We goofed up on our marketing strategy

and did not focus on promotional activities.

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We resorted to direct marketing, which did not pay high dividends. We are now

thinking of switching over to dealers and distributors That should take us

around to the figure of about Rs 8 crore in the next fiscal year,"

Kesavardhanan says. Presently, K7 has marketing offices in Bangalore, Delhi and

Coimbatore, which account for about 10% of its revenue.

In a bid to expand its business, Prognet Technologies had tied up with Satyam

Infoway, wherein a Sify Internet connection anywhere in India is being bundled

with Fire anti-virus.

About 140,000 connections with Fire anti-virus have been installed till date.

"We are planning to tie up with VSNL also in a similar vein. Hopefully, the

deal will go through in April or May. We have also tied up with hardware vendors

Delta Computers and Accel to bundle our anti-virus with their products. We will

push products through distributors and are also on the lookout for dealers in

the US and other countries to market our products overseas," Rakesh added.

Priya K Mathew



Cyber News Service, Chennai

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