What are your target customer verticals currently?
We are targeting education, retail, government, and corporate sectors
mainly. We are also developing a client base in the data center sector. This
aside, we have OEM tie-ups where we reach out to a wider client vertical
indirectly. As we speak, some IBM personnel are getting training on Aruba, and
we have similar alliances with Dell and Datacraft too.
How will you position your brand strongly amidst stiff
competition?
We have shot down the prices of our products and made it more user-friendly,
but this does not mean we have compromised on our quality. Even though we are
cost-effective, we still have our profit margins. We are optimistic that this
year the growth will be much higher. As for competition, we believe in doing
what we do the best, and letting the customers decide for themselves about their
preferences.
How will Aruba select the right set of channel
partners?
Since Arubas go-to-market model in India is primarily through the channel,
we will select partners who have strong domain knowledge in our focus vertical
like education, retail, healthcare, government, financial services, and
manufacturing.
Our partner selection criteria will be based on the
partners geographic presence and competency in networking/infrastructure
segment. We believe that partners who have an established networking, storage,
or security practice will find it easier to position Arubas WLAN and remote
branch networking solution in their installed base.
We recently launched a channel program where a reseller
can go and register at our website. We will recruit both global system
integrators with pan-India presence, and regional system integrators who may
only have regional presence across metro and non-metro locations.
What support will you extend to these partners?
We have a comprehensive channel partner program in India. Aruba invests in
training partners sales/pre-sales team on positioning our products, and give
technical hands-on training. We also provide our channel partner a dedicated
access to Arubas partner portal for downloading product collateral and other
product related information.
We assign dedicated channel partners for our premium
partners who help develop a joint go-to-market strategy. Periodically, we hold
joint marketing events with our partners to discuss Aruba product launches and
positioning in the market.
Revathi Raman/DQ Channels
revathir@cybermedia.co.in