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Oracle unveils Its Next-Generation Cloud Strategy

Polycom completes acquisition of Siris Capital

6
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October 2016

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October 2016

October 2016

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Fujitsu redefines its storage portfolio

Lenovo launches its latest range of Consumer Laptops

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October 2016

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44pg

Qualcomm files patent


infringement complaint
against Meizu

ualcomm has filed a patent


infringement complaint against
Meizu in the United States, Germany
and France. These actions include filing
a complaint with the United States
International Trade Commission (ITC),
filing a patent infringement action in

Germany with the Mannheim Regional


Court and initiating an infringementseizure action in France to obtain evidence
for a possible future infringement action
there.
Previously, in June 2016, it filed
multiple actions against Meizu in China
related to licensing terms and patent
infringement.

Indian govt. IT spending


to reach $7.2 bn

he government in India is on
pace to spend $7.2 billion on IT
products and services in 2016, an increase
of 2.4 percent over 2015, according to
Gartner.
This forecast includes spending on
internal services, software, IT services,
data center, devices and telecom services.
Government
comprises state and
local governments
and
national
government.
IT
services
(which
includes
consulting, software
support, business process outsourcing,
IT outsourcing, implementation, and
hardware support) is expected to grow
9.3 percent in 2016 to reach $1.8 billion
with the business process outsourcing
sub-segment growing 21 percent.

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October 2016

October 2016

www.varindia.com

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October 2016

HELLO INDIA

Internet of Things (IoT) devices


...Giving attackers a large number of entry points
India is the most attractive market for all technology companies in the world. Companies like Facebook,
Google, Uber and Amazon are vying with each other to double their footprint in India. The biggest
attraction is the 1.4 billion population of India. Localization is said to be easier and cheaper in India and,
secondly, corporate money can buy more market share.
There is no doubt that technology plays a pivotal role in the present-day business. The enterprise
market is moving towards cloud computing, increasingly enabling users to access software and store files
on the web. The enterprise market is the biggest space where every corporate wants to have its footprint,
with a simple target as to how their applications could be used by businesses to automate the workflow.
Going forward, executives with their strong business and logical acumen have a bigger role to play in the
coming days and for that purpose many corporates resort to headhunting for acquiring the best talent and
market share.
However, the darker side of technology is its design vulnerabilities from the security perspective in all
the IoT-enabled devices that invade the market from time to time. Just think if you hand over control of
the connected devices in your home to someone you dont trust and then imagine the worst they could do
with that and consider whether you are okay with someone having that level of control. Regardless of how
safe individual devices are or claim to be, new vulnerabilities emerge when hardware like electronic locks,
thermostats, ovens, sprinklers, lights and motion sensors are networked and set up to be controlled remotely. These are the conveniences these
systems offer and consumers are just interested in them. Botnet (also known as a zombie army) is an interconnected network of computers
infected with malware without the users knowledge and controlled by cybercriminals. They are typically used to
send spam emails, transmit viruses and engage in other acts of cybercrime and are the biggest online threats today.
The Government of India and the regulators have been very supportive of Digital India, Start-up India and
Paperless Technology. With these, various government processes will be streamlined and integrated with data
repositories. The governments recent announcement to spend $7.2 billion on IT products and services in 2016, an
increase of 2.4 per cent over 2015, includes spending on internal services, software, IT services, data centers, devices
and telecom services. The good news is that spending on software will total $885 million in 2016, a 4.5-per cent
increase compared to 2015.
India the worlds fastest-growing start-up ecosystem has really taken off and come on its own driven by
factors such as massive funding, consolidation activities, evolving technology and a burgeoning domestic market.
Finally, India has created a global brand to attract investments in every format that is Make in India.

October 2016

www.varindia.com

THE FUTURE YOU


PLANNED FOR
JUST BECAME
THE PAST.

)'(-J8GJ<fiXeJ8GX]c`Xk\ZfdgXep%8cci`^_kji\j\im\[%

GROWTH IS LIVE.
Work, grow, and evolve
as one. SAP S/4HANA
helps midsize companies
automate and integrate
business processes live
and in the moment. So
all your functions and
departments can grow
together. Without
falling behind.
sap.com/India/live

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October 2016

CONTENTS
Website: www.varindia.com

Publisher: Deepak Kumar Sahu


Editor: S Mohini Ratna
Executive Editor: Dr. Vijay Anand
Consulting Editor: Pravin Prashant
Assistant Editor: Samrita Baruah
Copy Editor: C. M. Dutta
Sr. Correspondent: Aparna Mullick
Art Director: Rakesh Kumar
Network Administrator: Ashok Kumar Singh
Manager-IT: Subhash Mohanta
Manager-SEO: Bidyadhar Behera
BUSINESS:
Commercial Manager: Amit Kumar Jha
Sr. Marketing Manager: Ashok Ranjan Dash
Circulation Executive: Manish Kumar
Marketing Manager: Dipendra Kumar
CORPORATE OFFICE:
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Marketing Manager: S. Kamala kar
Correspondent: L. G. Swami
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Tel: 080-49530399 | Mobile:09886280836
E-mail: kamlakar@varindia.com
Mumbai: Bureau office
Regional Manager (West): Anil Kumar
Sr. Correspondent: Mamta S.
Anurag Residency, 203 - B Wing, Plot No-5,
Sector-9, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai-410 209
Tel: 022-65561292, Mobile: 08108017479
E-mail: anil@varindia.com, mamta@varindia.com
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October 2016

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44pg
FACE TO FACE
28|

29|
32|
40|
41|
42|

STMicroelectronics Driving the


MEMS industry to Growth IoT to
become a Reality in India very
soon
A combination of Channel &
Direct Sales works for Seclore
GST is a Technology led Law with
software as its interface
Red Hat - The name to Reckon
with in Open Source
Personalized Printing will drive
the Digital Printing market
Compuage aims to achieve Rs.7,
000- Crore revenue and expand
reach

EVENTS
34|
50|

GST, IOT was the Key discussion


point at the 7th SIITF
Taiwan Govt. invites potential
Indian companies to participate
at COMPUTEX 2017

VAR SECURITY
52|

Vivotek intends to transform


Indian security ecosystem

VAR ANALYSIS
53|

Why spectrum auction was a


failure?

VAR MOBILITY
54|

How Reliance Jio achieved 16 mn


4G subscribers in 26 days?

INDUSTRY EVENT
38|

COM-IT Expo 2016 takes


Technology showcasing to new
Heights

OPEN YOUR EYES


39|

Cisco looks up to India with


renewed Business interests

COVER STORY
44|

Get Lucky this Festive Season!

REGULARS
Round About

14

Hot Bytes

16, 18

On the Ramp

20, 22

Voice N Data

24

Channel Buzz

26

Movers & Shakers

49

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UIFJSDIBOHJOHXPSLMPBETXIJMFBDDFMFSBUJOHUIFJSCVTJOFTTGVSUIFS GBTUFS

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October 2016

The Transformation story


starts to unfold for IBM
Mukul Mathur, Vice-President, Global Business Partners and CSI - IBM India/South Asia
discusses how embarking into cognitive computing has proved fruitful for IBM and the
transformation phase it is going through with its partners is going to leapfrog it to new highs Cognitive computing is the ability to unlock the potential in all
data - internal, external, structured, unstructured, voice, and visual
- and make it work together. Fundamentally IBM embarked into
cognitive computing and analytics as a new business area and it
continues to make good progress both in terms of its offerings and
partner engagement. These solutions are delivered on cloud, which is
directed at building more capabilities and solutions across its business
partner portfolio.
Today everything that IBM does is related to cognitive, and
everything that it delivers is through the cloud based delivery model.
We have the cognitive solutions extending all the way into Watson
and it talks about how businesses can use cognitive capabilities to take
smarter decisions. We also have analytics platform which is all about
doing complete data management by looking at your structured
and unstructured data and driving sense out of it even before going
cognitive. We have an entire set of solution which is around building
cloud capability or services, using cloud in an enterprise which
focuses on transforming current app to a cloud based delivery model,
managing cloud based infrastructure system and so on, explains
Mukul Mathur, Vice-President, Global Business Partners and CSI IBM India/South Asia.
Surrounding all these solutions, IBM also have a strong portfolio
of security. Cyber security is one big area for IBM and it has built
several assets or applications in it. It is working with a lot of partners
and companies and is helping its clients move to the cloud with
confidence. Solutions from IBM Security helps to manage and protect
against risks associated with all models of cloud computing.

A Channel-led Transformation

There has been a significant change in the channel landscape of


IBM from being pure resellers of products to business partners and
are now taking different solution components and combining them
together with services and expertise to provide end-to-end solution.
The fact that they are now looking at delivering outcome based
solutions rather than just technology is the second dimension to it.
The whole element is to bring in industry expertise and knowledge
because clients are trying to understand of how these disruptive
technologies work and leverage the knowledge that our business
partners impart to them to get ahead of their competition. And this
becomes bigger and faster as we go forward. We have been doing a lot
of things and expect to do lot more. This is indeed an exciting place
to be, says Mukul.
IBMs core set of partners who have been working for IBM have
joined in the transformation journey that it has embarked upon. Over
the past 2 years, IBM has gone through the discussion practically across
its eco-system. Good partnership is not about partnering in yesterdays
business; many of our partners have understood that the market keeps
on changing and that we are trying to make a transformation. They
have agreed to be a part of this transformation and accordingly move
their clients along with them. Some of them have however opted out
of the transformation because they did not feel they have the capability

10

October 2016

www.varindia.com

Mukul Mathur
Vice-President, Global Business Partners and CSI
IBM India/South Asia
and the focus to join in it, explains Mukul.
Since these are areas that require lot of domain knowledge and
solution expertise, there have also been new players who have joined
in with those expertise and which in most cases complement the
existing partner base of IBM by working together. In a world of
infrastructure environment, there can be thousands of players who
can come and work with you online. With the cloud evolving and
with the ease of partnering in different areas, the number of partners
we are working with today would go into thousands, states Mukul.
Talking about Smart city, Mukul clarifies that IBM has been one
of the many companies to have looked into the smarter planet as an
area and it has built lot of assets and applications using structured and
unstructured data along with our partners across the world. I believe
there is a huge opportunity and we are ready to work with partners
in areas that they have worked in and make a difference in building
a smarter city. We already have several engagements going on with
many state governments. India has the advantage that it can leapfrog
in the technology wave and bring more transparency, stability and
predictability to the process. And plus we have a very good youth
force too, sums up Mukul. n
Samrita Baruah
samrita@varindia.com

www.varindia.com

October 2016

11

CHANNEL CHIEF

Enterprise Distribution garners highest


growth revenue for HCL Infosystems
H

CL has positioned itself as the largest technology distribution


company in the market with an effective pan-India presence
and a wide array of multi-brand IT products. It also has a huge aftersales support network which enables its client organizations attain
and sustain a competitive edge. All these factors have earned the
company a revenue growth of 72 per cent year-on-year.
HCL Infosystems has the largest Technology Distribution and
Post-Sales Support Network in India. We provide our clients and
channel partners with a unique combination of Choice of multibrand IT Products and Capability of world-class IT services. In terms
of distribution strength, HCL Infosystems has an unparalleled reach
with a network of almost 3,500 channel partners, including more
than 800 deeply specialized enterprise distribution partners. Our panIndia network presence covers 15,000 cities and over 600 districts. In
the last financial year, the Enterprise Distribution business recorded
its highest-ever revenue growth of 72 per cent y-o-y. We are further
expanding the enterprise product portfolio with the addition of leading
international technology brands, says Bimal Das, Joint President
Enterprise Products Distribution Business, HCL Infosystems Ltd.
Partnerships
HCL Infosystems has partnered with many leading brands
in the IT industry and by strengthening the principal companys
enterprise presence it aspires to become their most trusted choice.
HCL Enterprise Distribution has partnerships with the leading
global brands across the Enterprise IT space. We aim to be recognized
as the first and most trusted choice for Principals, by strengthening
their enterprise presence through our extensive pan-India network of
deeply specialized enterprise distribution," says Bimal.
Strengthening Partners
With a pan-India partner network of 3,500, HCL has a strong
partner base which enabled the company to provide better services
to its clients. While helping its partners grow, it also assists them in
pre-sales, sales process and post-sales stage.
HCL Infosystems has a large network of 3,500 channel partners,
which enhances the service experience of its consumers by
providing a vast array of services available across the
country. We have a dedicated and skilled team of business
development managers to support our channel
partners. In terms of pre-sales practice, we provide
Mobility, Security and Device management. Our
solution-based VAD structure extends support
in all the stages of sales process. In the pre-sales
stage, we offer Consultancy Services, end-to-end
technical support for quotations, Presales &
Sales Trainings and Joint Customer Meetings. In
the Sales Process Sales & physical deployment
of IT technologies: Installation, Configuration,
Optimization & Logistics. In the post-sales stage,
we support our clients with Maintenance, Training,
Technical seminars and after-sales support services, explains
Bimal.
Moreover, he also mentioned that customizable enterprise
solutions give the company a competitive edge in the market.
The development of customizable enterprise solutions make us a
competent player in providing a vast range of services to the leading
OEMs in the technology space, adds Bimal.
Disruptive Technologies
With the evolving technology landscape, the demands of the
customers are also changing. To align itself with technology and
customer demands, the company is investing in the emerging and
disruptive technologies.

12

October 2016

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Bimal Das
Joint President Enterprise Products Distribution Business
HCL Infosystems
The increasing impact of technology enablement is resulting in
rapid evolvement of client needs and expectations. HCL Infosystems
is focussing and investing in emerging technologies such as Cloud,
Mobility and IoT to serve as the technology Lifecycle Partner for
Enterprises in todays disruptive business scenario.
HCL Infosystems has made significant investments over the past
few years into the cutting-edge offerings and capabilities around the
emerging technologies services such as IoT capabilities, Security
capabilities, mobility capabilities, Cloud capabilities, Mobility &
Analytics space to stay ahead in the disruptive market scenario. Our
global services business has started to generate significant high-margin
sales pipeline in the emerging services space of infra-application
integration, Cloud and IoT, explains Bimal.
Growth Engines
Enterprise business is among the growth
drivers of HCL Infosystems and the investments
made in this segment are reaping dividends for
the company.
HCL Infosystems has identified its Enterprise
Business, comprising Enterprise Product
Distribution, Domestic Enterprise Services,
Global Enterprise Services and Care Services as
the engine for its next level of growth.
The conscious focus and investments in the
Enterprise Business are already yielding results; and
the overall value proposition around Technology Lifecycle
Partnership is seeing positive traction, asserts Bimal.
To achieve the aim of being the preferred technology partner, HCL
has framed a unique marketing strategy that utilizes the capabilities
and assets of the company.
HCL Infosystems has designed a new Go-to-Market called
Enterprise 360 that effectively leverages our diverse capabilities
and assets. Enterprise 360 synergizes our strengths across Services,
Products and Solutions and is designed to fulfil our mission to be the
preferred Technology Lifecycle Partner for our clients, concludes
Bimal. n
Aparna Mullick
aparna@varindia.com

www.varindia.com

October 2016

13

ROUND ABOUT

Attitude of Gratitude
A lurking doubt may haunt my
esteemed readers as to what is the relevance
of this subject in a column that is, more
or less, dedicated to the information
technology. A few may debate that the
forthcoming Thanksgiving might have
triggered my thought process. But being
an India-born US citizen, I know how
important a celebration is Thanksgiving
to an ordinary US citizen. I like the
pageantry and sentimental values
attached to this great celebration. If
there can be an alternative narration for
Thanksgiving, I would venture to suggest
that it should be renamed as a festival to
celebrate Attitude of Gratitude.
Let me first try to align Thanksgiving
with Attitude of Gratitude. I believe
the emotional chord underlying both
conundrums Thanksgiving and Attitude
of Gratitude is the same. One can
add spiritual dimension to the situation
on the presumption that one who is
endowed with divine disposition can
only be thankful to the benefactors. I
believe that presumption is erroneous.
Even an atheist or an agonist can be
grateful to the benefactors. It is etched
on their emotional faculties and not
necessarily influenced by divinity.
Who have to be thanked for the great
digital and other revolutions that we
have achieved over millennia? My take
is all our ancestors! That includes the
primitive man who taught us to hunt
with stones, how to make fire from two
hard objects, how to clothe ourselves
first from the bark of the trees and later
using textiles. At every stage, there have
been incremental innovations and the
urge to accumulate pool of knowledge
to be shared among the people and pass
on to the progeny. The baton handing
of knowledge and technologies from
one generation to the other may seem
to be a natural and seamless process
happened through millennia. Yet, there
is a design in that process of evolution.
The Darwinian process of evolution is
not a cock-and- bull story but followed
a predictable rhythm all through the
human history. Every generation tried
to pass on something new to the next
and that process has continued since the
birth of mankind and that will continue
till the existence of the mankind.
To zero in on a single individual or
a group of persons to be thanked would
be a nave approach since most of the
technologies have been evolved and
incrementally innovated to the present

14

October 2016

www.varindia.com

form. Even to believe that disruptive


technologies have erupted from the blue
is a misconception. Such disruptions to
happen, there should be a critical mass
of knowledge and possible array of
applications. At best, such technologies
can be short cut driven by the need and
that way are not products of fundamental
research but byproducts in some sense.
Every successive generation may
find the contributions of the previous
generation basic and even primitive.
What do we think about transistor
radio or gramophone now? Many may
view them as primitive, going by the
configurations of modern gadgets. But
they were breakthroughs in technological
revolution that time.
Humanity might have progressed
exponentially since then. The equations
must have changed. The host might have
turned into a predator. But the spirit of
the celebrations is still there. Does it
mean that the attitude of gratitude is a
quintessential human virtue manifested
and celebrated in different ways?
Every festival, across the world has
a, more or less, similar story. Bihu
celebrated in the eastern regions of the
country, Baisakhi in the Northern India,
Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Onam in Kerala
or Durga Pooja in Bengal are believed to
have common undercurrents obeisance
to the supreme, respect to the elders,
worship of the mighty powers, who have
bestowed blessings and the list goes on.
It may have religious undertones to make
them contextual and understandable to
the ordinary folks. The fact that most
of the festivals come after the harvest

season gives credence to the belief that


they resonate attitude of gratitude.
That seems to be the basic instincts
of human being, cutting across faiths,
religions, cultures and races. The beauty
is that they follow rhythmically and in a
seamless manner.
Millennial history of civilizations is
abound with contributions of unknown
persons to add value to the knowledge.
History lists only such breakthrough
innovations and discoveries and not
people who had invented them. By and
large, it is the contributions and not the
people behind contributions who are
being recognized and celebrated.
Only the profound names may be
etched on to the history and the rest get
buried into the vastness and depth of
the knowledge that have accumulated.
Hundreds years from now, people may
talk about the digital revolution of the
20th and 21st centuries that made the
difference at that point of time. To
expect people to talk about the people
behind such breakthroughs is pinning
too much hope on the progeny. The
only recognizable thing at every point of
history will be change and the dynamics
surrounding it and not the change agents,
who will become oblivious in the womb
of history.
Then, to whom we should express our
gratitude. To every human being who
lived before us and to those who will
live after us. For those who lived before
us for creating a pool of knowledge for
us to inherit and improve upon. For
those who come after us for preserving
the knowledge, making use of it and
improving upon it.
Why Gandhi and Einstein are
living through centuries? It could be
on account of their right approach and
righteous temperament to give back
immensely not only to the society they
lived but also to generations to come.
President Obama, in his autobiography,
has explained how he got charged by the
Gandhian philosophy. The philanthropic
efforts of Bill Gates are borne out of
the trusteeship concept propounded by
Gandhi. Why to go so far, the new buzz
word, corporate social responsibility
(CSR), has its origin from the attitude
of gratitude. It is an organized effort to
give back to the society its due, which
has helped them to grow and flourish.
That way, the Attitude of Gratitude has
lived through millennia and will live
through as long as the humanity exists.

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www.varindia.com
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October 2016

15

HOT BYTES

Facebook and Google to cobuild PLCN submarine cable

E SubCom, a
TE Connectivity
company, along with
Facebook, Google and
PLDC (Pacific Light Data
Communication),
has
announced that they will
co-build the Pacific Light
Cable Network (PLCN).
PLCN is a 12,800 km
transpacific
submarine
cable system that will
provide the first direct
undersea route between
Hong Kong and Los
Angeles,
California
(USA) with ultra-high
capacity
transmission
Scheduled for commercial
launch in the summer of
2018, PLCN will include

TE SubCom's C+L
technology, a major step
forward in available cable
transmission capacity that
effectively doubles the
available bandwidth and
capacity per fiber pair over
a traditional C-band-only
designed system. Once
completed, PLCN will
be the highest-capacity
transpacific route.
"PLCN will be among
the lowest-latency fiberoptic routes between
Hong Kong and the US
and the first to connect
directly using ultra-highcapacity transmission,"
said
Wei
Junkang,
Chairman, PLDC.

HDS accelerates digital


transformation

itachi
Data
S y s t e m s
has announced three
new ways to improve
and accelerate digital
transformation initiatives.
Current market offerings
lack flexibility and choice
for customers,
" D i g i t a l
transformation is the
catalyst that promotes
new types of innovation
and creativity, improves

customer experience and


reinvents the business
model
and
business
process. HDS
is
committed to providing
effective and practical
alternatives that can
accelerate
business
transformation and break
down the obstacles facing
IT," said Devangi Patel,
Vice-President, cloud goto-market, Hitachi Data
Systems.

Tyco announces expansion of


Connected Partner Program

yco
has
announced
expansion
of
its
Connected
Partner
Program for third-party
solutions to integrate

to its Software House,


American
Dynamics,
Kantech and Illustra
brands. By participating
in the Connected Partner
Program,
technology
partners are better able to
create powerful solutions
within
the
security
marketplace because of
their integration with

16

October 2016

various Tyco Security


Products
platforms
for
access
control,
surveillance and video
and event management.
As
a
qualifying
partner
in
the
Connected Partner
Program, companies
have private access
to Tyco Security
Products
fullyequipped laboratories
as well as contact with
Tycos technical and
engineering
support
professionals. Participants
in the program maintain
control over their own
integrations to utilize
software
development
kits (SDKs), application
program interface (API)
or through web services.

www.varindia.com

Telit and Intel to Polycom completes


collaborate for acquisition of Siris Capital
has
IoT Platforms
Polycom
announced

elit
has
collaborated with
Intel on a joint-architecture
for multiple Intel IoT
developer platforms for
the Industrial Internet of
Things.
The
commercially
available
Intel
IoT
platform consists of
end-to-end
reference
architectures
and
products
with
Telit
deviceWISE
edgeintelligence technology,
which includes extensive
device driver libraries and
built-in Cloud-readiness
giving companies an
instant onramp to the
Industrial IoT.
The
collaboration
between Telit and Intel
provides
far-reaching
benefits
for
remote
machine
monitoring
and control, production
diagnostics and predictive
maintenance across all
markets and industries
worldwide.

Canalys Channel
Forum to be a
game changer

he
Canalys
Channels Forum,
APAC is to be held from
25th 27th October, 2016
in Macau. The theme
for this year is Digital
Firstand is going to
explore the opportunities
and challenges facing the
channel partners.
The
event
is
conceptualized in a way
to address the industry
as a whole. The keynote
sponsors
have
been
already finalised and the
names are HPE, Dell,
EMC and Lenovo, while
the premier sponsors
are APC, Dropbox, The
Distribution
partners
for the event are Avnet,
Cadensworth, Comstor,
Ingram Micro, Redington,
VST ECS, Dicker Data,
Ardent
Networks,
Innovix, Westcon and
HCL Infosystems.

the completion of its


acquisition by affiliates
of Siris Capital Group,
LLC (Siris or Siris
Capital) in a transaction
reflecting an equity value
of approximately $2.0
billion in cash. Polycoms
stock will cease trading
on the NASDAQ under
the ticker symbol PLCM.
We are excited to be
a part of Polycoms next
chapter as we jointly work
to create sustainable, long-

term value for customers


and partners, said Daniel
Moloney,
Executive
Partner, Siris Capital.
Together with Mary and
her team, we will enhance
Polycoms strategy to lead
the market in audio, video
and content collaboration
solutions and continue
to provide customers
with the same high level
of commitment, focus,
innovation and support.

Link Telecom to distribute


Bitdefender Products

n order to promote
Bitdefender products
in the Indian market more
aggressively, BD Software
Distribution (BD Soft),
the Country Partner for
Bitdefender in India, has
appointed Link Telecom
to distribute Bitdefender
retail products in the
Eastern, Southern and
Western regions.
Zakir
Hussain
Rangwala, Director of
BD Soft, said, As we
are committed to further
extend and boost our
channel network and

increase
Bitdefenders
presence in the country,
we have relied on Link
Telecom as a trustful and
very experienced partner
that not only understands
the channel and is able to
maintain good practices
and policies, but has
also a very innovative
approach to sales and
great understanding of
the products. Having
such a strong partner will
definitely help to move
Bitdefendersrevolutionary
security products in the
Indian market.

NECs Aadhaar biometrics


surpasses one billion

EC's Aadhaar
biometrics
identification
system,
which is the largest system
of its kind in the world,
has surpassed one billion
this April. NEC provides
a large-scale biometrics
identification system that
utilizes fingerprints, face
images, and iris images for
this national identification
system.
NECs
large-scale
biometrics identification
system uses three types
of biometric information

fingerprints,
face
images, and iris images
to prevent people from
being registered twice.
This system can handle
more than one million
registrations per day by

checking the registered


biometric
information
for more than one billion
people and comparing
it to the biometric

information of people
seeking to register.
It is important to
make sure that the same
ID is not issued twice
in order to maintain a
highly reliable national
identification
system,
said Noritaka Taguma,
General
Manager,
Transportation and City
Infrastructure Division,
NEC.

HOT BYTES

HCL Infotech digitizes


paper ration cards

CL Infotech has
implemented
electronic
public
distribution
system
(e-PDS). The e-PDS has
been implemented as a

pilot project in Andaman


& Nicobar Isles, wherein
beneficiaries of the digital
PDS will be issued smart
ration cards covering
entire South Andaman,
excluding little Andaman.
The digitized process
replaces existing paper
ration cards with Smart
Ration Cards which

the
beneficiary
will
carry along with their
unique PIN for making
transactions at the Fair
Price Shops (FPSs).
Raj Malik, Chief
Delivery Officer, HCL
Infotech, commented,
HCL Infosystems is
proud to partner with
the Andaman & Nicobar
Administration. This is an
important step in ensuring
greater transparency and
efficiency in this critical
public benefit area. This is
yet another endeavour by
HCL Infosystems to use
ICT solutions for enabling
better e-Governance.

Persistent Foundation commits


for a Green Railway Station

he Government
of India under
Solar Mission has set a
target of installing 20,000
MW of Solar Power by
2022. Responding to this,
the Indian Railways has
planned to base 10% of
its electricity demand on
green energy by 2020 and
commission 1,000 MW of
solar power capacity in
the next five years.
Persistent Foundation
also supports Solar Power
Generation under their

Green Initiative.
Consistent
with
the Green Initiative of
Indian Railways and
Persistent
Foundation,
on 29th September, 2016,
Persistent
Foundation
has signed an MoU
with
Secunderabad
Division of Railways for
Funding, Installation and
Commissioning of a 225
kWp Solar Power Plant
at Hyderabad Deccan
(Nampally)
Railway
station.

SAP announces 2 Billion


investment for IoT

AP has announced
investment plans
of 2 billion over five
years to help business
and
government
entities benefit from the
proliferation of sensors,
smart devices and Big
Data that are transforming
business with the Internet
of Things (IoT).
SAP plans to accelerate
innovation in its IoT
solution portfolio, increase
sales and marketing,
scale service, support
and co-innovation, and
grow its ecosystem of
partners and start-ups in
the IoT market, which is
estimated to reach 250
billion by 2020.

18

October 2016

With billions of
connected devices, we
now have the potential to
reshape society, economy
and environment, said
Bill McDermott, CEO,
SAP. SAP HANA is the
data platform we knew
would unlock the Internet
of Things. Today, SAP
is making another bold
investment to help our
customers
seize
the
benefits of live business.
Only SAP empowers
businesses to innovate
from the core to the edges
to the network, added
McDermott.

www.varindia.com

SUSE teams
up with ESDS

USE has appointed


Exuberant Support
for Data Services (ESDS),
a Nashik-based cloud
hosting firm, as its first
Indian Cloud Service
Partner. SUSE is the first
open-source company to
sign up with an Indian
cloud service provider to
offer hosted services in the
market. Both companies
will
collaborate
to
offer
an
extensive
computing environment
for enterprises to run
their
business-critical
applications
and
workloads.
R a j a r s h i
Bhattacharyya, Country
Head, SUSE, India, says,
"We are very excited to
have an Indian cloud
service provider to cater
to our customer base in
the local market. This
is part of our efforts to
encourage entrepreneurs
in the country to build
highly
competitive
products locally and
support Make in India."

GoDaddy
expands its
hosting services

oDaddy
has
expanded
its
hosting services with the
launch of Cloud Servers
and Cloud Applications
for small businesses in
India. The new offerings
are designed to help
the web developers to
quickly build, test and
scale cloud solutions for
their SMB customers.
The launch of Cloud
Servers will enable Indias
web developers with
affordable and intuitive
solutions to better serve
their customers and grow
their businesses. India
presents a sizeable market
for expanded hosting
products such as Cloud
Servers. Developers can
save time and exceed their
clients'
expectations,
said Rajiv Sodhi, MD &
VP, GoDaddy India &
Australia.

Jharkhand appoints Tech Mahindra


as a strategic technology partner

ech
Mahindra
has been selected
by the Government of
Jharkhand as a strategic
partner to help the state in
its digital journey
and employment
generation through
skill development.
A
Memorandum of
Understanding
(MoU)
to this effect was signed
between the officials of
Jharkhand Government
and Tech Mahindra in the
presence of State Chief
Minister Raghubar Das
and Ulhas N. Yargop,
Director, Tech Mahindra.
Tech Mahindra will

work towards promoting


technology
adoption
by the citizens in the
state apart from helping
build an ecosystem with

greater participation of
industry players. The
partnership also requires
Tech Mahindra to work
with the Government of
Jharkhand to promote
digital literacy and skill
development
working
with various industry
organizations.

Extreme Networks to acquire


Zebras Wireless LAN Business

xtreme Networks
and
Zebra
Technologies
have
announced that Extreme
Networks has agreed to
acquire Zebras wireless
LAN (WLAN) business
in an all-cash transaction.
The transaction is expected
to close in the fourth
quarter of 2016 (which
is the second quarter
of fiscal 2017), subject
to customary closing
conditions,
including
regulatory
approvals.

Combining
Zebras
WLAN
technologies
transportation
and
logistics, and hospitality
customers with Extreme
Networks wired and
wireless
capabilities,
recognized as visionary
in the Gartner Magic
Quadrant, creates the
industrys number three
WLAN enterprise campus
powerhouse, said Ed
Meyercord,
President
& CEO of Extreme
Networks.

Oracle unveils Its NextGeneration Cloud Strategy

racle has unveiled


its strategy for
next-generation Softwareas-a-Service (SaaS) Cloud
offerings that blend thirdparty data with real-time
analytics and behavioural

customers to monetize
their existing businesses
and accelerate digital
business. Success requires
a large corpus of data,
strong expertise in data
science, massive compute

inputs to create Cloud


Applications that adapt
and learn.
R
Ray
Wang,
principal analyst and
CEO at Constellation
Research, said, Machine
learning
applications
and analytics provide
huge opportunities for

power, industry and


domain expertise, and
breadth of application
solutions.
More
importantly,
machine
learning techniques are
here today and the ability
to adapt on demand is
what separates the hype
from the reality.

www.varindia.com

October 2016

19

ON THE RAMP

Citrix revolutionizes its


NetScaler SD-WAN Platform

itrix has enhanced


its NetScaler SDWAN platform offering
features to enhance reliable
and secure application
delivery combined with
intelligent branch routing
technology.
NetScaler SD-WAN is
a comprehensive softwaredefined WAN solution
that is easy to deploy and
use in a single affordable
appliance with integrated
visibility and control.
The turnkey solution
incorporates applicationaware virtualized WAN
connectivity,
dynamic
routing,
separate

routing domains, WAN


optimization, end-to-end
visibility, support for
the newest Citrix HDX
protocols and secure
internet breakout. To
simplify and reduce cost
of deployments, Citrix is
introducing a new level of
affordability for enterprise
branches through new
appliance options and its
new cloud-based, secure
Zero Touch Deployment
services.

HyperX brings Gears of


War Gaming Headset

yperX
has
announced its
second official Xbox
licensed gaming headset,
CloudX Revolver Gears
of War. The headset is codesigned with Microsoft
and The Coalition, the
studio developing Gears
of War 4, featuring a
gritty, battle-weathered
design to complement the
recently announced Xbox
One S Gears of War 4
Limited Edition 2TB

Bundle and Xbox One


Gears of War 4 Crimson
Omen Limited Edition
Wireless Controller, to
offer the fans a complete
gaming set up that shows
their Gears pride.
HyperX is excited
to be working with
Microsoft to offer gamers
a headset that enhances
their Gears of War
gaming experience, said
Ann Bai, Sales Director,
APAC Region, HyperX.

Lenovo launches its latest


range of Consumer Laptops

enovo
has
unveiled its latest
lineup of laptops for the
upcoming festive holiday
season. The launch of this

portfolio is in sync with


its global launch. The new
series consists of lighter,
faster and more powerful
devices that combine
technical
prowess
and striking design to
redefine the computing
experience. It further

20

October 2016

strengthens
Lenovos
endeavour
to
offer
innovative technology to
its customers.
Amit Doshi, Head

Consumer Marketing &


Digital, Lenovo India,
said, Lenovo believes in
listening to its consumers
to
create
products
that address evolving
consumer tastes, and at
times also leading them to
new form factors.

www.varindia.com

Avaya
Fujitsu redefines its
announces Cloud storage portfolio
ujitsu
has
Networking
F
introduced
allflash storage systems.
Platform
New ETERNUS AF all-

Avaya has announced


a complete network
lifecycle
management
solution for enterprise and
mid-size businesses. The
Avaya Cloud Networking
Platform delivers
a
unified,
powerful
solution for deploying
and managing wired and
wireless networks.
As the demand for
unified access solutions
continue to grow, the
burden of managing and
securing networks has
become nearly untenable,
especially at a time when
there is pressure to reduce
IT budgets. The Avaya
Platform provides the
much- needed relief with
a highly-secure, costeffective solution that
fits any size business,
said Maan Al-Shakarchi,
Vice-President,
Avaya
Networking,
Europe,
Middle East, Africa and
Asia-Pacific.

NetApp
Announces
ONTAP software

etApp
has
announced
new NetApp ONTAP
software, flash systems
and expanded public cloud
support that provide the
modern foundation to
help customers maximize
the value of their data in
the hybrid cloud.
The new offerings are
key to helping customers
transform
their
IT.
IT
transformations
integrate
data
silos,
automate processes to
speed results and remove
barriers to scale that
limit growth. NetApp
ONTAP
FlexGroup
is a massively scalable,
high-performance NAS
container ideal for the
latest
generation
of
applications in the EDA,
high-tech, oil & gas, and
media and entertainment
industries.

flash models are Fujitsus


fastest-ever
storage
systems, bringing all-flash
technology within reach
of everyday applications
to underpin business
transformation.
Michael
Keegan,
Head of Business Line
Products,
Fujitsu
EMEIA, comments, We
are bringing ultra-fast,
all-flash storage to the
mass market, at new price
points for both purchase
and operation that make

the ETERNUS AF allflash system an affordable,


viable
mainstream
business solution. As the
economics of all-flash
storage become ever more
attractive, we are enabling
customers to create faster,
more
responsive
IT
environments that are
easily able to maximize the
benefits of digital services
and next-generation data
and applications accessed
from anywhere.

Dell redefines its virtual


workspace solutions

ell Cloud Clientcomputing has


unveiled its portfolio of
new and updated virtual
workspace
solutions,
including new thin client
and software solutions.
The
new
solutions
include the Wyse 3030
LT, a highly secure and
affordable solution based
on ultra-secure Dell Wyse
ThinOS.
Dell is also
announcing the latest
version of ThinOS 8.3,
and the latest version of
Wyse Device Manager

5.7.
We are rising to that
challenge with our next
generation of virtual
workspace solutions from
thin clients to its own thin
client-optimized software,
to the management and
data security solutions
that make it easier
for Indian enterprises
to make the most of
their IT deployment,
said Santosh Pandey,
Country Manager for
India, Dell Cloud Client
Computing.

QNAP launches Quadcore 16-bay TS-1635

NAP Systems
has released the
16-bay TS-1635 business
NAS that supports twelve
3.5" HDDs and four 2.5"
SSDs to accommodate
massive data storage.
The cost-effective quadcore TS-1635 comes
with dual 10Gbe ports
and dual Gigabit ports,
meeting the demands
for
next-generation
networks,
high-speed
file transfer, and helping
small/medium businesses
to reduce the cost in
implementing
10GbE
solutions.
Compared
with
similar products, the
TS-1635 provides the

most
budget-friendly,
high-capacity
NAS
solution
for
small/
medium businesses. It
supports up to 16 hard
drives, creating epic
storage potential with
high-capacity
HDDs
and high-performance
SSDs, said Jason Hsu,
Product Manager of
QNAP, adding, with
two integrated 10GbE
ports, the TS-1635 also
provides an affordable
entryway for 10GbE
adoption by small/
medium businesses.

www.varindia.com

October 2016

21

ON THE RAMP

Juniper Networks broadens its


Seagate extends HP Inc. brings AIO Printer
Software-Defined Secure Networks its HDD Portfolio DeskJet Ink Advantage 3700

uniper Networks
has
announced
security
portfolio
enhancements
that
extend threat prevention
deeper into the network
down to the switch
level. These new and
upgraded
solutions,
launched
include
a
new Policy Enforcer,
which automates the
enforcement of security
policies
across
the
network and quarantines
infected endpoints to
prevent threats across
firewalls and switches
through Junos Space
Security Director.
Attackers
are

constantly managing to
get inside networks, so it
is critical to implement
pervasive solutions that
can rapidly identify the
threat and prevent damage
from being done. Juniper
is broadening its SoftwareDefined Secure Networks
platform and supporting
customers in their effort
to thwart cyber threats
in a landscape thats
constantly evolving, said
Denise Shiffman, Senior
VP , Juniper Development
and Innovation, Juniper
Networks.

Dassault Systmes launches


SOLIDWORKS 2017

assault Systmes
has announced the
launch of SOLIDWORKS
2017. From small start-ups
to global organizations,
more than 3.1 million users
can create multisensory
experiences
through
innovative product design,
with access to easy 3D
design and development
applications
anytime,
anywhere and on any
device.
We must fulfil a
lot of medical device
requirements,
and
SOLIDWORKS has been

helpful for leveraging


cutting-edge
industrial
design to get our work
done faster and our
myoelectric upper limb
orthosis to market, said
Andrew Harlan, Principal
Mechanical
Engineer,
Myomo. We exclusively
use SOLIDWORKS for
the full spectrum of our
design work. The ability to
collaborate with industrial
designers,
consultants
and manufacturers across
different
time
zones
simplifies
the
whole
process."

Axis introduces small and costefficient bullet style IP Cameras

Communications
has
introduced AXIS M20
Series. The new small
bullet-style
cameras
are
lightweight,
yet
extremely
durable.
Our
new
camera series is
an ideal choice for
companies looking for
ways to roll out or expand
their video surveillance
monitoring with low
costs. The affordable
cameras are cost-effective
and versatile with their

22

October 2016

small footprint, and


they
provide
highquality video surveillance
indoors and outdoors,
day and night, said
Andres Vigren, Global
Product Manager, Axis
Communications.
The camera series
offer a low
unit price and
a remarkably
wide field of
view. This means,
more areas can be
covered with a smaller
budget. These cameras
are an ideal fit for video
surveillance within retail,
banking, and healthcare.

www.varindia.com

eagate has come up


with a new lineup
of hard drives up to the
capacity of 10TB, dubbed
as the Guardian Series.
The series consists of three
hard drive models such
as BarraCuda, IronWolf
and SkyHawk. These
high-capacity drives are
resurrected for consumer
and
small
business
category and are meant
for laptops, desktops,
network-attached storage
(NAS) and surveillance
systems.
BarraCuda is designed
for desktops, the IronWolf
for NAS applications and
the SkyHawk for video
surveillance
systems.
The Seagates popular
BarraCuda brand comes
with a spindle speed
ranging from 5,900rpm to
7,200rpm and capacities
ranging from 500GB to
10TB. The drives also
come with 16GB to
64GB of DRAM cache,
depending on the overall
capacity.

Kaspersky Lab
offers Kaspersky
Small Office
Security

Kaspersky Lab has


released a new version
of
its
Kaspersky
Small Office Security
software to help very
small businesses (VSBs)
stay on top of the evergrowing number of
cyber threats they face
today. Kaspersky Small
Office Security can
help VSBs flourish by
keeping the fraudsters
at bay.
In line with recent
research from Kaspersky
Lab, finding that 42%
of VSBs are concerned
about the threat of
crypto
malware,
the latest version of
Kaspersky Small Office
Security offers enriched
protection
against
the growing threat of
cryptors.

P
Inc.
has
unveiled
the
smallest All-in-One inkjet

Facebook, Instagram and


more. The printers are
half the size of other inkjet

printers. The HP DeskJet


Ink Advantage 3700 Allin-One printers combine
robust print, scan and
copy capabilities and
offer easy printing from

all-in-one printers in its


class, with robust print,
scan and copy capabilities
all for an MRP of INR7,
176/-.

VMware announces Windows


10 Migration Assessment Tool

Mware
has
announced a new
solution for customers to
assess and implement their
Windows 10 migrations.
VMwares
SysTrack
Desktop
Assessment
Service for Windows 10 is
a free, cloud-hosted service
by Lakeside Software, and
is the first step customers
need to begin their
migration process from
legacy Windows systems
to the modern, enterprise
mobility
management

(EMM)-friendly Windows
10.
VMwares End-User
Computing
portfolio
makes
us
uniquely
positioned to take a holistic
view of an organizations
Windows environment
and determine the perfect
fit for existing devices in
a Windows 10 world,
said Blake Brannon, VicePresident of Product
Marketing,
End-User
Computing, VMware.

ViewSonic launches VX2776smhd Super-Slim Monitor

iewSonic
has
launched
its
Ferrari model VX2776smhd, 27" art-Slim
Monitor at channel
partners meet held
at Lamington Road
in Mumbai on
Ganesh Chaturthi.
With
channel
partner
meets,
ViewSonic aims to
educate its partners
about its product
portfolio ranging
from entry-level monitors
to high-end projectors.
"Roadshows
such
as these not only
help partners and us

understand each other


well, but it also helps us
ensure the end-customers

get benefited and serviced


by our new offerings,"
said Pradeep Thamman,
Country
Manager,
ViewSonic India.

www.varindia.com

October 2016

23

VOICE-N-DATA

Orange and Ericsson Partner for 5G BSNL selects


range
and Network (SDN) and
O
Ericsson
will Network
Function Aptilo Service
develop 5G use cases Virtualization
(NFV)
Management
and service scenarios, technologies.
including
technical
Alain
Maloberti,
alignment and external Senior VP Orange Labs Platform
demonstrations.

The

partnership will enable


5G technology building
blocks, proof of concepts,
and pilots across Europe
from 2017 onwards.
This
collaboration
will also cover 4G to
5G solutions evolution,
including energy and
cost efficiencies, and
use of Software Defined

Networks,

says,

"Our

ambition is to be prepared
for a 5G deployment in
2020. By joining forces
with Ericsson, we will
create for our customers
a solid network capable
of delivering a wide range
of services, from greater
data speed everywhere
to specialized services for
cities and industries.

O-Zone Networks to offer


free Wi-Fi at CCD cafes

af Coffee Day
(CCD)
has
tied up with leading
and
neutral
Wi-Fi
service provider O-Zone
Networks to provide free
Wi-Fi access to customers
at its cafes in select cities
across the country. CCD
will provide high-speed
connectivity to its techdriven customers through
a dedicated leased line at

its cafes. Sanjeev 'Bobby'


Sarin, Founder and CEO
of O-Zone Networks,
said, We believe this
collaboration is another
step forward in our
endeavor to establish a
large neutral network
for our partners to
broadcast their SSIDs
to their subscribers like
Reliance Communication
and others in the near
future.

Airtel rolls out 20,000 units of


Aadhaar-based e-KYC Solution

harti Airtel has


successfully rolled
out over 20,000 units of
Aadhaar-based
e-KYC
solutions across India.
Airtel has led the rollout
of Aadhaar based e-KYC
solution,
following
the notification by the
Department of Telecom,
Government of India.
The initiative has
received positive response
from customers as it
enables instant activation
of Airtel mobile SIMs,
thereby
enhancing
customer
convenience
and in-store experience.
The digital verification,
which is fully secure, also
eliminates paperwork and
benefits the environment.
Over
50,000

24

October 2016

customers,
including
those in rural India, are
being on-boarded daily
by Airtel using this digital
solution. The company

expects
the
number
of customers getting
digitally on-boarded using
Aadhaar-based
e-KYC
to grow multifold as it
ramps up the rollout of
devices. In the first phase
of deployment, Airtel has
plans to have the solution
in over 500,000 retail
outlets, including those
in rural pockets, over the
next few months.

www.varindia.com

harat
Sanchar
Nigam (BSNL) has
selected Aptilo Networks
to enable wireless services.
Provided
by
system
integrator
ICOMM,
BSNL has selected Aptilo
Service
Management
Platform (SMP) to deliver
and manage carrier-class
wireless services. Aptilo
SMP is a highly scalable
platform
supporting
BSNLs rapid growth.
We are proud to have
been selected by BSNL, a
true innovator in India.
Wireless services generate
revenue and are key to
connect the unconnected
in India, said Jonas
Jacobsson, COO, Aptilo
Networks.
BSNL is a pioneer
in providing innovative
telecommunications
services to the people of
India, bridging the ruralurban digital divide in the
ICT sector.

GSMA asks to
recalibrate 700
MHz pricing

he GSMA has
asked
Indian
government to recalibrate
the reserve prices of of
700 MHz.
John Giusti, chief
regulatory
officer,
GSMA has urged Indian
government to reassess
their
approach
to
spectrum auction reserve
prices after India failed to
sell any of the critical 700
MHz band last week.
The
GSMA
is
concerned that, after the
Indian auction, none of
the 700 MHz band can
be used to expand mobile
broadband
coverage
to Indian citizens. As
we had cautioned, the
spectrum went unsold
because the reserve prices
for this highly soughtafter band were set at an
unrealistically high level
of more than $60 billion.

Huawei to start smartphone


manufacturing in India

uawei will start


to manufacture
smartphones in India in
collaboration with leading
Sketch-to-Scale solutions
provider, Flex, in October.

Huaweis Make in India


inauguration ceremony in
the Indian capital, New
Delhi.
Underlining
its
approach,
Huawei

Shri
Ravi
Shankar
Prasad, Honble Union
Minister,
Information
& Technology, Law
and Justice made the
announcement
at

Consumer
Business
Group will also expand
its distribution network
by partnering with more
than 50,000 retail outlets
by the end of 2016.

mjunction successfully
conducts Spectrum Auctions

or the second
time in a row,
mjunction services has
been selected by DoT for
the conduct of e-auction
of telecom spectrum
and has successfully
conducted the auctions.
The
auction
which
continued for five days,
from 1st to 6th October,
has brought an overall
3.35% appreciation in
the auction value over
the reserve price for the
Spectrum sold.

mjunction
used
Simultaneous Multiple
Round Auction (SMRA)
methodology

an
internationally
wellaccepted methodology, to
conduct the e-auction.
mjunction
CEO
Vinaya Varma said,
We paid close attention
to
improving
the
overall experience of
the operators, with
easy bidding screen,
dashboards and call
centre assistance."

Free Wi-Fi facility launched


at Airport Express Line

he Delhi Metro
Rail Corporation
(DMRC)
managing
director Dr Mangu Singh
launched Free Wi-Fi
facilities at metro stations
on its Airport Express
Line.
DMRC has branded
this facility as Oui
DMRC Free Wi-Fi
and the facility will
be available on all six
stations of the Airport
Express Line. As of now
passengers will be able to
log in simply by searching
for Wi-Fi options and log
into Oui DMRC Free
Wi-Fi. DMRC aims to
extend this facility to all
the stations of the metro

network gradually.
For Wi-Fi facility,
DMRC has tied up with
a consortium led by
Techno Sat Comm which
presently runs Indias first
Wi-Fi on train service
on the Delhi-Howrah
Rajdhani Express. The
facility will use the globally
acclaimed T-Track 2.0
Wave 2 Solution, also
used on high speed trains
worldwide.
Passengers will be able
to use all standard internet
applications inside the
station premises like
email, Facebook, Google,
video chat as well as live
streaming of cricket and
football matches etc.

GIGABYTE Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd.


Website: www.gigabyte.in; Toll-Free: 1800-22-0966; www.facebook.com/GIGABYTEindia
Gujarat: 98642 30150; Mumbai: 99677 18653; Rest of Maharashtra: 99677 18653; Goa: 99677 18653; Chhattisgarh
99677 18653; Madhya Pradesh: 99100 86976; New Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh: 99100 86976; Punjab,
Chandigarh and Jammu & Kashmir: 99100 86976; Rajasthan: 98286 63392; Bihar, Jharkhand: 90075 45577;
Orissa: 99030 52251; North East: 97076 42785; West Bengal: 97485 02710; Karnataka: 94482 93439; Andhra
Pradesh, Telangana: 90405 06080; Tamil Nadu: 74117 74666; Kerala: 98950 99231

www.varindia.com

October 2016

25

CHANNEL BUZZ

Ziox holds Distributors Meet


for South India Partners

RAH Infotech and WinMagic organize


Channel Meet in Mumbai

iox has conducted its


distributors meet for its
South India partners. With festive
season around the corner, Ziox
aims to bring a stronger foothold

AH
Infotech,
in
association
with
WinMagic, has held a channel
meet in Mumbai. The meet
received
an
overwhelming
response with 48 channel
partners from 25 organizations
gracing the moment.
The meet was aimed at
introducing partners to the latest
offerings from WinMagic and
also enhancing their knowledge
on the existing solutions. Session
was kicked off by Suchit Karnik,
Senior Vice-President, RAH
Infotech, with an introductory
note where he briefed the partners
about the strength, capabilities
and solution offerings of RAH
InfoTech.
Later, the dais was handed
over to Rahul Kumar, Country
Manager,
WinMagic
India,
who appraised partners about
the latest encryption solutions
from WinMagic and how these
solutions can help partners
not only offer best of security
solutions to their customers but

among the partners bridging a


stronger sales connect.
Inducting the partners on
several new offerings exclusive to
the festive season, Ziox showcased
and briefed its distributors about
different company schemes and
plans to implement in the coming
future along with their support
and discussion on elevating the
reward and recognition structure
for the distributor, which was
also a vital point of discussion.
Chiranjib Sarkar, National
Sales Head, Ziox, further adds,

Ziox strives hard to always deliver


on its promise of operating on
the principle of equitable returns
and believes in maintaining longterm and mutually beneficially

relationships with its partners.


Ziox believes in mutual
growth with Channel partners,
in growing and expanding the
brand presence across India.
Ziox has also conducted its
Distributors meet for UP (East)
and Uttarakhand partners. The
company dedicated two days
to meetings and exchanges
of opinions with the keyline
distributors and inducting them
on the several new offerings
(launches) in the pipeline and also
the schemes/plans for Diwali.

7th ISODA TechSummit to be held in Vietnam

nfotech Software Dealers


Association (ISODA) has
announced the 7th instalment of
its annual event that has grown
in stature over the years. Their
marquee, TechSummit 7 will
be held at Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam between 16th and 19th
February, 2017.

Rajeev
Mamidanna

Chairman
of
ISODA
TechSummit 7 and also the
Associations Vice President
says, TechSummit is close to
all our hearts and every ISODA
member has started working
towards making it a success. In a
world where Digitization, IOT,
Mobility, Advanced Machine
Learning, Analytics etc are key
trends, ISODA realizes the
potential for bringing together

26

October 2016

the technology owner and the


technology provider for the
benefit of the consumer.
TechSummit 7 promises to
bring in some very new alliance
opportunities and also strengthen
the existing ones. Apart from the
promise of being technology and
content driven, the TechSummit
additionally will give technology
vendors more opportunities to
be continually in touch with
ISODA members post the event
as well.
ISODA TechSummit 7 will
be engrossing and entertaining
but at the same time give every
participant and technology
vendor an opportunity to analyze,
discuss and strike alliances, says
Mamidanna.
Like every year, ISODA
members are expected to
register for the TechSummit
in large numbers. Comments
Mamidanna, Participation in
TechSummit has increased over
the years and this instalment will
be no different.

www.varindia.com

also enhance their bottom line in


a competitive market.
Raju
Veeranna,
Senior
Presales Engineer from WinMagic
India, further stressed on the
technical aspects of encryption
solutions and their key features
and benefits. Gautam Jaiswal,
Regional Sales Manager West,
WinMagic India, explained about
the channel incentive schemes
to further encourage partners
to adopt WinMagic encryption
solutions.

Puducherry IT Association
joins in Swachh Bharat

he
ITTA-PDY
has
participated in Swatch
Bharat Clean India programme
that
was
conducted
by
Vigneshwara Higher Secondary
School situated in the industrial
area of Sedrapet, 14 km from
Puducherry.
The school aptly chose
our national leader, Mahatma
Gandhis birthday as the right day
to fulfil his dream of clean India.
Besides, the drive was aimed at
educating school children that
Cleanliness is next to Godliness
and Health is Wealth and to
create awareness to the village
surrounding Sedrapet.
Swachh Bharat Clean India
programme was inaugurated
by Usdu constituency MLA
Theepainthan and encouraged
all participants inclusive of 500
school children, teachers, ITTAMembers to continue to clean the
area in and around Sedrapet.
Sederapets
loading
and
unloading association leader,
Nagaratnam supported the drive
with help from his members.
Villianoor
Commissioner,
Arumugam, arranged vehicles to
remove all the collected garbage.

Government Doctor Pamagal


Kavithai not only helped him in
cleaning the area with his fellow
staff but also sprayed bleaching
power around the area.
President of the ITTAPDY Association, Arun Subbu
Rangan, Secretary Prabhakar
and CONFED-EC Jaypaul and
senior member Kandasamy and
the programme coordinator
D. Soundara Pandian delivered
speeches about the importance of
keeping our surroundings clean
in order to achieve the Swatch
Bharat Clean India.
To support the noble cause,
and to join hands with the school,
the forum had given necessary
materials such as Cap, Gloves,
Mouth Masks, Broomsticks,
Dustbins, etc and participated
along with young students and
cleaned the Sedrapet surrounded
area. The Clean India programme
has created a good awareness not
only to all students but to the
public too.

www.varindia.com

October 2016

27

FACE TO FACE

STMicroelectronics Driving the


MEMS industry to Growth
Vishal Goyal, Senior Manager - Technical Marketing, Analog MEMS and Sensors [AMS], India, Asean and ANZ STMicroelectronics

shares with VARINDIA of how the MEMS industry is shaping up and what has been STs role in driving this sector to excellence Sensors are now spreading in the world
and having a great influence in all aspects of
our lives. They are bringing exciting ways of
interacting with the world and are core to
connected applications and a key building
block of the Internet of Things (Smart
Things, Smart Cities, Smart Industry, and
Smart Home) and Smart Driving (Connected
Car).

ST & the MEMS industry


STMicroelectronics is at the center of
the evolution of the MEMS and sensors
industry, driving continuous innovation
for more diverse applications of sensors and
micro-actuators with wide-ranging product
portfolio, reliable supply chain and strong
ecosystem of global and local partners.
ST has established a worldwide ecosystem
to cater to the mass market. It has a strong
system know-how to support a global
customer base. Ideally, the company has 1200
software evaluation licenses distributed in the
last 6 months.
According to Gartner, MEMS-based smart
sensors are set to gain maximum traction in
the worldwide smart sensor market that is
forecast to grow to $57.77 billion by 2022;
at 18.1% CAGR. Market is primarily driven

"ST has been enjoying the # 1 spot in


MEMS Sensors for Consumer and Mobile and
# 2 in MEMS Micro-Actuators," says Vishal
Goyal, Senior Manager - Technical Marketing,
Analog MEMS and Sensors [AMS], India,
Asean and ANZ STMicroelectronics

by factors such as growing concern toward


security & surveillance, rising need for
energy-efficient devices, growing consumer
electronics sector, surge in automotive
industry on a global basis, favourable
government initiatives, and growing trend of
miniaturization in sensors. The market for
MEMS-based smart sensor is expected to hold
the largest share of the studied market during
the forecast period. MEMS help smart sensor
to work in a smarter way by allowing it to
handle huge amounts of data in a fraction of
seconds. The APAC market is expected to
grow at the highest CAGR between 2016 and
2022.

Products from STMicroelectronics...


ST has designed a range of products keeping
energy efficiency and size considerations in
mind, which ensure the best performance
for wearable device with ultra-low-power
processing and connectivity, power and
energy management and sensors.
STMicroelectronics also has in its portfolio
a wide range of wearable devices. They are
getting adopted as watches, fashion accessory,
fitness tracker, security devices or specialized
medical gadgets. Wearable has the potential
to change the world just as internet did.
Smart Sensors and BLE have empowered
devices with power of sensing and
communication to take complex decisions.
Wearables will create fundamentally new
use cases and will do things which even
smartphones cannot do. It is expected that
healthcare and fitness will emerge as the
largest category for wearable. n

IoT to become a Reality in India very soon


Prashant Gupta, Head of solutions
South East Asia & INDIA - Verizon
Enterprise Solutions shares with
VARINDIA of how IoT is slowly
evolving in the country and what does
Verizon has in its booty to offer to its
Indian customers. An excerpt -

nternet of Things (IoT) is a world of its


own with all the living and non-living
objects having sensors and monitors that
transmit data through wireless. IoT can be used
to automate and monitor almost everything
imaginable. When we talk about IoT in
context with enterprises, there is a new layer
of complexity all together. This complexity
is involved especially in reference to data
centers' daily monitoring and management
of devices. In an enterprise environment, IoT
can be used for numerous purposes such as
fleet management, remote asset management,
healthcare-related monitoring devices, oil
pipeline monitoring sensors, and smart
metering amongst others, says Prashant
Gupta, Head of solutions South East Asia &
INDIA - Verizon Enterprise Solutions.

28

October 2016

www.varindia.com

The Indian government is undertaking


initiatives including policies and regulatory
framework development (Indias first IoT
policy framework was released in October,
2014), driving solutions development (and
deployment) in partnership with private
industry players (Smart City and Smart Grid
projects) and creating the IoT market in
India.

Security concerns with IoT


While IoT is still in its nascent stage
in India, issues such as security and
performance still need to be addressed.
The major security concerns that IoT
users or consumers face is the security of
their personal data provided by them. IoT
devices collect, store, transmit, aggregate
and analyze massive amounts of data. If
properly protected, the data and the devices
can make life easier. If not, it can become a
nightmare. Thus, when developing any IoT
strategy, it is important to look critically at
what information the IoT device is collecting,
and how it will be used. It is important to
look at how the information can be abused
or misused as well. Additionally, the lack of
an updated infrastructure also adds to the
failure of security in these devices, points
out Prashant.
However, with the proliferation of IoT,
it is expected that vendors will be preferring
usability over security. Though there is
awareness on the malware attacks targeting
these new connected gadgets, IT security
practitioners remain unsure of the correct
amount of acceptable risk. n

FACE TO FACE

A combination of Channel & Direct


Sales works for Seclore

Amit Malhotra, VP, Sales India, Middle East & Africa Seclore shares with VARINDIA on how the Seclore
business is shaping up in the country, its expansion plans and about its growing channel landscape -

eclore is in the data security business.


While it is understood that bulk of
the data today does not sit in the datacenter
anymore but it is all over the place, Seclore
ensures security of that data which is moving
away from the controlled environment.
Seclore has been selling for 3-4 years
now in India and a lot of momentum has
come in the last 18 months, during which
the acceptance of its solutions and obviously
the need for the solutions is being established
around the globe in around 29 countries.
Ours is a company incubated out of IIT
Bombay and we are really proud to be a
part of the Make in India movement. Our
Development center is also in Mumbai, says
Amit Malhotra, VP, Sales India, Middle East
& Africa Seclore.
In India Seclore is operational from
3 direct ofces in India Mumbai being
the biggest one, Delhi and Bengaluru. It is
planning to expand to a total of 8 cities; the
expansion to the remaining 5 cities would be
purely on the back of its relationship with
its channel partners. We make sure that the
expansion has to be fuelled by the good work
that the channel has been doing for so many

years, adds Amit.


In all its ofces, Seclore works in a direct
relationship with its key customers and also
work with its channel organization. So the
head of the channel business is based out of
Delhi and a bulk of the channel business is
also managed out of Delhi. This particular
ofce is also enhanced for all channel training
- sales, pre-sales and implementation. There
is also a POC center for channel partners to
give them necessary hands-on training on our
new solutions, he explains.

Talking about its channel eco-system,


Seclore has a two tiered structure Value
added distributors and resellers. It has
appointed 3 distributors Technobind,
Blisstree Solutions and iValue Infosolutions
and under them come the resellers. We
have a great relationship with our channel
partners. The Channel has been playing a
very critical role - the most important being
the sheer reach. The Channel always brings
in a force multiplier. For instance, with our
VADs, we have dedicated people responsible
for Seclore business and they in turn work
with lot of resellers. With each of the resellers
again there are multiple sales people. So this
is very central and strategic to our VAR
expansion plan, says Amit. Currently, 40%
of its business is happening through channel
and 60% is direct. But over the next 18
months Seclore sees much sharper increase in
the channel portfolio. The three areas where
Seclore focuses its business are Banking &
Finance, Manufacturing and Government &
PSUs. Essentially any customer who puts a
value to the data is our potential customer,
sums up Amit. 
Samrita Baruah
samrita@varindia.com

www.varindia.com

October 2016

29

Lenovo, No. 1 in TBR


customer satisfaction index.*
Lenovo System x servers come with incredible
power, maximum expandability and unmatched
reliability. That's right, a server range that assures
less hassles and more smiles.

Call 1800 3000 9990 to discover how


our servers can help grow your business.
Mail to: corpsales@lenovo.com
Or visit: Lenovo.com/server

Powered by Intel Xeon processor E3 series.


Intel Inside. Powerful Data Center Outside.
*TBR Corporate IT Buying Behavior and Customer Satisfaction Study x86-based Servers, Fourth Quarter 2015.
The following are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo: Lenovo, the Lenovo logo, ThinkServer and System x. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon and Xeon Inside are

Terms and Conditions apply.

trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. 2016 Lenovo. All rights reserved.
August 2016 www.varindia.com
58

A price tag that will get


you new customers.
Introducing the ThinkServer TS140
for small businesses with big demands.
At Lenovo we develop technology to meet
the ever-growing demands of small businesses.
With that in mind, we have launched the
ThinkServer TS140 in India. It is powered to
take on tough challenges, yet priced attractively.
Supports enterprise-grade HDDs
(Built-in RAID 5)
Whisper-quiet at 26 decibels
Intel Xeon E3 series processor
Windows Server 2012 R2 platform
So go on, add this server to your portfolio
and keep adding to your customer base.

Call 1800 3000 9990 to discover how


our servers can help grow your business.
Mail to: corpsales@lenovo.com
Or visit: Lenovo.com/server
Powered by Intel Xeon processor E3 series.
Intel Inside. Powerful Data Center Outside.
The following are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo: Lenovo, the Lenovo logo and ThinkServer. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon and Xeon Inside are trademarks
or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. 2016
Lenovo. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions apply. The test(s) above are performed on statistical samples.

www.varindia.com

August 2016

59

FACE TO FACE

GST is a Technology led Law with


software as its interface
Sathya Pramod,
Chief Financial Officer
- Tally Solutions Private
Limited in a chat with
VARINDIA throws light
on the current GST law
that is in the process
of being implemented
across the country and the
various pitfalls which the
government should consider
before presenting it as the
final law to the people -

oods & Services Tax (GST),


according to Sathya Pramod,
Chief Financial Officer - Tally Solutions
is a Once in a lifetime change for all
of us in the country, be it a business or
an individual. Never has a change of this
magnitude been tried by anyone. This is a
welcome step to get all the indirect taxes
under a single umbrella with 29 states, the
centre and also union territories working
as one. It is especially more commendable
since this is forward looking by making
technology as the engine which is pulling
the change.
We all know it is only with technology
that we can scale and it is a right step
forward by the government. As a business,
one thing needs to be understood, it is a
technology led law. There will be no paper
transactions or any manual intervention.
Everything happens through technology
and there is a software which will be the
interface. As a software company in the
ERP business, it would be our endeavour
to make the change seamless to the tax
payer. Simplicity will be the key, asserts
Sathya.

Limitations in GST
Implementation

Goods & Services Tax Network (GSTN)


is managed by a bunch of professionals
with the right kind of support from
the government. At the business level,
companies are gearing up to provide the
relevant solutions to their current users as
well as prospective users.
However there are a few pitfalls which

32

October 2016

www.varindia.com

need immediate attention as these are


unfriendly to trade and has the potential
to derail the businesses.
The first one being the manner in
which Input Credit is granted. The
government has put the onus on the tax
payer to ensure that the tax has been
remitted to the government, failing which
the input credit will not be allowed.
The next one in the list is about taxing
advances and determination of time of
supply and treatment- Section 12 and
Section 13 deal with time of supply of
goods and services, whereby normal trade
advances are also subject to tax. This again
creates friction in trade as the concept of
advances itself is misunderstood. If we
look at why advances are paid, it is due to
the fact that a commitment to the vendor
is made for a certainty of a transaction,
even though the supply is effected after a
period of time. This would mean the input
credit for the portion of advances would
only be available after supply and claiming
the final invoice on a procedural front it
would create further complications.
Ambiguity in sales returns is the next
challenge. There are a few ambiguities in
the process of sales returns like
Lets take a case where a supply
happens from a manufacturer to a
distributor who in turn supplies it to a
retailer. Normally when the sales return
happens, it happens between the retailer
and the manufacturer without involving the
distributor. There is no way of transaction
matching since the original transaction
and the sales return are between different

entities. How should this be handled?


Another case would be where a
transaction has happened between a tax
payer and receiver, the tax payer uploads
GSTR1. However the receiver in this case
does not respond with a corresponding
GSTR2. In this case, to reverse the sales,
the tax payer raises a credit note, but again
the receiver may not respond to the same.
The tax payer will land up paying the tax
without any supply. This also applies to
transactions where money back guarantees
are involved.
Yet another challenge is Document
Numbering. In general business practices,
there are no restrictions on the numbering
of any documents (invoices, debit notes,
credit notes etc). However, the rules state
that a number can only be unique only for
a particular document. This has potential
to create confusion, especially for small
businesses who are not in the practice
to create unique document numbers,
explains Sathya in details.

And so...

It is easy to dismiss saying that this


is not good or it has lot of issues. But it
is a mammoth task to change the entire
gamut of indirect taxes in the country.
There has been a lot of hard work put
in by the government in working out
further details and also taking public
opinion about the law. There have been
a lot of representations from the industry,
associations etc. The Government should
give due consideration to those and if they
can manage to balance between the tax
payers needs and the governments wants,
it would help. n

www.varindia.com

October 2016

33

(From L to R): Mr. Murali Krishnan, CEO NJ Dataprint; Mr Vishal Dhupar, MD South Asia NVIDIA; Mr Kuldeep Raina, Senior
Vice Prsident Sales, Inspira Enterprise; Mr. Deepak Sahu, Chief Editor VARINDIA; Mr Arvind KS, Associate Vice President,
Business Development Tally Solutions; Mr K K Shetty, VP Enterprise Sales, India - COMMSCOPE; Mr Sriram Gopalaswami, Head,
Commercial and DCG Marketing- Lenovo India and Mr Jatin Christopher, Director- JCSS global Consulting

GST, IOT was the Key discussion


point at the 7th SIITF
VARINDIA has recently conducted its annual Tech Summit in Bengaluru (Silicon Valley of India) - Southern
India Information Technology Fair 2016, on 23rd September 2016 at The Hotel Chancery Pavilion, Bengaluru.
The Summit discussed various emerging technologies that has hit the Industry in the recent past.
The theme for the summit this year was
Innovative Platform to support Digital
India. A special team was invited to deliberate
on the topic of Impact of GST on the ICT
Industry, which was attended by experts
from the Finance and Taxation domain,
Consultant, CIO, VARs and the Industry

Arvind KS, Vice President, Business


development- Tally Solutions
GST is new to everyone of us. In
India doing business is a crime and doing
crime is a business. There has always been
a trust deficit between the tax authority
and the businessman. Going forward, if
GST is implemented properly, business in
India would be no longer a crime. Tax is
one thing which is very important for any
business but it is also the thing on which
the businessman should be spending the
least amount of time in order to become
tax complaint. If you are into the business
of computers, please do not spend time on
taxation at all. In todays world the cost of
2016
www.varindia.com
34
beingOctober
compliant
is much
cheaper than the
cost of evading taxes.

leaders. Finally there was the award function


that felicitated the business partners from
Southern India in addition to the technology
showcase that displayed the stellar leadership
and outstanding IT implementations. VARs
are the pillar of success in their respective
regions representing the most innovative IT
leaders in Southern India.
The event focused on digital disruptions
surrounding todays world and its implications
on Design & Engineering domain, given the
need to leverage innovations to ring about
a paradigm shift. It was a unique platform
for SMEs and VARs to understand the
scope of digitization that will open up big
opportunities for them in due course of time.
With a distinguished list of speakers including
K K Shetty, V.P- Enterprise sales-India
COMMSCOPE; Vishal Dhupar, MD South
Asia- NVIDIA India; Jatin Christopher,
Director- JCSS global Consulting; Syam
Madnapalli, Global IOT Delivery - DELL
Digital Business Services; Kuldeep Raina,
Senior Vice President Sales, Inspira
Enterprise India; Arvind KS, Associate Vice
President, Business development- Tally
Solutions, the summit promises to be an
event full of stimulating conversations and
innovative solutions. The summit brings
the Strategists, Practitioners, consumers on
to a one platform to discuss the strategy for
adoption of digital solutions for enhanced
design and engineering.

Talking about the days agenda,


Deepak Sahu, Publisher & Chief Editor
VARINDIA spoke about how the future is
cloud and the market for cloud services has
grown to such an extent that there is now
a notable percentage of total IT spending,
helping to create a new generation of start-

Vishal Dhupar, M.D (South Asia) NVIDIA


After the wheel was discovered, the
most pervasive inventions to have taken
place was the printing press, next came
electricity, semi-conductor and then eyeglasses. Out of all these, semi-conductors
have always been taken for granted. The
impact of semi-conductors is such that
they contribute the entire economy of
India to the global GDP. The whole hyperconnectivity that has got connected where
you are talking about a billion active users
on Facebook, 7 billion mobile devices being
available - all these will cease if there are
no semi-conductors. We today talk about
IoT, Big Data, Cloud, autonomous vehicles,
and these are opportunities around us.

Jatin Christopher, Director- JCSS global


Consulting
GST is a significant change agent as
we embark on the journey that has just been
introduced to us. It is very different from
the way we have seen taxes excise, VAT,
service tax but the principle of GST which
is the first aspect that we have to keep in
mind, that GST is a destination based
tax. It is the tax that has to reach the state
where consumption actually takes place.
Until now, we have been used to paying
tax on an origin based system of taxation.
Whenever you sell, supply any goods or
services within your state, you will have to
pay a dual tax CGST and SGST. Both the
taxes will apply at the same time.

K K Shetty, V.P- Enterprise sales India,


COMMSCOPE
If you look at the macroeconomic
indicators, inflation you would see is roughly
around 4-6%, GDP growth is 7.5% and if
you look into the fiscal deficit, its almost
4% and this year we are planning to bring
it down to 3.5%. Our rupee is more or less
going up, as a whole the macroeconomic is
fantastic now. That shows that the country is
moving in the right direction, which shows
that there are some good opportunities
coming in the next few years. In terms of
foreign exchange reserves, we have more
than $370 billion, which means moving
forward we can expect better days. GST is
the mother of all reforms which will change
the taxation scenario.

ups and "born in the cloud" providers. The


Cloud Shift will affect more than $1 tn in IT
spending and Digital technologies are playing
a key role in enhancing SMB competitiveness
and their growth agenda. As SMBs and their
workforce embark on their digital journeys,
they need to protect themselves against
cyber-attacks. This would contribute to two
strategic programmes of the country that are
Make in India and Digital India, he said
in his speech.
K K Shetty, V.P- Enterprise sales India,
COMMSCOPE spoke about the Reforms &
Opportunities in India, focusing on strong
Indian economic indicators, expected to
gain a double digit growth in medium to
long term, resulting in India emerging as the
fastest growing major economy in the world.
His speech ended with a quote, If you are
optimistic you can build an Aeroplane! If you
are pessimistic you can build a parachute!
Adding to his thoughts, Vishal Dhupar,
M.D (South Asia) - NVIDIA India, said
how the cloud brings huge potential for the
growth and it is very supportive to the success
of the Digital India. The summit always tried
to bring conversations around how to ensure
engineering and innovations in alignment to
the requirements of world.
Addressing
the
gathering,
Jatin

Christopher,
DirectorJCSS
global
Consulting spoke on what is the impact of
GST on IT trade and how it will turn India
into one common market, leading to greater
ease of doing business and big savings in
logistics. Some companies will gain more as
the GST rate will be lower than the current
tax rates they pay; others will lose as the rate
will be higher than the present effective rate.
There is no doubt that Digital Business
Transformation is disrupting businesses in
every industry by breaking down barriers
between people, businesses and things. By
breaking these barriers, they are able to
create new products, services and find more

efficient ways of doing business. To address


this segment, Kuldeep Raina, Senior Vice
President, Inspira Enterprise spoke on the
importance of cyber security and INSPIRAs
initiative towards Centre of excellence in
the cloud as the Infrastructure and platform
as service and Software as service. Kuldeep
spoke about how things would be with value
addition to the cloud and turning Capex to
Opex with the help of automation, which
will bring value to the customer and lastly
gave some example of certain recent cyber
and malware attacks.
Arvind KS, Vice President, Business

Kuldeep Raina, Senior Vice President


Sales, Inspira Enterprise India
There is a huge opportunity and a
potential about the Cloud. Inspira on its
part is initiating a Center of Excellence on
the Cloud which is now going to address
infrastructure as a service, platform as a
service and predominantly software as a
service. A typical question that comes to
mind is what people think about Cloud. Is
it something that we are trying to do some
kind of a value addition to it? When seen
from a technology perspective, it is really
the thing we are looking forward to? The
first key point I consider when talking about
cloud is automation that will transform it
thoroughly.

development- Tally Solutions spoke on the


Impact of GST on IT trade and how GST
is a business opportunity for us. This will
bring a new opportunity for every company
into development, since there is no software
available in India, which is fully compatible
or is GST complaint.
Lastly there was the panel discussion,
based on the theme for the day and
moderated by Deepak Kumar Sahu, Chief
Editor VARINDIA. The panellists who
joined on the dais were Sriram Gopalaswami,
Head, Commercial and DCG MarketingLenovo India; Syam Madnapalli, Global IOT
Delivery - DELL Digital Business Services;
Sridharan, President- AIT; Vishwanath
Kulkarni, Director-Sales (India & SAARC) HID Global and K K Shetty, VP - Enterprise
sales-India - COMMSCOPE.
Discussion on Digital India, which is
an initiative of the central government to
integrate the government departments and the
people of India and the innovation challenge,
was to find solutions which can enable
public to avail government services easily.
Digital India in its vision is a disruptive social
equalizer in it that empowers the citizens. It
is targeted at addressing local needs with the
vision to build an ecosystem for pervasive
technology adoption.

www.varindia.com

October 2016

35

EVENTS

Panel Discussion on ERP its uses and application under Digital India
The panel discussion held towards the
end of the event, based on the theme for
the day Innovative Platform to support
Digital India was moderated by Deepak
Kumar Sahu, Chief Editor VARINDIA.
The panellists who joined on the dais were
Sriram Gopalaswami, Head, Commercial
and DCG Marketing- Lenovo India;
Syam Madnapalli, Global IOT Delivery DELL Digital Business Services; Sridharan,
President- AIT; Vishwanath Kulkarni,
Director-Sales (India & SAARC) - HID
Global and K K Shetty, VP - Enterprise
sales-India - COMMSCOPE.
Before throwing open the floor to
the panellists, Deepak Sahu mentioned
about the report of IDC, Global IoT
Decision Maker Survey which shows
that the organizations are pivoting away
from proof of concept projects to scalable
Internet of Things (IoT) deployments that
are incorporating cloud, analytics, and
security capabilities. 31.4 per cent of organizations surveyed have launched IoT solutions, with an additional 43 per cent looking to deploy
in the next 12 months. 55 per cent of respondents see IoT as strategic to their business and as a means to compete more effectively. Improving
productivity, reducing costs, and automating internal processes are seen as top benefits of an IoT solution. This highlights an internal and
operational focus by organizations over the short term as opposed to external, customer-facing benefits. On a cautionary note, he said that
we all have to always bear in mind that Cyber Security is becoming more critical than ever before.
According to K K Shetty, VP - Enterprise sales-India COMMSCOPE, Digital India is a priority as the various government initiatives
introduced like Jan Dhan Aadhar Yojana cannot be accessed unless there is a Digital platform. We at Commscope are focusing on
Connectivity solutions which will provide digital infrastructure. We are also associated with the NoFN project, wherein 400,000 villages are
going to be connected with fibre optics. With 4G network getting further penetrated, we are also planning to provide Fibre-to-Home.
Vishwanath Kulkarni, Director-Sales (India & SAARC) - HID Global said that HID is also moving ahead in the Digital India agenda. We
have set up our R&D facility here in Chennai in which we are working on access control on mobile and a part of Digital India movement.
We also have a solution called goID (Government ID) that has received wide acclaim from government of different countries.
Sridharan, President- AIT opined that because of Digital India, the dealer community will get an opportunity to sell various end point
devices like phones, laptops, etc. The convergence of technology also brings in lot of opportunities for those people who are into offering
solutions.
Syam Madnapalli, Global IOT Delivery - DELL Digital Business Services felt that most of the companies do not have a good understanding
of their customers. Digital Transformation, according to him is bringing visibility for the companies, about their employees, customers and
stakeholders.
Sriram Gopalaswami, Head, Commercial and DCG Marketing- Lenovo India said that from an infrastructure standpoint, Lenovo is one
of the many companies to have partnered with the government when the Digital India first started. To Lenovo, Digital India means 2 things
making affordable devices available not only in 1st tier markets but to different tiers of markets. Secondly, Education being an important
propeller, Digital transformation is the proliferation of digital means of education.

Technology provides a great platform


for social equality and paves the way for
opportunities enabling citizens to grow.
India Inc enables the realization of the
Digital dream by partnering with the
Government in building Tools such as Last mile Connectivity
Citizen services delivered over web and
more importantly mobile
Cyber security Solutions
Healthcare powered by Cloud, Mobility,
Analytics, IoT, Wearables, M2M tech
Education powered by Cloud and
Contextual Awareness
Product
&
Service
Aggregation
Platforms
Modern Agriculture powered by IT
Framework
Smart Cities

36

October 2016

www.varindia.com

Building the infrastructure, getting


various public sector departments online,
providing a bouquet of desired services to
citizens, all hold out significant potential
for technology companies to work closely
with the Government in realizing the
Digital India Vision.
Further, Internet of Things has altered
traditional designing and the industry
is pushing the envelope to ensure that
demands are met and new standards are
set in this domain. We are still lagging
behind in broadband penetration as low
as 6%. Also there is less information and
education of people in terms of what is
data stealing and privacy breach. Driven
by several factors - technological advances,
changes in competitive landscape and
consumer preferences. IoT (Internet of
Things) will describe a system where
Internet is connected to the physical world

via ubiquitous sensors will talk about the


various facets of the IoT and how it is an
imperative for the world today.
The summit also displayed the latest
technology showcase from Canon, Tally
and Inspira and how their solutions are
well fitted to complement Digital India and
the Future.
The summit also witnessed a mix
of CIO/CTO/System Integrators and
Solution Partners from across the Southern
India with 150 attendees from the ICT
sector who is embracing digital solutions.
A pantheon of industry veterans and
innovators had conversations around
themes and issues of critical importance to
the growth of Security and social media.
SIITF served as a unique platform for
the IT professionals from across the country
which helped them to find solutions to
help their companies evolve with changing
requirements.

Recognition with Awards (7th SIITF)

The summit held an award ceremony to facilitate the enablers of the IT industry in
Southern India. There were seven partners who had been recognised with awards BEST Network Integrator, Southern India - Newwave Computing PVT. Ltd.
Best Reseller, Southern India - Systech services Ltd.
Best Software Services, Southern India - Microcom Solution Pvt. Ltd.
Best Solution Partner, Southern India - FUTURE BUSINESSTECH INDIA PVT. Ltd.
Best Value Added Distributor, Southern India - INSPIRA TECHNOLOGIES
Best System Integrator, Southern India - VALUE POINT SYSTEMS
Best Value Added Reseller, Southern India - N J DATAPRINT PVT. Ltd.

Solution Display

Presented By:
Partners to the event:

www.varindia.com

October 2016

37

INDUSTRY EVENT

COM-IT Expo 2016 takes Technology


showcasing to new Heights
T

he 9th edition of COM-IT Expo


concluded recently in the city of
Mumbai. Trade Association of Information
Technology (TAIT) organized the event
from September 30th to October 2nd by
bringing in prominent leaders and IT Industry
stalwarts under one roof. The theme for this
years event was Showcasing new, trending
technology ideas and solutions for the IT,
Security and Mobile industries.
The exhibition was inaugurated by YihJyh, Kang - Executive Director, Exhibition
Department, Taiwan External Trade
Development Council (TAITRA).
The three-day tech exhibition exhibited
the latest technology solutions for the IT,
security and mobile industries.
This year TAITRA had set up two
Taiwan Excellence Centres to showcase the
latest technologies and solutions in IoT,
AR and intelligent business solutions. YihJyh, Kang - Executive Director, Exhibition
Department, TAITRA said, "COM-IT expo
always provides a platform to showcase latest
technological innovations from Taiwan. We
aim to extend our business collaboration with
Indian companies by exchanging technological
knowledge. I invite all exhibitors present
here to COMPUTEX 2017 to showcase their
products and solutions."
The event registered participation from
more than 60 exhibitors including brands
such as Digisol, Kaspersky, Dell, eScan,
Canon, D-Link and many more. Nearly
5,000 trade and business visitors and 15,000
end-users thronged Mumbai's leading IT
show, COM-IT Expo over three days. A few
of the exhibitors that displayed their products
and solutions at the event were Digisol, Web
Werks, Jinali, Taiwan Excellence, Everest,
The CyberTech, Parth India, EMS, TP-Link,
Hilink Networks, Skywater and so on.
COM-IT Expo 2016 provided a grand
networking and marketing platform both for

38

October 2016

www.varindia.com

Champak Raj Gurjar


President, Federation of All
India IT Associations (FAIITA)

domestic and international industry players


of the IT, Security & Mobile industry that
opened up a world of opportunities and
business prospects.
Champak
Raj
Gurjar,
President,
Federation of All India IT Associations
(FAIITA) said, "COM-IT is a global platform
for the IT, Security and Mobile industries
where innovative solutions find their target
customers. This expo plays host to a wide base
of vendors who have developed products and
technologies beneficial to end-users. COMIT Expo has helped to accelerate growth for
many well-established IT firms of Mumbai."
Rushabh Shah, President, TAIT said,
"COM-IT is one of the most awaited IT
shows in India. Right from inception, it has
been regarded as a top quality show to draw
leading local and foreign vendors and solution
providers. In the past, this platform has been
used for a number of product launches and
this year too, lots of exciting technologies
were on display. The participants found
it a very engaging experience as they could
address channel partners as well as end-users
from a single platform. It is this quality visitor
mix which sets us apart."
COM-IT Expo provides a platform to
both domestic and international industry
players for IT Software, hardware and service
solutions and seeks to meet the objectives
of generating sustainable growth for the IT
sector and create new business and networking
opportunities. It emphasizes on IT, Security,
Cloud Computing, IT Infrastructure, Web
and Mobile solutions, while showcasing new
security solutions, mobile apps and software
developers more than ever before.
TAIT is a Premier IT Association for
the IT Channels in Mumbai and represents
the interests of the top 350+ IT companies
comprising of resellers, systems & network
integrators, distributors, sub distributors &
solution providers. n

OPEN YOUR EYES

Cisco looks up to India with


renewed Business interests

n June 2015, when John T Chambers,


Chairman and CEO of Cisco visited
India, he made a commitment towards
manufacturing by investing USD 1.74 billion
in the country. The recent announcement
of Cisco launching its India manufacturing
operations and digital partnership with the
government of Maharashtra is in line with that
commitment. It can be seen as a crucial step
taken to accentuate the Digital India program
as also affirming Ciscos commitment to this
market.
As of now, the partnership will enable
Cisco to manufacture and roll out a diverse
product portfolio in India to support the
governments Make in India initiative.
However, over time, according to Ciscos
CEO, Chuck Robbins, the company wants to
build up the capacity of the facility to take up
orders to cater to other markets as well.
The manufacturing facility which is likely
to come up in Pune is said to produce and
ship orders for customers in India as well as
take up operations for testing, development,
logistics and in-house repair capabilities.
Cisco has been operational in India for the
last 21 years and the country has been playing
an important role in Ciscos charted growth.
In these years of operation, Cisco has made 3
big commitments so far. The first was when
the company decided to make India its second
global headquarters, and Chuck Robbins,
who has taken charge last July, feels that it
has been one of the best decisions Cisco has
taken, considering the talent pool and the
engineering expertise available. The second is
Ciscos commitment to align with PM Modis
Digital India agenda and the third strategic
step is that of Ciscos decision to open a
manufacturing hub in Maharashtra. As a

matter of fact, India is one among the many


countries (the other being France, Germany,
UK, Israel, Mexico) where Cisco is engaged
at the head-of-states level to take forward the
digital transformation plan in accordance with
the vision of the leader of the country.
There is still a lot to be done on part
of Cisco before the project gets going and
fast track it as per commitments, and not
forgetting the challenges that will crop up.
But what needs lauding is Ciscos growing
interest in the market and identifying the
business opportunities that can subsequently
mean more revenues for the company.
Additionally, Cisco also announced its
ongoing commitment to accelerate Digital
Maharashtra, including several initiatives to
ensure that all of Indias citizens benefit from
the power of connectivity. These initiatives
include Smart City Solutions in Nagpur: Cisco
will roll out Smart City Solutions in Nagpur to
enable city-wide network connectivity, smart
& secure Wi-Fi hotspots and smart safety &
surveillance solutions. The various citizen
services enabled by smart cities architecture,
like smart transport, solid waste management,
smart lighting, environmental sensors, and
smart parking, will be integrated on Ciscos
City Digital Platform.
Dharavi eCommerce Hub: At the

The manufacturing facility


which is likely to come up in
Pune is said to produce and ship
orders for customers in India as
well as take up operations for
testing, development, logistics
and in-house repair capabilities.

ceremony, Cisco showcased how it was


helping digitize Sri Ganesh Vidya Mandir
High School by providing the students with a
virtual classroom, digital learning and highly
secure Internet connectivity. After school
hours, local entrepreneurs and start-ups will
be able to use the school as a platform for
local innovation and help make Dharavi an
e-commerce hub.
Expansion of Cisco Networking
Academy
Program: The company
announced plans to establish up to 25 Cisco
Networking Academies to train approximately
10,000 students in Maharashtra by 2020.
Wi-Fi, Smart Education and Smart
Healthcare to Digitize Fetri Village:
Cisco announced a new initiative to digitize
Fetri village in the Kato Tehsil of Nagpur
district in Maharashtra. With the intention
to build a Digital Village, Cisco will deploy
key technologies including Wi-Fi, smart
healthcare, and smart education in an upper
primary government school in Fetri.
Cisco to Collaborate on Broadband
Infrastructure: Cisco will collaborate on the
state-wide rollout of broadband infrastructure
to accelerate the Digital Maharashtra vision.
The launch of the manufacturing
operations took place in the presence of the
chief minister of Maharashtra, Devendra
Fadnavis; the CEO of the National
Institution for Transforming India (NITI)
Aayog, Amitabh Kant; Aruna Sundararajan,
Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and
Information Technology, government of
India; Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins; Irving
Tan, senior vice president, Cisco Asia Pacific
and Japan; Dinesh Malkani, president, Cisco
India & SAARC and Jun Kim, vice president,
Cisco Supply Chain Operations. n

www.varindia.com

October 2016

39

FACE TO FACE

The name to Reckon


with in Open Source
Incepted in 1993, Red Hat is one of the leaders in the
Open Source community that provides an enterprise
strength, mission critical software and services in the most
important IT areas of Operating Systems, Virtualization,
Middleware, Storage, and Cloud Computing.

Rajesh Rege, Managing


Director, Red Hat India:
For Red Hat, India is
an exciting and a great
marketplace with lots of
opportunities like Smart City,
Digital India, Make in India,
payment gateways and e
commerce. Government is also
a big focus area for Red Hat.
The company has witnessed a
sequential Q-on-Q growth for
58 quarters in a row. A leader
in the OS space, We also have
a state-of-the-art engineering
facility in Bangalore.

ore than 20 years ago, Red Hat


disrupted the enterprise software
world with new models for technology and
business innovation. Today, Red Hat is
the global leader in open source software,
credited with bringing open source to the
enterprise mainstream and inspiring the
continued evolution of open source, which is
driving key innovations across the technology
landscape, from cloud computing and Linux
containers, to mobile, big data, and beyond.
In its 2016 predictions, Deutsche Bank wrote
that open source keeps eating the world,
with open source rivals for almost every
major infrastructure and data management
software market.
Receiving accolades for being the Open
Source leader, Red Hat has recently been
named to Forbes' Worlds Most Innovative
Companies list. The company was ranked
as the 25th most innovative company in
the world, marking the company's fourth
appearance on the list (2012, 2014, 2015,
and 2016). Earlier, Red Hat was named to
Forbes' "World's Most Innovative Growth

40

October 2016

www.varindia.com

Companies" list in 2011.


19% growth in Q2 of fiscal 2017

The company in its Q2 of fiscal year 2017


which ended on August 31, 2016 has witnessed
a 19% (in US dollars) year on year growth
which brings up its total revenue for the
quarter to $600 million. Subscription revenue
for the quarter was $531 million, up 20% in
U.S. dollars year-over-year. Subscription
revenue in the quarter was 89% of total
revenue.
The quarter revenue also mentioned 18%
in year on year growth in Infrastructure
offerings. It also combined with 33% in yearover-year growth for Application development
and other emerging technologies.
Explaining the same, Jim Whitehurst,
President and Chief Executive Officer of Red
Hat said, Red Hat's second quarter revenue
results were highlighted by 18% in year-overyear growth for our Infrastructure offerings,
combined with 33% in year-over-year growth
for our Application development and other
emerging technologies. Digital transformation
and hybrid cloud computing are changing how
applications are built, deployed and managed.
As organizations adopt agile application
development technologies such as Linux
containers, they are able to rely on Red Hat
as their strategic partner to modernize their

infrastructure and application development


platforms.
Strong demand and overall execution
has continued to benefit the company in the
second quarter. It also continued to close
deals of over $1 million in the quarter. This
upholds its customers dedication towards the
company and the sky rocketing demand for
its solutions.
New-generation products

Continuing its leadership in the open


source segment and enhancing its product
portfolio, Red Hat has announced the general
availability of its Kernel-based Virtual Machine
(KVM) -powered virtualization platform,
Red Hat Virtualization 4. It challenges the
economics and complexities of proprietary
virtualization solutions by providing a fullyopen, high-performing, more secure and
centrally managed platform for both Linux
and Windows-based workloads. It combines
a powerful updated hypervisor, advanced
system dashboard, and centralized networking
for users evolving workloads.
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization has
also been positioned by Gartner in the
Visionaries quadrant of the August 2016
x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure Magic
Quadrant. n

Q217 Financial Highlights











Revenue $600 million, up 19% y/y


Subscription Revenue $531 million, up 20% y/y

o Infrastructure related: $427 million, up 18% y/y

o App dev related & emerging tech: $104 million, up 33% y/y
Subscription Revenue 89% of total revenue
Training & Services Revenue $69 million, up 10% y/y
Cash & Investments balance: $2.04 billion
Repurchased 1.8 million shares of common stock
Deferred Revenue $1.68 billion, up 19% y/y
Number of deals over $1 million up 60% y/y

This should be read in conjunction with Red Hats earnings press release issued on
September 21, 2016 as well as Red Hats SEC filings found on http://investors.redhat.com

FACE TO FACE

Personalized Printing will drive


the Digital Printing market
Balaji Rajagopalan, Executive Director, Technology, Channels & International
Business - Xerox India in a chat with VARINDIA gives an idea of how the digital printing
market in India is growing and Xerox is placed to leverage the growth prospects -

he overall printing market in India


is growing and while the pattern
of printing is changing, there is a big
expectation that the printing industry will
still continue to exist and grow.
In the printing market, digital printing
is one segment that has shown strong
growth numbers and has evolved over the
years. Growth in digital printing is driven
by improved levels of service to customers,
providing new opportunities to customers
and helping them grow significantly. Today,
applications and solutions is an essential
in this segment. A few of the emerging
trends in this segment are personalization,
versioning and targeted printing.
Digital printing is a growing market
for us and we have a very strong position
in this market segment. We have developed
a wide range of products and solutions
portfolio for the entry to mid to the
high-end segment and are one of the
few companies which have such a vast
breadth of offerings. If you see our digital
presses, they are segmented in a way that
customers can pick and choose basis their
requirements and the machine can add
value to their business rather than being
a cost churner, says Balaji Rajagopalan,
Executive Director, Technology, Channels
& International Business - Xerox India.
Xerox has recently launched a slew of
products like Color C60/C70 with energy
saving capacities, Versant 80 and Versant
2100 with banner printing capabilities,
ColorPress 1000i with gold and silver ink.
The most recent addition are the iGen 5
press and Impika Inkjet which caters to the
demands of the high end segment. All these
products can fit in for specific customer
requirements like banner printing, book
publishing, photo printing etc. and can
do wonders for the customers. This
shows our commitment to the market and
in 2016, we will further strengthen our
product portfolio and bring in innovative
solutions to help our customers focus on
what matters most Real Business, states
Balaji.
The launch of the iGen platform back in
2002 had completely changed the outlook
of the high-end digital printing market,
according to Balaji and now with the iGen
5 presss outstanding capabilities will surely
make a similar impact.
The iGen family is a key differentiator
for us. The machines from this family are
feature rich, high on productivity, offer

great color outputs and are one of the most


productive digital presses available in the
market today. Xerox has always been at
the helm of innovation and we continue
to understand customer demands and make
products tailored to meet those demands;
the launch of iGen 5 Press shows our
commitment to our customers, he adds.

Opportunities galore...

Xerox is very committed to the market


place and multiple installations of its newly
launched devices is proof enough of that.
There is immense potential in the digital
printing market led by rise in photoprinting, book publishing, short-run jobs
and much more. For instance, the wedding
photography industry today is about Rs
1,800 crore business with a demand for 7.5
million wedding photo albums every year
in the country. Roughly 21% of the photo
products have moved into digital printing,
which is a Rs 700 crore market now.
For photo-printing, our Versant
family and iGen 5 are a great fit. They
offer great quality of colors which is a clear
differentiator in the market place today.
The iGen 5 offers color palates beyond
usual CMYK and this is a great feature for
customers in this segment, he explains.
Furthermore, Xerox has successfully
concluded with Drupa 2016. It was a great
event and was a great platform to showcase

our devices and solutions.We very recently


also launched two new inkjet machines the Xerox Brenva HD Production Inkjet
Press and the Xerox Trivor 2400 Inkjet
Press and showcased our portfolio of other
devices and technology solutions via demos
at the event. We expect these machines to
be a definite game changer in India, recalls
Balaji.
In 2016, Xerox wants to maximize its
business share as much as possible. Last
year was a good year with strong growth
numbers and in 2016, we are looking to
grow consideration, coverage and our
revenue, he says.
Xerox is present in all categories today
and more than 50% of its customers are
repeat customers. This is testament to
Xerox being strong in customer service
and helping customers grow their business.
Some of its key customer segments are
photo-printing, publishing, short run and
long run jobs.
Our latest entrant in the Indian
market is iGen 5 Press. This machine has
the capability to revolutionize the highend digital printing segment. The press is
fully customizable to meet page volume,
application type and color needs all while
delivering market-leading press uptime. n
Samrita Baruah
samrita@varindia.com

www.varindia.com

October 2016

41

FACE TO FACE

Compuage aims to achieve Rs.7,000Crore revenue and expand reach


In a chat with VARINDIA, Atul Mehta, Chairman & MD, Compuage Infocom, has discussed about the
low penetration of PCs, focus area in the last financial year, future plans and the success mantra

hough the IT industry is witnessing slow growth, but there


lies a huge potential in the market. Personal Computer (PC)
is the core thing around which networking, software, peripherals, etc
revolves. But the penetration level of PC is very low which opens a
wide market for Compuage Infocom and acts as a huge potential.
For the last two-and-a-half years, the growth of IT industry has
been a little slow, but the potential is immense because the penetration
level is quite low in the country. Rather than looking backward, we
should look forward to the potential that exists in the industry and
in the marketplace. So, I feel that the next five or 10 years should
be really promising. Everything starts with Personal Computer (PC),
then comes peripherals, networking products, software, etc, but
everything revolves around PC which includes laptops and desktops.
From that perspective, the PC penetration level is low. It is low by a
double digit. Last year, our PC sales were in the region of 10 million.
There is no doubt that the trend is changing, there are more options
of tablets and smartphones are available. But there are a lot of things
that a PC can do. It is required for several applications. From that
viewpoint, the number of 10 million PCs for 1.2 billion population
of India is very low. That itself is a huge opportunity in the market,
asserts Atul Mehta, Chairman & Managing Director, Compuage
Infocom.

Business in last two years


In FY 2015-16, due to deeper penetration in the market and
optimization of opportunities Compuage has witnessed a growth of
31 per cent y-o-y. The company has concentrated in its mobility and
Enterprise business segment which has earned numbers.
Business in the year 2014-15 is flatter for us primarily because of
some realignment of our business. But 2015-16 is a very good year and
it has grown by 31 per cent. The growth is because we have penetrated
the market deeply and we have a lot of product lines where we have
optimized the opportunities. One of our product lines is mobility
which was very low previously, but our revenue has grown in this
segment. Secondly, we have started covering B-, C-, D-, E-class cities
at much more depth where more growth was happening than the
bigger cities. The third is we grew in the Enterprise space. So these are
the three areas that help us grew 31 per cent y-o-y.
We went aggressive in Enterprise products such as networking,
software and security. In mobility, it is smartphones where we grew
our business with our existing vendors. We also see a good potential
in security business and are focussed on it. It is one of the fastestgrowing areas in the industry, explains Mehta.

Future Plans
Compuage is currently working with more than 10,000 partners
and operates from its 41 offices across the country.
We are working with above 10,000 partners across the country
through our 41 offices, 45 warehouses and 51 service centres. We are
very broad-based distributor. We have products like components,
peripherals, PCs and also have enterprise products like networking,
software, etc. We wanted to go broadly in the marketplace mapping
the entire market, describes Mehta.
Talking about the future plans, he revealed that by FY 19
Compuage is aiming to achieve Rs.7,000 crore and in FY 2016-17 it is
looking forward to reach the target of Rs.4,000 crore. It also wants to
increase the number of partners to 15,000.
Our plans is to achieve Rs.7,000 crore of revenue through sales
representation in 100 cities. Currently, we are covering 55 cities
where we have sales representatives. The turnover in FY 2014-15 was
approximately Rs.2,400 crore and FY 2015-16 Rs.3,100 crore. In FY

42

October 2016

www.varindia.com

Message for Partners


We are a true Value-Added Distributor and believe to work
hand in hand with them and grow in market share and grow
in business. We will work jointly with our partners to grow
their business which, in turn, will get growth for us. We
are not merely a fulfilment distributor. We want to play an
active role in sales, marketing and development of partners
across India which would in turn help grow business.
2016-17, we are working with a plan of approximately Rs.4,000 crore
which is 25 per cent. Our aim of achieving Rs.4,000 crore is ambitious
but possible. We have to grow 30 per cent year over year.
We also want to expand our partner base to 15,000 and also cover
resellers in 1,000 cities, adds Mehta.

Success Mantra
Compuage follows the key mantra of Speed, Reliability and Value
Performance which have taken the company to the doorsteps of
success in this industry. Mehta also believes that these three aspects
will further take Compage to the next level of success.
Speed, Reliability and Value Performance are the key mantra of
our success. We have to be fast. By reliability, we mean the vendors
and partners must have trust in us about our ability and value
performance is very important because we have to differentiate us
from others in the market. These three factors will take us to the next
level that is Rs.7,000 crore. What we have accomplished in the last 29
years, we are going to accomplish in the next 29 months, concludes
Mehta. n

The Leadership at Compuage

Atul H Mehta
Chairman & Managing Director

Bhavesh H Mehta
COO & Director

Sunil M Mehta
Chief Financial Officer

Deepak Karia
General Manager Sales

Vinod Thakkar
General Manager Business

Nehal Sharma
Deputy GM Sales

Shreyas Vyas
IT Manager

Sagar Abraham
National Service Manager

Dilip Darji
Deputy GM Accounts

Compuage Infocom to be Linksys ND for India


L

inksys has announced the reappointment of Compuage


Infocom Limited as its National Distributor in India.
According to company officials, Compuage Infocom will
be the exclusive India distributor for the Linksys range of
products which include wireless/Wi-Fi and networking
solutions for Consumer and SMB segments.
Headquartered in Mumbai, Compuage Infocom has a
pan-India presence with branches across 45 cities and a strong
network of more than 10000 partners. Linksys India hopes
to strengthen its India presence and reach out to tier 2 and 3
cities apart from major metros through this strategic tie-up.
Linksys current consumer product portfolio in India includes Wireless Routers and Gateways, Wireless Range Extenders, USB
Network Adapters, and Networking Accessories. For the Small and Medium Business (SMB) Segment, Linksys India currently offers
Switches, VPN Routers, Access Points and Networking Accessories.
Commenting on the tie-up, Altaf Ansari, Country Head, Linksys (India and SAARC) said, Compuage Infocom has a strong legacy
of experience as well as expertise in the IT Distribution sector. We hope to redefine our strategic presence in India through our valuable
tie-up withCompuage. Our aim is to achieve greater reach in the India market through our powerful Wireless and Networking solutions
catering to Consumer and SMB segments.
Atul Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, Compuage Infocom Ltd. said, We are glad to be on board as the National Distributor
for Linksys, a global brand known for quality and excellence in the Wireless and Networking space. With our past experience with
Linksys, our expertise in sales and a robust nationwide network, we are confident that we can add value to Linksys brand position in the
India market.
Linksys products will be exclusively distributed in India via Compuage Infocom Ltd from September 2016 onwards.

www.varindia.com

October 2016

43

Get Lucky this Festive Season!


Come October and we see the festive fever taking over everyone. Induced by discounts and special sales &
offers, the festive season for the current year is on and we can see both customers and brands going gaga over it The festive season is something for
which the whole of India awaits for
shopping. It is also the time when vendors
try to build connect with its consumers
in a big way. During this period many
people generally tend to look forward to
make a big purchase as it is considered
auspicious. Not only are consumers given
compelling choices but also with several
discounts, the festive offers become the
right time to make the right purchase.
This abundance of offers and discounts
drive maximum sales for vendors.
These festive offers do encourage
growth of business resulting in increase
in sales and revenue, agrees Chandrahas
Panigrahi, Sr. Director and Consumer
Business Head, Acer India. It is true
across many categories as companies make
a significant chunk of their yearly revenue
during this time. Acers expectations are
very high from this quarter as it believes
that it has the strongest product portfolio
and a host of offers which gives extremely
good value on purchase of Acer products.
It is not only about the positive business

44

October 2016

www.varindia.com

we do but also the channel relations we


build and nurture with our customers and
partners during this time which makes
this time of the year really special,
Chandrahas adds.
Though purchases are made across
product categories, IT and telecom
gadgets are something which sells
maximum during this time. Consumers

Navin Chawla
Chief Operating Officer
Lava International Ltd

who used to see the festive season as


being an occasion for purchasing a new
vehicle or home appliance have grown to
consider technology devices as another
vital need that must be accounted for. It
is also expected that demand for personal
technology devices to continue to grow
this year as Indian consumer are becoming
more tech-savvy and knowledgeable.
SanDisk, a Western Digital Brand runs
consumer campaigns every year during
the festive season with special offers
for consumers pan India. These festive
campaigns are aimed at generating lot of
excitement and interest for SanDisks wide
product range, thus helping consumers
to stay connected and enjoy the freedom
to capture and share memories without
worrying about storage limitations, tells
Jaganathan Chelliah, Marketing Director
of SanDisk India Retail, Western Digital
Corporation.
LG
has
the
most
promising
product portfolio this year. A strong
product portfolio and impressive retail
environment combined with exciting

COVER STORY

Chandrahas Panigrahi
Sr. Director and Consumer Business Head Acer India

Niladri Datta
Head-Corporate Marketing LG Electronics India

Anil Gupta
AVP - India Sales
eScan

offers will certainly impress consumers to


upgrade this season. Offering customers
compelling choices and exciting deals is
LGs own way of maximizing customer
satisfaction. This year festive season brings
all the more growth opportunity for brands
due to factors like, good monsoon, roll out
of 7th pay commission. This year, we are
targeting strong 30 percent growth overall
as well as across categories, points out
Niladri Datta, Head-Corporate Marketing,
LG Electronics India.

Amitabh Tiwari, COO Sansui too


agrees that the festive season will fare
out better this year on the back of good
monsoon and overall positive consumer
sentiments. Keeping this in mind, we
have rolled out exciting customer offers.
We believe this will further strengthen
our relation with the customers who
will be delighted to bring home our
brand during the festivity. The brand is
optimistic about this years festive season
and is targeting 55% sales growth over

the same period last year.


Sharan Maini, Director - Noble
Skiodo feels that TV as a commodity is
one of the fast moving goods during the
festive season. We at Noble Skiodo have
announced special prices and discounts
exclusive to the festive period. We already
have rolled out our schemes and singular
prices and we already have started seeing
traction in the market.
HTC is happy to celebrate this

Festive Schemes and Offers

Acer

For this festive season, Acer has announced the special offers on the purchase of its range of Aspire Laptops, 2 in 1, convertibles and Allin-One PCs. On purchase of any of Acers range of laptops, notebooks, desktops, consumers can avail the benefit of attractive EMI offers.
Further, Acer is also offering free antivirus and data recovery software. Now customers can also extended warranty on the products by just
paying Rs. 499/-. Additionally, consumers planning to purchase a Bluetooth Headset can avail this offer by paying a nominal Rs. 499/- for
the trendy headset which is worth Rs. 2999/-.

Fujifilm

Fujifilm has lined up 3 new offers to delight its customers this season - the Mini 8 Bundle Pack priced at INR 8,633/-, Mini 8 Festival Box
priced at 9,999/-and the Mini 8 Party Box priced at 12,999/- only. Moreover, customers can avail further discount of up to 30% on these
new offerings. The New Instax Combos are available at Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, Naaptol and retail stores.

eScan

eScan offers time-to-time special offers for the end users in terms of extended license period or lucky draw gifts. Keeping that in mind
the company will be offering special discounts and offers to end users through its partners. For partner, it has special offers to claim Silver &
Gold coins, foreign travels etc are on the anvil. There are also a few surprise offers for partners doing exceptionally well in terms of achieving
the targets and making large deals.

Zopo

Zopo has great offers lined up for the end users in ZOPO's first festive season Zopo Looton Month: It is running a month long contest on Facebook. Users can engage to win merchandise, freebies, IT accessories
from power banks, headphones, ZOPO smartphones every week, etc.
Zopo 365 Days Replacement Warranty: Zopo has a special 365 days handset replacement warranty, under which users would be
able to exchange their ZOPO device for a new one in case of a hardware failure.
Zopo is also giving away 'Assured gifts' in the form of a ZOPO kit with every purchase of a phone. The kit would include surprise
ZOPO merchandise.

HTC

HTC has launched its festival celebrations with an attractive offer wherein its most popular Flagship device HTC 10 will now be
available at a discounted price of Rs. 47,990/-.

Intex

This year, Intex is giving a backpack free on purchase of Intex mobiles worth Rs. 5000 and above. Other than this, it has tied-up with
popular apps such as Saavn, Mydala, Nazara, eTravelSmart, Viu, ChillX and TrendMicro to further enhance its connect with the tech savvy
youth consumers. It is also providing a pre-bundled offer with all Intex smart phones whereby consumers can enjoy more with Idea 4G LTE
and get 1GB free for 3 months. Along with this, get assured gifts - free benefits worth Rs. 1,500 and a chance to win 124 cm (50) LED TV
and other exciting gifts. These offers are available on selected models (Aqua Strong 5, Aqua Q7N, Aqua 3G Pro Q, Aqua Joy).

www.varindia.com

October 2016

45

COVER STORY

Amitabh Tiwari
COO - Sansui

Taro Kawano
Head-Image Capturing - Fujifilm India

Mehul Jobanputra
CEO & Co-Founder - Desidime.com

Festive Schemes and Offers

SanDisk (WD)

SanDisk is running a five month long festive campaign SanDisk Festival Bonanza 504GB and offering consumers across India the chance
to win 504GB gift hamper worth Rs.22,960 daily on purchase of 32GB capacity and above SanDisk products that has the contest sticker.
One lucky customer stands a chance to win 504GB of SanDisk Gift Hamper daily basis the best entries received. The gift hamper includes
one unit each of SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I Memory card 128GB, SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick 128GB, SanDisk Extreme 500
Portable SSD 120GB and SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive 3.0 128GB.

Sansui

Sansui is offering warranty free 5 years on LEDs in the screen size of 32 and above models. Apart from new models of LEDs, Sansui will
also be crafting unique product displays at the ground level. Sansui has introduced attractive finance schemes and partner with associates to
extend exchange schemes, discounts and other customer benefits.

LG

LG has announced multiple offers on all its products like OLED TVs, Multimedia and Bluetooth speakers, Home Theatre systems,
sound bars, water purifiers, washing machines, microwaves, etc. It hopes to encash on the festive season and the tendency of buyers to make
purchases during this time of the year.

Noble Skiodo
Apart from the Amazon fest, Noble Skiodo is looking at several bundling offers which shall bring an attractive deal for the audience.
Through it, the brand is trying to bring the price brackets to the customers that have never been seen before. Noble Skiodo hopes to reach
out to more than 1 million customers during this Diwali season through its very attractive schemes.
Lava

Lava has recently announced the 365 days Screen Replacement offer ahead of this festive season to add to the joy of celebrations for
its consumers across India. As per the offer, on purchase of every LAVA mobile phone be it feature phone or smartphone, the customers
will be eligible to avail a one-time screen replacement within 365 days from the date of purchase.

Canon

Canon takes pride in contributing towards building memories for life. This festive season, It is announcing the special offer of a Moto
pulse headset with Canon EOS 1300D or EOS 700D. This offer started on 6th Sep and will be available till Diwali/till stock lasts.

Asus

ASUS has an Incredible Diwali where 100 lucky consumers will have the chance to win a 100% cashback voucher on the purchase of a
Zenfone 3 from 18th to 22nd October, 2016. In addition, another 100 people will also get the chance to win an ASUS ZenPower.

LeEco

To add a special zing to the festive spirit, LeEco is hosting a #LeEcoFestiveMirfie contest and inviting all smartphone lovers to capture
their favourite celebratory mood with a Mirfie (Mirror Selfie) using a LeEco SuperPhone. The contest will run from October 15 till October
28.

Viewsonic

Viewsonic has launched a Gold bonanza festive offer for its valued partners. The tier 3 scheme is to ensure that all stockiest get benefit of
demand generation for 24" and above size monitors, who in turn buys from ViewSonic' distributors and can enjoy the demand generation
from the reseller and small time dealers from IT market. Eligible tier 3 finch partners of ViewSonic will win two gram gold on every 10 units
of ViewSonic 24" & 25" monitors and One gram gold on every 5 units of ViewSonic 27" Monitors.

Lenovo

Lenovo is introducing a first of its kind offer to its customers in which on the purchase of premium Lenovo laptops, customers can avail
two years of Accidental Damage Protection (ADP) and two years of additional warranty at no extra cost. Lenovo is providing a host of
special offers on its entire range of laptops, All-in-Ones (AIO) and desktops. This Diwali, customers can choose between offers that include
additional warranty up to three years, accident protection up to three years and exciting accessories like a hard drive, power bank or gaming
gear.

Dell

kicked 2016
off the festive
season with exciting offers for consumers on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. It has announced compelling
October
www.varindia.com
46 Dell
offers between August 19 and September 18, 2016 on its range of Vostro notebooks and Inspiron notebooks and desktops.

Jaganathan Chelliah
Marketing Director of SanDisk India
Retail - Western Digital Corporation

Sanjeev Bhatia
Founder & Chairman, Adcom and channel
partner - Zopo Mobile India

ongoing festival season with its fans


and friends and are proud about the
enormous faith & trust that they have on
us. We are hoping to reach closer to our
consumers through various social media
platforms and through our sponsorship
as a principal sponsor of Bollywood
actor/producer John Abrahams football
franchise North East United FC (NEUFC)
at the forthcoming Hero Indian Super
League 2016. We recently launched the
mid-priced HTC Lifestyle and hope to
launch the Pro version soon in the India
market, recalls Faisal Siddiqui, President
South Asia HTC.
Being one of the pure play security
solution providers, eScan sees a surge in
Home and Business segment product sales
during this period driven by new laptop,
PC and Mobile sales. As most of the
users today are aware of the cyber threats,
they prefer to buy an antivirus or mobile
security product along with the new
device or our partners offering bundled
offer give it as a package. We expect this
year to be better than last year due to the
positive macro sentiments as well as the
growing cyber threats, says Anil Gupta,
AVP - India Sales at eScan.
This festive season Fujifilm India has
planned to further enhance customer
experience with the launch of 3 new Instax
Mini 8 Combos - the Mini 8 Bundle Pack,
Mini 8 Festival Box and the Mini 8 Party
Box. Whether you want to surprise
your loved ones with a combo of Mini
8 camera, fancy stickers and accessories

or capture your festival moments and


keep them intact in an album or get your
own party started with party props,
fancy sling bag and markers, whatever is
your requirement Fujifilm has got it for
you, says Taro Kawano, Head-Image
Capturing, Fujifilm India.
Swipe Technologies is also very
bullish about the festive season with
its star series Elite. Elite plus has
contributed a significant chunk to our
turnover during the Big billon days on
Flipkart. Festive season is the best time
to gift your loved ones and families and
there can be no better option than buying
something which is pocket friendly but
at the same time goes hand in hand with
the modern technology, says Shripal
Gandhi Founder and CEO of Swipe
Technologies.
Intex is looking forward to offer
the best services along with beneficial
offers. We have received a remarkable
response on our last offers and schemes.
This festive season, we plan to launch
around 7-8 mobile phones and foraying
into Smart TVs along with varied range
of CDIT products. Other than this
we feel that our competitive pricing
&offers to the consumers and schemes
to the retailers will help us drive higher
sales. Like every festive season, our sales
are expected go higher because of the
attractive offers that we are giving to our
customers, says Keshav Bansal, Director,
Intex Technologies.

Sharan Maini
Director - Noble Skiodo

Customer Buying Trends

Faisal Siddiqui
President South Asia HTC

Keshav Bansal
Director - Intex Technologies

Companies are expecting the current


festive season demand to be subsequently
higher than what it was last year as there
has been a spurt witnessed in consumer
buying recently. Consumer sentiment
too is up and buoyant. The latest trend
this season is gadgets and smartphones
that are one of the hottest picks during
the festival time.
When it comes to the consumer
buying journey, we see that consumers
these days have turned very smart and
have also gone very patient when it comes
to cracking the right deal. With heavy
Sales and discounts available both offline
and online, one shall see consumers
involved in extensive research before
taking the next step, asserts Sharan.
We expect consumers this year to be
technologically savvy as Technology is
no longer of interest to any particular age
group and with growing advancements
and innovation the consumer buying
trend has also seen a shift, he continues.
Zopo is expecting a 250- 300% increase
in sales in during the festive period. But
we will have to wait, see and analyze the
situation, says Sanjeev Bhatia, Founder
& Chairman, Adcom and channel partner
for Zopo Mobile in India.
With consumers eyeing more premium
products, Sansui observes an upswing in
the sales of high end consumer goods.
Also, since there is an expected increase
in the prices of LEDs, people will make
the most of the festive offers and buy

Shripal Gandhi
Founder and CEO - Swipe Technologies

www.varindia.com

October 2016

47

COVER STORY
LEDs before the prices go up, according
to Amitabh.
Taro Kawano believes that during
this festive season, people are going out
of the way to explore gifts that have an
impact and are thoughtful, one that will
help them in storing the festive moments
as a memory. The customers will be
delighted by what Fujifilm has to offer
and we have also seen a splurge in the
market for instant cameras, he says. The
Instax Mini 8 Combos are perfect for
any occasion be it a Diwali celebration,
Birthday Party, Bachelorette Party or
any other special occasion for people to
enjoy instant photos.
An Internal Survey conducted by
Desidime.com revealed that Gift Cards
and Vouchers have been bought more
this sale season compared to last year,
primarily for the extra discounts they
offer. While 55% of sales are happening
via App, 7% via site and 37% via Desktop
(approx), exclusive products with Flipkart,
Amazon & Snapdeal like mobile phones
were selling like hot buns on the day
when there was a sale on Mobile phones.
Overall the sentiment was that fewer
deals were deep discounted as compare
to last couple of years. Consumers are
increasingly
becoming
comfortable
ordering online without COD this festive
season, observes Mehul Jobanputra,
CEO & Co-Founder - Desidime.com.
The Winner online vs offline

The gulf between online retail and its


brick-and-mortar counterpart is expanding
and shopping experience of people is in turn
evolving. There is a growing demand for
products offline as well as online channels
during the festive season. All in all, the major
driving factor behind customers going online
is the huge discount on offer, free home
delivery, cash on delivery, free return which
is as high as one month.
Brands also try to maintain a balance
between both the online and offline
platforms. Most of them try to fit in both
these platforms by making it a part of their
uniform retail strategy.
Lava firmly believes in empowering its
customers, shareholders and commercial
partners so that they can do more and be
more. We have a strong foothold in the
offline channel as we are the only company
in the Indian mobile handset industry with a
100% single layer distribution model wherein
all distributors are directly managed and
controlled by Lava. However, Lava products
are also sold via e-commerce portals and the
sales from the online channels has shown
positive traction, says Navin Chawla, Chief
Operating Officer, Lava International.
We are exploring various e-commerce
platforms and even in the past, we have
associated with them regularly. Though, we
believe that Indians are more comfortable in
buying products after personally experiencing
in stores, and hence offline channels cannot

48

October 2016

www.varindia.com

The Top 4 e-commerce Shopping Extravaganza


Call it Big Billion Day or The Great Indian Festival, this is the time when Indian shop the
most and taking advantage of it, major e-commerce brands launch their biggest shopping
events of the year to leverage the buying sentiments of its consumers. A look at what they
have in store this year Amazon: After the Amazon Dussehra sale which was from
October 1 to October, the Diwali sale is already around the corner
for Amazon lovers. The second wave of Great Indian Festival is
scheduled from October 17 to 20. Products under the electronics
category will get a huge 55 per cent discount.
Flipkart: Flipkart has announced its app-only Flipkart Big Billion
Days that began on October 2, 2016 and ran till October 6, 2016.
The second-edition was held between October 13 and October
17. The Big Billion Days offered discounts across 70+ product
segments.
Snapdeal: After the last 5-day sale conducted just a week ago,
Snapdeal was back with another sale that started from 12 October
through 14 October. Called the Unbox Diwali Sale, Snapdeal offered
some big deals offerings with discounts up to a hefty 70 percent.
The sale started with some exciting deals across categories like
appliances, electronics, gadgets, mobile phones and even on home
furniture and FMCG products.
Shopclues: Shopclues Diwali Sale #ItneKumMein was conducted
from 1st Oct to 10th October 2016. Great discounts were offered on
almost every products ranging from home appliances to electronic
gadgets and home products.

be ignored. However, we ensure you that we


will be present on every channel where our
consumers are present. We hope to capitalize
the festive season in the rural and semi urban
markets, asserts Niladri.
For Intex, 80% of its sales come from
offline and remaining from online. Our
growth is majorly driven by the channel
strategy. However, to establish brands online
presence we always look at strategic tie-ups
with major online retailers to maintain our
visibility in the e-commerce sphere as well,
says Keshav.
Zopo is also doing a reasonable amount of
numbers both online & offline. Although we
are present in all tier I, tier II, and some tier
iii via e-commerce channels, we are getting a
better response from our traditional channel
community, says Sanjeev.
SanDisk views both offline retailers and
online e-tailers as important channels for
fulfilling the needs of the consumers. We
work closely with our retail partners in geo
markets and provide them with necessary
training, sales aids and consumer offers to
educate and sell to their customers, states
Jaganathan.
eScan, on the other hand is more focused
with its channel partner network than
ecommerce. As its product being a technical
product, the users normally buy from a
trusted source due to lack of deployment
skills or awareness. Apart from that, our
product segment presently contributes less
than 5% revenue in ecommerce. Hence,
being a channel oriented company we will
be more concentrating on the channel side

of the business to reach our vast user base,


says Anil.
Chandrahas believes that both the
platforms-Online and offline have their own
positives. While already having a robust
presence on e-commerce stores, Acer has
simultaneously increased its retail stores
with over 2000 stores and approximately
100 exclusive Acer stores. We believe, retail
stores give our customers the opportunity to
interact with the brand and to get the firsthand experience of the products. As these
online and offline platforms continue to coexist, we would also be leveraging both for
our ultimate focus of ascertaining convenience
for our users, he explains.
Desidime.com, which is a social online
shopping community has helped the merchant
partners to sell goods worth over 65 crores
in the first 7 days of October and is eyeing
a figure of Rs. 350 crores across merchants
overall this festive season till December. In
its internal survey, Desidime.com found that
more than 70% of users have said that they
have reduced their frequency of traditional
(Offline) shopping due to online Shopping
and more than 65% of users said that they
have ended up spending more than 50% of
their Diwali shopping budgets on online
shopping this year. As far as our prediction
goes, online orders from tier 2 & tier 3
cities will increase as compared to previous
years for lack of accessibility of brands and
increasing trust in online shopping, points
out Mehul. n
Samrita Baruah
samrita@varindia.com

Movers & Shakers

Vikram K to lead Data Center and Hybrid


Cloud at HPE India

Suchita Vishnoi quits Trend Micro,


joins Salesforce

Vikram K who was the Director for the


server division will now be the leader for
Data Center and Hybrid Cloud (DCHC)
at HPE India. This would be effective
from November 1st.
As per market trends, Hybrid Cloud
(which is a combination traditional IT and
private Cloud) will dominate the market
over the next five years. However, hybrid
IT is the new reality for organizations
today, and one of the many reasons of its
adoption is its combination of legacy IT along with public, private
and managed cloud services.
The datacenter space is also very important for HPE. The datacenter
market will continue to surge as with demands from different sectors.
This means high growth opportunities for HPE from both Hybrid
cloud and datacenter space.

As per her LinkedIn page, Suchita


Vishnoi has left Trend Micro to join
Salesforce as Director Marketing (India).
She was serving as Director Marketing
(India & SAARC) at Trend Micro.
At Salesforce, Suchita will lead the
marketing function and will sit together
with the India and APAC marketing
leadership team to drive the next level of
growth.
A dynamic marketing personality,
Suchita joined Trend Micro in 2009 as a Marketing Manager, before
getting elevated as Head Marketing (India & SAARC) and finally
as the Director Marketing. Prior to Trend Micro, Suchita has
had a stint with companies like Netmagic Solutions and Solutions
Integrated Marketing Solutions. She had driven Commercial &
Channel Marketing for India & the SAARC region while at Trend
Micro.

Snapdeal appoints Parul Batra, former


Google Global Executive,
as Vice President

Quick Heal appoints Vijay Mhaskar as COO

Snapdeal
has
announced
the
appointment of Parul Batra as Vice
President Corporate Communications.
At Snapdeal, Parul will anchor the public
relations mandate for the company,
helping drive the company into its next
phase of deeper connect with users, as
it focuses on partnering them in their
journey to a better life.
Parul said, I am very excited to join the Snapdeal team, as we
embark on this next phase of growth. Snapdeal with its strong
customer centric focus and deep understanding of the e-commerce
space, is well-poised to discern and serve the real needs of its users. I
am thrilled to be part of this once-in-a-lifetime journey.
Part of the founding team of Google in India, Parul held a wide
range of leadership positions with the company.

Veeam ropes in Ashok Acharya as


Regional Director for India and SAARC

Veeam Software has appointed Ashok


Acharya as the new Regional Director
for India and SAARC region. He will be
responsible for driving overall business
strategy, expanding solutions offerings to
existing and new customers and further
strengthening the strategic channel
partnerships to consolidate growth.
Acharya will be based in Bangalore and
will report to Gregg Petersen, Regional
Director, Middle East, Africa and
SAARC.
Veeam is setting new industry benchmarks through its Availability
solution for the Always-On business. Indian organizations need
Availability solutions more than ever before to embark on their
digital transformation journey, said Ashok Acharya. I look forward
to further consolidating Veeams customers and partner base in India,
as well as expanding the companys operations with new strategic
partnerships.

Quick Heal has appointed Vijay


Mhaskar as Chief Operating Officer.Vijay
Mhaskar will be providing leadership to
Quick Heal and Seqrite (the enterprise
security solutions brand by Quick Heal).
He joins Quick Heal from Avaya India. He
will be majorly responsible for providing
strategic inputs and direction for building
the brand, culture and overall business
growth.
Commenting on the appointment
Kailash Katkar, MD & CEO, Quick Heal
Technologies said, It is a new phase for
Quick Heal as a public company. I am confident that Vijay with
his illustrious experience and valuable leadership will drive the
organization capability to deliver trusted and premier products. I
firmly believe that his passion will further strengthen our position as
a leading IT security solutions provider.
Mumbai Mhaskar in past has worked at various strategical
positions.

ZTE appoints Sachin Batra as CMO

ZTE has appointed Sachin Batra as the Chief Marketing Officer of


ZTE India. He will head both sales and marketing for its smartphone
B2C business. Batra comes with a rich
and varied experience of over 25 years in
the areas of sales & marketing, business
development, relationship management
and team management.
Batra has previously worked with
Ingram Micro and HT Media at lead
roles. From important leadership roles
in sales & marketing at Swipe Telecom
to general management responsibilities at
BrightPoint India, Batra has evolved as a
respected leader in the telecom industry.
Sachin Batra, CMO, ZTE Mobile Devices, commented upon his
appointment, ZTE is at a unique intersection of evolving customer
needs and emerging innovative technologies. I am looking forward to
bringing my experience and knowhow to build on the excellent work
that has been done by the company in India so far and continue the
momentum towards greater heights of growth in the future.

www.varindia.com

October 2016

49

events

Taiwan Govt. invites potential Indian


companies to participate at COMPUTEX 2017
C

OMPUTEX 2017, which is one


of the leading ICT trade shows in
the world held by the Taiwan government
annually, is scheduled to be held in Taipei
between May 30 and June 3 next year. The
Taiwan government is inviting technology
companies in India to be a part of this
COMPUTEX.
The officials from the Taiwan External
Trade Development Council (TAITRA)
said that COMPUTEX 2017 will be a great
platform for Indian companies, especially
start-ups, to showcase their latest innovations
and technology. We take this opportunity
to encourage Indian companies to come to
Taiwan and participate in COMPUTEX
2017. This will be a great opportunity for the
companies, especially start-ups, to display
their innovations and also to connect with
big names from the global ICT arena, said
Yih-Jyh, Kang, the executive director of
Exhibition Department of TAITRA.
Keeping in tandem with its record over
the years, COMPUTEX 2017 promises
to not only showcase the latest trends in
technology but also to create a platform that
brings together exhibitors and buyers from
around the world to generate partnerships
and business opportunities that develop the
industry. There will also be four featured
exhibits areas including InnoVEX, SmarTEX,
Gaming & VR, Business Solutions (POS &
ERP).
Yih-Jyh, Kang, the executive director
of Exhibition Department of TAITRA,
comments, At COMPUTEX 2016, the
debut of InnoVEX, an exhibit for innovations

and start-ups, had created new dynamics. We


have always tried to re-invent ourselves and
will continue to do so. We hope that more
and more Indian companies will visit us
during next years event and showcase their
cutting-edge technological products and
innovations.
At COMPUTEX 2016, InnoVEX
reflected a hub of innovation and provided
a vital international platform matching
buyers and resources with global start-ups
to achieve endless opportunities and cross
border cooperation. SmarTEX, supporting
the exhibiting theme of IoT applications,
features more than 160 exhibitors displaying

50

October 2016

www.varindia.com

The Taiwanese firms see


potential in the countrys
growing gaming market
and aims to add value to it
through its innovations in the
Virtual Reality space. Virtual
reality transports gamers
to a different environment,
creating a new thrill to
the gaming experience.
the newest in IoT and smart tech applications
with emphases on home and entertainment,
smart security control, smart car and
automotive electronics, wearables and 3D
printing. iStyle, featuring Apple MFi certified
peripherals and apps.
For years now, Taiwans ICT industry has
been continuously pushing for innovation,
developing local brands and emphasizing
technology research and development.
Taiwans competitiveness in the ICT industry
is drawn from its well-established production
pipeline, highly experienced engineers,
strong R&D capabilities, and strategic
location. Years of developing partnerships
with countries worldwide have given ICT
vendors the knowhow to meet the needs of a
variety of different cultures and markets.
In an effort to further strengthen their
presence in India this year, prominent
Taiwanese ICT brands have showcased
a wide range of products at the COM-IT
EXPO 2016. The Taiwan Excellence Pavilion
hosted 37 leading Taiwan Excellence Awardwinning products with the theme Taiwan
ICT Technology: Connects You to the
World.
Taiwanese brands are already a part

of the everyday life of Indians. A recent


market research report suggests that
Indian enterprises are upbeat about the
growing prospects of Information and
Communications Technology, which is
reflected in their investment strategies. Most
IT and ICT strategies revolve around costeffective ways to increase productivity, and
Taiwanese ICT brands fit the bill perfectly.
We see this as a promising sign to strengthen
our presence in India, said Michael Lin,
Director of the Taipei World Trade Centre
Liaison Office in Mumbai.
Taiwanese brands are upbeat, in particular
about the market for hardware, security
management, and gaming in India.
Hardware and storage devices are popular
with various Taiwanese brands having strong
presence in India. World leading memory
brand ADATA, quality network appliance
provider QNAP, power solution provider
CyberPower and multi-award winning
hardware company GIGABYTE were all on
display during the COM-IT Expo.
The Taiwanese firms also see potential
in the countrys growing gaming market
and aims to add value to it through its
innovations in the Virtual Reality space.
Virtual reality transports gamers to a
different environment, creating a new thrill
to the gaming experience. The Taiwanese
brand MSI is set to offer a never-before
Virtual Reality experience for Indian gaming
enthusiasts alongside its innovative range of
gaming laptops.
Taiwans participation in the COM-IT
EXPO is a part of the Taiwan Industry Image
Enhancement Project (IEP) in India, organized
by Taiwans Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT)
of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA),
and implemented by the Taiwan External
Trade Development Council (TAITRA). n

Vivotek intends to transform


Indian security ecosystem
In a chat with VARINDIA, Sanjeev Gulati, Country Manager India & SAARC, Vivotek, speaks about the
surveillance market landscape, opportunities in the Indian market, strategy and future of the industry

he surveillance market in India is


slowly and gradually transforming
and advancing towards the next phase of
growth. A major shift from analog to digital
technology is being observed in the industry.
Moreover, increase in the unsocial activities,
various government initiatives along with
growing awareness among the population
are opening wide scopes for the surveillance
companies in the Indian market.
Surveillance Market
Factors like increasing IP infrastructure,
reduction in price and demand for remote
access have triggered the shift from traditional
analog-based surveillance system to IP-based
surveillance in the market. It is expected that
IP-based surveillance will grow with higher
CAGR than video surveillance.
The Indian surveillance market is about
to set foot in its next phase of growth and
transformation. Superseding the yesteryears
ubiquitous analog-based surveillance systems,
the IP surveillance is expected to increase
due to increasing IP infrastructure, declining
prices and demand for remote access. While
the Video surveillance market is expected
to grow at a CAGR of 32.49%, the IP-based
surveillance systems are expected to grow
with relatively higher CAGR of 41.78%
in the coming years, comments Sanjeev
Gulati, Country Manager India & SAARC,
Vivotek.
Though the IP-based surveillance market
is on the rise, there are factors hindering the
growth.
One of the major challenges that we feel
plagues the Indian surveillance market is the
absence of a standard agency to certify the
products, followed by poor infrastructure in
terms of network connectivity and bandwidth.
Adding to the strain are the cumbersome
procedures along with consumers betting big
on price rather than the quality and features
of the product. Apart from these major
challenges, their geographical challenges such
as extreme weather conditions, geographical
spread, storage requirements, etc. Moreover,
with a major chunk of the country falling in
the rural category limits the requirements of
such security solutions owing to the lack of
better infrastructure and an understanding

52

October 2016

www.varindia.com

Sanjeev Gulati
Country Manager
India & SAARC, Vivotek
towards security concerns, adds Sanjeev.
Opportunities
The Indian surveillance market has
ample scope of opportunity with the new
government initiatives, increase in crimes,
remote monitoring, etc.
At the onset of various government
initiatives, those have lots to do with
Information Technology for instance,
the Smart City projects and Digital India
campaign. India is certainly becoming the
nucleus of hackers in the world. Over and
above that, spiteful and brutal activities carried
out by extremists across the globe, increasing
crime rates, data thefts, remote monitoring,
growth of public infrastructure, increasing
IT spending, government initiatives and
increasing security spending poses massive
opportunity for the surveillance sector in
India, opines Sanjeev.
Gulati further mentions, India is on its
way to developing 100 Smart Cities and
with that, security becomes an important
aspect to sustain the concept and make it
a success. More so because the smart city
model will operate on digitized model
for information assembly, its storage and
distribution. Information system and allied
services will be used for communication
between surveillance systems, transport
sectors, control centres and service providers
for providing traffic management, building

management, security services etc. Therefore


the surveillance solutions are inevitable
and imperative to build a foolproof and allinclusive smart city.
Strategy
With the array of security solutions,
Vivotek is looking forward to transform the
Indian security landscape.
We are pioneers in the network camera
domain with IT surveillance at the core
of our business. Standing tall on these
differentiators, we intend to transform the
Indian security ecosystem. We have a myriad
of security solutions such as products for city
surveillance, transportation, toll, banking,
retail, hospitality, etc. Furthermore, we also
intend to enhance the traffic situation of the
country with our various traffic solutions
like red light violation, etc which could be of
immense help to the pedestrians. It could also
help in revenue generation through e-chalan
system for traffic police he adds.
Future of Surveillance Market
Vivotek sees an promising future of the
surveillance industry with rising security
awareness among people, rapid growth in
urban population, increasing GDP, etc. These
factors will work in favour of the surveillance
industry to take to the next level.
The Indian surveillance market is poised
for higher growth in India. The segment has
also recorded rapid developments in the past
few years bolstered by the increasing incidents
of burglary, surging security awareness and
technology advances. The non-residential
electronic security market in India witnessed
fluctuating contributions in terms of revenue.
Nevertheless, the future of the Indian
electronic security market is expected to be
favourable on account of rapidly-growing
urban population, improved residential,
commercial and industrial construction and
rising GDP of India. The rising awareness
about benefits of the electronic security
equipment amongst the Tier-I, Tier-II and
Tier-III cities of the country will encourage
players in the electronic security market
to expand their centers across the potential
markets in India, concludes Sanjeev. n
Aparna Mullick
aparna@varindia.com

VAR ANALYSIS

Why spectrum auction was a failure?


T

he recent spectrum auction was a


failure as 60 per cent of airwaves
witnessed no bidding and the government
collected only 11.6 percent of the total
spectrum reserve price of Rs 5.66 lakh
crores.
The government sold 965 MHz out of
2,354.75 MHz i.e. only 41 percent of the
total spectrum. On the other hand, Indias
telecom spectrum auction closed within 5
days and the government collected a total of
Rs 65,789.2 crores i.e. 11.62 percent of the
total reserve price.
The failure of recent spectrum auction was
due to high reserve price for 700 MHz, 700
MHz spectrum band contributing the largest
chunk of spectrum where more than seven
bands of spectrum (700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900
MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz,
and 2,500 MHz) i.e. 32.69 percent of the
total spectrum and lukewarm response from
operators for 2,300 MHz.
Speaking on the spectrum auction,
Prashant Singhal, global telecom leader, EY,
said, With 60 per cent airwaves witnessing
no bidding, the muted response is indicative
of operators reluctance to invest heavily
at current market prices. The data play is
on the rise, and traction in bands vis-a-vis
1,800 MHz, 2,300 MHz, including the under
developed 2,500 MHz, which will be used
for deployment of 4G; is an indication that
operators are filling their network coverage
gaps for a wider footprint and augmenting
capacities.
Intent to increase the 4G play exists,
however, current valuations do not justify
the expected rate of returns due to which
bidding was restricted to very low premiums
over base price, added Singhal.
COAI said that the tepid response to
spectrum in 700 MHz is owed to a high
reserve price. The lack of enthusiasm was
majorly due to its unrealistic pricing, high
debt and single-digit growth that the industry
is currently reeling under.
Rajan S Mathews, director general,
COAI, said, In fact, the financial strain on
the industry and a high reserve price are the
major reasons why the 700 MHz band did
not attract bidders.
We are hopeful the government and the
DoT will take cognizance of the role a high
reserve price had on bidding, as far as the 700
MHz is concerned, and will recalibrate the
price so that spectrum in the band could be
put up for auction, maybe two years from
now, added Mathews.
The five-day auction, which made
spectrum available in abundance in all
spectrum bands has set the stage for the
industry to work closely to roll out networks
and services that provide best in class services
to consumers.
DS Rawat, MD and CEO, Bharti Infratel
said, We believe that this auction will

Spectrum Auction 2016

Source : DoT
significantly speed up rollout of mobile
broadband in the country, besides adding new
technologies to augment capacities to cater to
the rapidly rising demand for data services.
Post this auction, we hope to see acceleration
of 3G and 4G network rollouts by the
telecom players, and at Bharti Infratel we are
well positioned to address the demand.
With the spectrum auction now
completing the operators should focus on

rolling out high speed data network so


that India can be digitally empowered and
consumers can benefit. On the other hand,
the government should do a rethink on 700
MHz pricing and also need to closely watch
the vendor eco-system for 700 MHz before
doing the next spectrum auction. n
Pravin Prashant
pravin@varindia.com

BINATONE ropes in
SUPERTRON as ND

BINATONE
has
selected
SUPERTRON as National Distributor
for Wireless & Networking product line.
Binatone design and manufacture Binatone
brand of products and is also global licensee
manufacture of Motorola and AEG.
Rakesh Singh, GM & Head Sales,
who is driving this Channel initiative is
upbeat on this tie up further commented
SUPERTRON is among top 5 national
distributor with deep market penetration
and credibility of successfully building
brands. The channel partners can now
have access to BINATONE products through SUPERTRON branches across India and
experience the brand that stand for reliability , affordability , and innovation.
Vibhor Agarwal , Director , Sales & Marketing expressed his optimism and sees definite
big time mutual growth considering Binatone is already popular brand among ISPs and
existing channel networks and with sizeable local business infrastructure , R&D, Pre and
post sales support systems all these gives confidence to distributor , channel partners and
consumer finally.
Binatone product line includes: Wi-fiRouters , High power multi feature routers,
Outdoor AP and CPE, Wi-fi Residential Gateway, Unmanaged and Metro Ethernet
switches, Media converters,Ethernet over Coax ( EoC), EPON solution and are available
through Supertron branch outlets and through its regional distributors.

www.varindia.com

October 2016

53

How Reliance Jio achieved 16


mn 4G subscribers in 26 days?

eliance Jio Infocomm launched


Jio Welcome Offer on Teachers
Day i.e. September 5 and within 26 days
has created a world record by crossing
16 million subscribers. Jio has achieved
this growth faster than any other telecom
operator or start up in the world including
the likes of Facebook, WhatsApp and
Skype.
The big question is how Reliance Jio
achieved 16 million 4G subscribers in 26
days i.e. 615,385 subscribers per day or
25,641 subscribers per hour.
Reliance Jios 16 million subscribers
in 26 days is a remarkable achievement by
any standards thanks to viral packaging,
excellent pan-India distribution and
availability of wide range of 4G handsets
in the country.
Viral Packaging: On Teachers Day,
Reliance Jio Infocomm commenced digital
services with a new offer called as Jio
Welcome Offer whereby users had access
to unlimited 4G data, voice, video, and
messaging services along with full bouquet
of Jio applications and content, free of cost
up to 31 December 2016.
Chairman of Reliance Industries,
Mukesh D Ambani announced that
domestic voice calls to any network
across the country would be free for Jio
subscribers even beyond the Jio Welcome
Offer. Domestic roaming services would
also not be charged separately and average
data prices would be around Rs 50/GB,
which would be amongst the lowest in the
world.
Jio Welcome Offer started at Rs 19 plan
which is valid for a day and offers 300 MB
data, all local and STD voice calls free in
home and national roaming and free local
and national SMS. On the other hand Rs
149 plan is valid for a month and offers 300
MB data and free local call and national
SMS.
Rs 299 offers 6 GB (2 GB LTE and 4
GB Wi-Fi), Rs 499 offers 12 GB (4 GB LTE
and 8 GB Wi-Fi), Rs 999 offers 30 GB (10
GB LTE and 20 GB Wi-Fi), Rs 1,499 offers
60 GB (20 GB LTE and 40 GB Wi-Fi), Rs
2,499 offers 105 GB (35 GB LTE and 70 GB
Wi-Fi), Rs 3,999 offers 180 GB (6o GB LTE
and 120 GB Wi-Fi) and Rs 4,999 offers 225

54

October 2016

www.varindia.com

Mukesh D Ambani
Chairman, Reliance Industries
GB (75 GB LTE and 150 GB). Post expiry
Wi-Fi data will be charged at Rs 50 per
GB.
Free voice, attractive data package and
free Jio applications became viral packaging
for Reliance Jio right from day one as there
was large rush of people pan-India across all
distribution networks which led to record
addition of subscribers in 26 days.
Excellent Pan-India Distribution: On
Teachers Day, Reliance Jio launched panIndia network covering 18,000 cities and
towns and over 2 lakh villages. Jios panIndia distribution of SIM and handset was
done by Reliance Retail (RRL), a subsidiary
of Reliance Industries (RIL) which has
grown to 3,383 stores with an area of over
13 million square feet. Reliance Digital has
a network of 1,379 stores deployed over
225 cities. Not only this Reliance Retail
had over 5 lakh partners which helped
in achieving 16 million subscribers in 26
days.
During this period, Reliance Jio also
introduced Aadhaar-based paper-less Jio
SIM activation across 3,100 cities and towns
which helped in streamlining the activation
process which was initially chaotic as it
enables the customers to complete the SIM
activation process in a matter of minutes,
with only his/her Aadhaar number.
The Aadhaar process will be extended
across the country and fully stabilized for
satisfactory on-boarding experience in the
next few weeks and will help Reliance Jio

to achieve the magic number of 100 million


subscriber mark.
Wide Range of 4G Handsets: Reliance
Jio had a wide range of handset brands for
Jio Welcome Offer. Reliance Jio tied up
with 35 handset brands like: LYF, Alcatel
One Touch, ASUS, Celkon, Coolpad,
Gionee, HTC, Huawei, Infocus, Intex,
Itel, Karbonn, Lava, Le Eco, Lenovo, LG,
Micromax, Moto, Nextbit, Obi, OnePlus,
Onida, Oppo, Panasonic, Samsung, Samsui,
Smartron, Sony, TCL, Videocon, Vivo,
Xiaomi, Xolo, Yu and Zen.
In toto, 35 handset brands had 322
models which gave customers a wide range
of handset to choose. Reliance Retail also
introduced a line-up of super affordable 4G
LTE smartphones under the LYF brand,
starting at Rs 2,999. All this was win-win
for Jio Welcome Offer subscribers as they
had the option to choose low-end handset
to high-end handset depending upon their
purchasing power.
If the present trend continues in the
coming month with respect to subscriber
addition and if the company is able to
maintain its quality of voice and data
network then there is no looking back for
Reliance Jio. The company has to keep on
improving on its processes and keep on
expanding its network to newer towns and
cities as the focus is to cover 90 percent by
March 2017. n
Pravin Prashant
pravin@varindia.com

www.varindia.com

October 2016

55

VAR MOBILITY

Worldwide mobility revenues to


reach $1.7 Trillion in 2020

Worldwide mobility revenues are forecast to grow from $1.5


trillion in 2016 to more than $1.7 trillion in 2020, as per IDC.
This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.2
per cent, or roughly $40 billion in annual revenue gains. Mobility
revenues will primarily come from consumer and enterprise

Airtel offers 10 GB free 3G/4G data on


purchase of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus

purchases of hardware (e.g., smartphones, portable PCs and tablets)


and services (e.g. connectivity services). However, software revenues
will experience double-digit growth over the forecast period as
developers race to deliver applications that meet the mobility needs
of both groups.
Carrie MacGillivray, Vice-President, Mobility & Internet of
Things, said, By 2020, the software market will increase spend by
15%, driven by mobile application development and mobile security
capabilities.
While more than half of all mobility revenues are generated by
consumer spending, a number of industries are making significant
investments in mobility products and solutions. The banking industry
is leading the way at the worldwide level with mobility investments
forecast to surpass $100 billion by 2020.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users can enjoy 10 GB free 3G/4G


data per month for one year with any Bharti Airtel Infinity postpaid
plan.
The free data benefit will be over and above the plan benefits.
Over the duration
of one year, iPhone
7 and iPhone 7
Plus users on Airtel
Infinity plans will
get additional 120
GB 3G/4G data.
Bharti
Airtel
has announced that
it will offer iPhone
7 and iPhone 7
Plus, the best, most
advanced
iPhone
ever, featuring an allnew advanced camera system, dust and water resistant design, stereo
speaker system and the A10 Fusion chip which is the most powerful
chip on any smartphone while delivering the best battery life ever
in an iPhone. Customers can order iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus now
and both will be available in retail shops and online at http://www.
airtel.in.
Airtel Infinity postpaid plans offer unlimited voice calling local,
STD, and on national roaming along with bundled 3G/4G data,
SMS and free subscription to Wynk Music and Wynk Movies.
We are delighted to roll out this exciting data offer for our users
to allow them to get the most out of the amazing iPhone 7 and iPhone
7 Plus, said Ajai Puri, director Operations (India & South Asia),
Bharti Airtel.

ZOPO announces 365 Days smartphone


replacement warranty

By 2018, 25% of new mobile


apps will talk to IoT devices

Zopo Mobile has announced 1 year replacement warranty on all


its smartphones from the date of purchase.
The scheme is applicable on all of ZOPOs smartphone models
purchased on or after 1st October, 2016 under specific terms and
conditions.
Recognized for its
focus on delivering
excellent
products
and ensuring superior
customer
service,
ZOPO
Mobiles
latest scheme will
enable customers to
replace their faulty
devices with a new
one
within
4-5
days, putting any
of their concerns or
apprehensions
to
rest.
Commenting on the scheme, Kevin Xu, founder, ZOPO Mobile
said, We design and develop new features, schemes, etc. everyday
just to meet and serve the customers need. Similarly, with our latest 1
year replacement warranty scheme, we wish to upgrade our customer
service approach, and help maintain our position as a brand that is
built on customer satisfaction.
All ZOPO handsets bought on or after October 1st will be
applicable for the 365 day handset replacement warranty. These
devices will come under a manufacturers warranty for 12 months
from the date it was first used on the Zopo network, or the date on
which the user received that device, whichever is earlier.

56

October 2016

www.varindia.com

Gartner predicts that by 2018, 25 percent of new mobile apps will


talk to Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
David Willis, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner
said, While users are constantly looking for new and compelling app
experiences, the importance of apps in delivering services will diminish
and the emergence of
virtual personal assistants
(VPAs) and bots will
replace some of the
functions performed by
apps today. Alternative
approaches to interaction
and service delivery will
arise, and code will move
from traditional mobile
devices and apps to the
cloud.
Moreover, the arrival
of wearables and bring your own thing (such as smart kettles, smart
power sockets or smart light bulbs) in the workplace will introduce
new interaction techniques and new platforms, diluting the need for
specific mobile app experiences, commented Willis.
Through 2018, the app will be the preferred mechanism,
because it provides a better experience and allows more sophisticated
interactions and data analysis, with low-level networking and
background processing, added Willis.
New ways to interact with things will deliver pervasive services,
and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, naturallanguage processing and bots integrated into messaging apps, open
new opportunities to interact with users seamlessly.

LeEco expands partnerships with


Amazon and Snapdeal

LeEco has announced the expansion of its e-commerce partnerships


to include Amazon India and Snapdeal as part of its multi-platform
strategy for its flagship Le Max2.
Commenting on the partnership, Atul Jain, COO, Smart
Electronics Business, LeEco India said, To ensure that more users
have access to our Le Max2, we are delighted to announce our
partnership with Amazon India and Snapdeal. Through this move,
we now have presence on all major ecommerce platforms in India
along with our very own LeMall.com.
Commenting
on
the partnership, Arun
Srinivasan,
category
leader Consumer
Electronics,
Amazon
India, said, We are
happy to partner with
LeEco India ahead of the
festive season and offer
our customers an easy
and convenient access
to the Le Max2. We
are confident that this
device will become a popular choice for customers during the festive
season.
Commenting on the partnership, Tony Navin, senior vice
president Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives, Snapdeal said, We
are very glad to partner with LeEco and provide them a platform
through which they can reach to a new set of customers for their
exciting product range. This coming festive season, we aim to offer
our customer with an enhanced shopping experience with a wide
variety of products.

HTC renews partnership with


North East United FC

HTC has renewed its association for the third consecutive year
as principal sponsor of Bollywood actor/producer John Abrahams
football franchise North East United FC (NEUFC) at the forthcoming
Hero Indian Super League 2016.
HTC will occupy the front chest position on the NEUFC Jersey
being the principal
sponsor of the team
that represents the 8
states of North-east
India as they enter
the
championship,
which kicks off on
1st October 2016 and
will be culminating on
18th December 2016.
Announcing the
sponsorship,
Faisal
Siddiqui,
presidentSouth Asia, HTC said,
We at HTC have been committed to the pursuit of brilliance and are
excited to renew our association with North East United FC. The
India Super League has been successful in capturing the mindshare
of the masses in Indias cricket-dominated sports milieu and we are
proud to be a part of this initiative to revolutionize Indian football.
According to John Abraham, Indian actor/producer and owner of
North East United FC, It feels great to have HTC reinforcing their
belief in NEUFC by supporting us again this season. I feel a strong
connect with the brands focus on substance, style and innovation
which has enabled it to grow its connect with the youth and I hope
we can have a long term association to bring about a resurgence in
Indian football.

LG G5
The new LG G5 comes with a smart modular design and a slideout swappable battery so that you can stay connected at all hours
of the day. You can transform your phone into a digital camera
or a player in a jiffy. LG G5 is powered with Qualcomms brand
new and superbly powerful Snapdragon 820 mobile processor
and has 4GB of RAM. Constructed from magnesium and finished
with a gorgeous matte after touch, the LG G5 is also premium
as hell. The matte finish aids grip too. It has a 5.3-inch IPS LCD
with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 (554 ppi) that graces the front
of the device. Under the hood, the 32GB internal storage comes
as standard, but you can upgrade it up to 200GB via a microSD
card.
On the camera front, you get a dual-camera setup on the rear
(16MP + 8MP) and an 8MP front camera. LG G5 apart from just
about every other phone in the market today is unique because of
its modular design. The idea is that you can rip out the bottom
of the device and switch it out with a module of your choice.
There is a camera module that adds better camera controls and aids
grip, another adds a higher capacity battery and another improves
the audio quality and so on. The G5 weighs 159g and measures in
at 149.4 x 73.9 x 7.7mm, making it both smaller and lighter than
its predecessor. The 2800mAh battery is removable.

LG G5 Specs & Hardware


Android 6.0 Marshmallow with UX 5.0
5.3in Quad HD IPS screen (1440x2560, 554ppi)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, quad-core
4GB RAM
32 storage
Micro-SD card slot (up to 200GB)
Dual-rear cameras (16Mp 78 degree and 8Mp 135 degree) with
OIS and laser auto focus
8Mp front camera
11ac dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, NFC, Infrared, fingerprint
scanner
Cat 9 4G LTE
USB Type-C
2800mAh removable battery
www.varindia.com October 2016 57
149x74x7.7mm, 159g

VAR MOBILITY

Intex Technologies unveils


Aqua Strong 5.1

ntex Technologies
has announced the
launch of Aqua Strong
5.1 smartphone which
has been designed to
offer its users unmatched

power and performance


for everyday use. It is
bundled with attractive
value-added services and
unique features.
The
smartphone
comes with a big-screen

experience 5.0-inch screen,


and 854 X 480 resolution
which gives it a stunning
display. The screen uses
Corning Gorilla Glass 2
which enables improved
damage
resistance
and toughness and
is
more
damage
resistant than former
glass
compositions.
Supported by a 1GB
RAM, 8GB ROM
and 32GB expandable
memory, the 4Genabled smartphone
weighs just 150 gms.
With Aqua Strong
5.1, Intex Technologies
has managed to offer
not only the best
user experience, but
also packed in unique
features like a superior
camera, matrabhasha
and popular apps. The
use of superior Quad-core
processor and chipset gives
Aqua Strong 5.1 one of the
best gaming experiences
in the range, said Keshav
Bansal, Director, Intex
Technologies.

Panasonic unveils P77 smartphone

anasonic
has
unveiled
its
unibody sleek design
smartphone P77 . It is
priced at Rs.6990, and will
go on sale in India from
20th September16. The
new smartphone comes

with 4G and VoLTE


support and will be made
available in grey and
white colour variants.
The new P77 dual sim

58

October 2016

has a 5-inch HD display


with 720 x 1280 pixel
resolution. Powering the
handset is a 1 GHz Quadcore Processor coupled
with 1GB of RAM. It has
8GB of internal storage
which can be
further expanded
up to 32GB via
microSD card.
The
phone
supports
4G
VoLTE, dual SIM
with 4G/3G and
2G configuration,
Wi-Fi Hot Spot,
Wi-Fi
Direct,
Bluetooth
and
Global Positioning
System (A-GPS).
Moreover,
it
supports
FM
allowing you to
listen to music
wherever you go
and also comes
with a protective screen
guard as a free accessory.
The P77 will be
available on all Panasonic
outlets.

www.varindia.com

Lava boosts
Digital India
campaign

ith an aim to
support
the
Government of Indias
initiative to digitally
empower people of the
country,
LAVA
has
launched its Captain
Series feature phones.
Multilingual support on
both the devices enables
users to bridge the
language barrier and help
in communicating in the
language of their choice.
Captain N1 comes with
in-built support for three
Indian languages Hindi,
Tamil and Telugu, while
Captain K1+ supports
Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati,
Telugu and Kannada.
Both Captain N1 and
Captain K1+ exhibit
4.5cm (1.8) screen for
better viewing along
with a 3.5mm audio jack
port and wireless FM for
a holistic entertainment
experience. Both the
handsets are equipped
with a rear VGA camera,
which records video and
even allows digital zoom
to capture images. Captain
N1 and Captain K1+ also
have Bluetooth and auto
call recording feature.
Gaurav
Nigam,
Product
Head,
Lava
International,
said,
Our
Captain
series
of
feature
phones
celebrate our partnership
with Mahendra Singh
Dhoni and stand for
trust,
reliability
and
performance. We, at Lava,
believe in building a truly
endearing brand and at the
same time offer devices
which enhance the overall
experience of consumers
through
technological
excellence. We take pride
in our commitment of
reliability to consumers
and we can assure that we
take every step to ensure
that Lava never lets them
down.
The series comprises
the all-new stylish feature
phones Captain N1 and
Captain K1+, available
at Rs.1, 150/- and Rs.1,
250/-, respectively.

Google introduces Pixel


smartphone based on Android
The Pixel is powered
7.1 Nougat
by a battery that can

oogle
has
announced
the launch of Pixel, the
first-ever phone made
by Google based on the
newest Android

operating
system, Android 7.1
Nougat.
Google
has
used
2.5D Corning Gorilla
Glass 4 on the front
display and back glass
to accent the aerospace
grade aluminium body.
The glass on the back
features Pixel Imprint,
the fingerprint sensor,
which is placed on the
back of the phone where
your finger expects it.

charge up your phone


for up to seven hours in
just 15 minutes. Pixel
smartphones will get
software
and
security

updates
as soon as theyre
available, directly from
Google.
Starting at Rs 57,000,
Pixel will be available
for pre-order in India
starting October 13 on
www.flipkart.com and at
over 1,000 plus organized
and multi-brand retail
stores
with
leading
retail partners including
Reliance Digital, Croma
and Vijay sales among
others.

Alcatel OneTouch Unveils PIXI 4 (5)

lcatel
has
announced the
launch of its 5-inch PIXI
4, with 4G capable devices
which will be available
exclusively on Flipkart
starting September
20th. The PIXI 4
(5) comes with a
comprehensive user
experience in design,
audio, camera and
battery life. PIXI 4,
the big brother of
the PIXI 3 best-seller,
offers clear, sharp
shots for the best
selfies, along with
exclusive Polaroid
filters, a powerful
music
experience
with sound backed by
Arkamys, and a super
slim, seductive design.
Plus, it's powered by
a reliable battery, and
features fast connectivity,
an easy-to-use interface,
and quick, responsive
performance with the
powerful Quad Core
1.0Ghz CPU. PIXI 4 is

the perfect first step in a


whole new world.
Commenting on the
launch, Praveen Valecha,
Regional Director, Alcatel
India said, We are excited

to announce the launch of


our Alcatel PIXI 4 (5) for
our Indian users. Being
the third largest home to
smartphone users, India
is a critical market for us
and we intend to bring
cutting edge products
to
consumers
here,
who seek power packed
design sensibilities of a
high-end smartphone at
competitive prices.

www.varindia.com

October 2016

59

RNI - NO 72399/1999

Reg. No: DL-SW-1/4030/15-17

Printing Date 18 & 19

60

October 2016

www.varindia.com

60 pages including cover

Date of Posting 20 & 21


every month

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