‘We are looking for more Partners in Tier 2 & 3’ – Subhasish Gupta, Allied Telesis

Please define your role in Allied Telesis?

I am the country head in Allied Telesis, Executive Director. Allied Telesis is India subsidiary now so we are a 100 percent subsidiary to our parent company in Japan. I take care of the country’s SAARC region, business profitability, market growth vision.

What is the present focus of Allied Telesis?

We are pure networking vendor. Allied Telesis was incepted in 1987 in Japan with a worldwide presence. We have our reach in America, Middle East and in India now. We have got 5 offices in India subsidiary at a regional location and we play typically in an enterprise space which is where our major mind share and focus is.

What are your offerings for enterprise?

Today from a network perspective the entire ballgame has changed in the last half a decade so we have got typical enterprise network solution starting from a baseline and scaling up to solutions that large enterprise can look at. We primarily play in the IT ethernet space so everything that is required to create a mid to large data network. There are multiple IT applications that work and it’s very encouraging and important that the IT backbone has to be strong so which is where we come into place and we have got the entire genre of products starting from routing, wireless solution, media computers. If you look at a large university, they will talk about complete IT connectivity and what are the solutions that they will typically talk about is that basic internet connection, media applications, online classrooms, wireless solution in campus so we are there in providing the entire suite of it. If you look at it we don’t manufacture voice product but our network is the basic infrastructure on which all the IT applications are there.

Please throw light on your SDN solutions for data centers?

For us SDN unlike what others talk about, we don’t talk about SDN as an only solution for data center. We talk about our SDN offering as a complete solution for enterprise and the size of enterprise could be starting from a small kind of an organization and  can scale up to a huge banking facility with many branches across the country or different geographical regions.   With our solutions we are talking about which is relevant for enterprise. What we are trying to achieve as vendor is basically to simplify the entire network for a corporate client or enterprise customer. We have brought solutions based on our understanding of market in the enterprise space and it’s a very simplified kind of a technology.

Which are the verticals have potential for your business?

There’s lot of business in the government globally we see and over a period of last 7-8 years we have done extremely well in transport and infrastructure. For eg. in India travel and tourism is a big time business in the country and more or less if we talk of a mid to a large enterprise 100 percent of customers are looking for a IT base travel agency which is much more easier to trail and manage as there are lot of complicacies which can’t be managed. The government obvious is a major focus for us, education is another vertical we are focusing.

How much business do you generate from all verticals?

Roughly about 70-72 percent business comes from government space and under them you have PSUs, infrastructure which are typically government driven. 20-30 percent comes from non-government may be education in government and non government.

In the government space we have got 7 to 8 sub verticals. If you look at utility where typically airforce infrastructure comes in there we do substantial business.

What is your approach to these verticals?

We are having two models while we do 100 percent business with Channels. We are selective when it comes to channel partner. We align with good eco system partners. If you look at typically surveillance or data center business we are a part of good eco system. In a surveillance kind of a project or a vertical space, customers will be looking at size of different pies and they will build the project. So IP cameras become an important portion, then there is analytic, video analytic. So IP backbone has become a most critical part. Then there is storage and service so we have good very good association with most of the top brands.

Coming to channel, we do lot of training programs, pre-sales program with select channel partners who focus on this segment and their IT knowledge might not be very good which is where we builds up so that is the approach we take in the market. We know where the business is happening, we work on certain restricted verticals so that’s how we build the business for ourselves as well as for our partners.

Do you also find challenge while tapping these verticals?

Challenges are always there. Today we are doing Kolkata city surveillance, Patna city surveillance, Bhubaneswar city surveillance so there’s always competition so we have to work with the consulting fraternity, end customers, home department, police people etc. we work on a clear cut open base architecture and one of the very few vendors who offer commercial in surveillance market. In the last 6 years we have created a strong image where we are known and acceptable.

Where is the growth coming from?

Verticals that we focus we see each amount of potential in them. We talk of power, if everything goes as per plan by the year 2013 India will be power sufficient but from my view India will not be power sufficient. In infrastructure also India is far behind from the developing countries. So by hook or crook the government either directly or through a government tie up investment or participation, they will have to build infrastructure. So we are there in these sub verticals like infrastructure, transportation, metro rail, education etc and we have very strong presence in these verticals.

What is your go to market strategy?

In surveillance we have the best association in the market. Most of the camera vendors are associated with us and they know Allied Telesis very well and capabilities when it comes to IP design. Our products are of superior quality and there’s no compromise in terms of the product quality. We do not look at compromising with the quality and talk to customers to give holistic kind of network design. The vendors and partners realized our approach and showed lot of value. Education has a very strong recurrence too. Post sale support in our business is very important to leverage out of existing customers and to get good feedback for other client. We are also focusing on certain markets and focusing on channel programs for those markets.

What are your channel strategies?

In channel we believe in a limited channel. For our kind of business we have to be selective and it has been appreciated by the channels who are aligned with us. We work with lot of ethics with channels and over all we have around 100 partners.

On which criteria do you select the channel partner?

In surveillance we know the vertical market. Partners have to be able to qualify to bid in a project, they need to have skill set from a buyers’ perspective. It they don’t have skill set on IP then we come into picture. We progressively scale them up. We have good distributors who help to scan the market and help us align the partners. We also look for specific skill set and have to have some amount of knowledge of IP or expertise. We would like to add more partners in future in tier 2 and 3 cities.

What are your channel initiatives?

We do lot of training programs. Pre-sales training program has become a part of our DNA so we do close to around 35-40 briefings with partners across the country on a yearly basis. We also have certified training program which is a paid program where our existing and new partners get their engineers also trained and get certified. We also have backend rebate program for the registered partners.