In the industrial PC market, the concept of a national distributor will really not work. This is because the market is limited. We have business partners in each region, with multiple partners in certain areas like Mumbai.

But for our other products, the market is much larger. Here our channel gives us a wider reach. At the moment, we have 11 channel partners. Building and nurturing a channel takes time, and we will add only 10 more partners to our network within next six months.

Do you have separate channel partners for your industrial PCs and other products?

No, we do not have an earmarked channel network exclusively for any single product. A channel partner in Rajasthan can cater to the needs of the entire region, irrespective of the product. Besides, he also has to do a lot of handholding for his customers.

What revenue target you have set for yourself during first year of operation in the country?

We have set ourselves a modest target of Rs 10 crore. The reason we have kept a low figure is because the first two months went by in setting up our offices. We are doing a lot of advertising and undertaking publicity campaigns to establish our brand in the market. We started getting orders from October onwards, and we hope to achieve this target easily.

How do you plan to build your presence in India?

Though we are new in the country, Lanner is accepted worldwide as a leader in the industrial PC segment. Earlier there was only one company in the country, Dynalog, which provided industrial PCs. This meant that customers did not have any choice. With our arrival in the country, customers can now choose and pick the specifications and configurations of the PC they require. This availability of options will help us to get a footing in the local market. 

I don't think there will be any difficulty in finding the right customers, if only you know who they are. In our particular business segment, customers are fairly limited. So we can reach these clients easily and create a niche for ourselves.

We also have our channel network in place and we want to expand it to cover all the industrial belts of the country. We can also take help from D-Link's channel network. Besides our competitor, Dynalog, merely has a representation, while we are physically present here, ready and willing to cater to our customers' needs. This will work to our advantage. 

The last quarter was economically slow for the IT industry. What is your experience?

There has not been any visible impact due to the overall business slowdown. This is because our clientele would not be affected by the slowdown either. For example, the defense sector, which is one of our biggest buyers, will continue to invest in industrial PCs, market slump notwithstanding. 

Similarly the Internet services companies like ISPs, too were not affected much by this phenomena. Our buyers are not the mainstream corporates, but the network integrators who integrate their entire network. These integration projects are undertaken for a longer period of time and are unaffected by the industry's slow growth in a particular year.

Vinita Suvarna-Bhatia in Mumbai