Security solution provider ESET is now drawing the roadmap for an aggressive thrust in the burgeoning retail market. Walia talks how ESET will work closely with its exclusive distributor to have a better spread in India's IT retail map. eXCERPTS FROM THE INTERVIEW

What are the verticals that ESET is currently focusing on?
Our focus will be on the government and utilities sectors. Currently we are not empaneled vendors for DGSC projects. But we do participate in these projects through our partners.

At the same time, ESET is equally concentrating on the BFSI, education and manufacturing verticals. One of our customers in the educational segment is BITS Pilani.

How will you counter the competition from existing and large security vendors in these spaces, since you are a late entrant into the market?
Yes, I agree that we are a late entrant into the market and we have to deal with large competitors in almost all the projects. But when it comes to detecting new threats ESET's award winning technology has the highest detection rate as shown by various independent organizations.

We are banking on our technology to get us more business. Users in India are very tech-savvy and do not look merely at prices while buying security solutions.

During my interaction with end-users at a recent trade show in Mumbai I saw, youngsters these day are aware of technologies and even noticed that these days there are a lot of free security solutions in the market. I think they are smart enough to understand that free products might not have all the essential security features and therefore do not mind paying a price for a good anti-virus solution.

Parvinder Walia Channel Marketing Manager APAC, ESET

Having said that, how do you propose to tap the retail segment?
Along with ESS, we are now trying to spread our reseller network to cater to the corporate and retail segments. To do this better, we will appoint a new set of regional distributors who will then further appoint sub-distributors, retailers in their defined geographies.

We have already gotten good feedbacks from several resellers and we are short listing them region-wise and territory-wise and gearing up for the competition ahead. This move will also help us to better tap the SMB customers for our retail boxes. This aside, to create better awareness of ESET's products, we will participate in roadshows and seminars targeted at home users and corporate customers. Our strategy is to educate our partners as well as our end-customers.

Most vendors prefer having numerous national distributors to have better footprint in the market. But ESET chose to stick to an exclusive distri­bution alliance with ESS Software Distribution and Consulting? Will this not limit your reach to the market?
As a policy, in each of the 160 countries that ESET operates in, it has an exclusive distributor. These distributors have knowledge about their own territories which they can use to position our brand in the best possible manner locally. This is the same model we replicated in India.

Earlier some resellers were importing ESET solutions but when we decided to enter India we wanted to tie up with a partner who was committed to growing our business. We believe ESS has lots of commitment and fulfills all our requirements of a national distributor.

Can you please share some informa­tion on the recent Intel agreement?
We have recently tied up with Intel, wherein all Intel branded desktop motherboards will have ESET security solutions built in. The deal will start in the first quarter of 2010, where our solutions will be offered either for 45 days or a year as a product license.

Are you also planning to tie-up with the local systems manufacturers to sell bundle ESET products with their computers?
This is something on the anvil and we have received several proposals for it. However we have not finalized anything yet, though we are considering it very seriously.

Does ESET have a direct presence in India?
No, we do not as yet have our own office in India. But we do have a channel representative who engages with our channel partners, in association with our national distributor. At the moment, we do not have any plans to have our own setup in India.

MINAKSHI SHETTY
minakshis@cybermedia.co.in
(Read full interview at dqchannels.com)

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