Sybase is banking on channel partners to drive their growth in the Indian continent. Speaking on the sidelines of the eighth TechWave 2006, the annual technical training conference, that was held in Las Vegas John Chen, CEO, Sybase said, "Channels will be a strong focus to drive Sybase's sales worldwide. Infact Sybase sales should exist in 75 percent indirect, 25 percent direct sales bracket."

Chen also added that he strongly believes that the company should only engage in activities that they are best at and engage channel partners to do the rest. "Sybase has a strong belief in the channel strategy and we can improve our margins as well as expand our reach by engaging more and more channel partners," opined Chen.

"Sybase has a strong belief in the channel strategy and we can improve our margins as well as expand our reach by engaging more and more channel partners," -John Chen CEO, Sybase

Elaborating about the importance of channel partners in Sybase's scheme of things Marty J Beard, Senior VP - Corporate Development and Marketing, Sybase said, "After tasting success with the channel-sales model in other parts of the globe, Sybase is gearing up its setup and would like to engage channel partners in the APAC region, specifically in India and China."

Talking about the importance of the Indian market Marty said, "BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are significant to Sybase's growth and India has been the fastest growing region in the last two to three years and is of prime importance to us."

Focus India
Elaborating about the India specific plans Kumar Mitra, Head of Channels, Sybase India, said, "Partners have a critical role to play in the Sybase strategy. We are basically an infrastructure company and we have to be a part of larger application developed by partners to be able to deliver actual value to the end customer."

Adding further he said, "Sybase India has engaged with four categories of partners. The first are the system integrators (SIs), which we have divided into tier I and II. Tier I SI's include companies like Wipro, Satyam, 3iInfotech to name a few while for tier II we are focusing on companies that have a strong regional presence, like Mumbai based Mindcraft or SI's that are strong in verticals."

ISVs is another category in which Sybase is looking at both top companies like Infosys and also engaging people that are currently building applications and do not have the expanse to go to the market directly. "We would like to work very closely with these companies and enable them to be market-ready. With such new players we would concentrate on our flagship products like Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) and SQL Anywhere while with companies like Infosys we would like to partner for positioning our data warehousing solution, Sybase IQ."

The third category includes value-added resellers (VARs). Currently in India Sybase has 40 VARs and one distributor, Redington. "We intend to get our off-the-shelf products like PowerBuilder, Power Developer and EA Server pushed into the market through these VARs. We would like to freeze upon 110-150 VARs over the next three years primarily focusing on non-metro cities and would like to add another distributor in the next twelve months," informed Kumar.

The company is also looking at building relationships with global partners like Sun, HP, IBM, Intel, SAP. "We would work closely with their local partners and take the existing relationship further." The company is also looking at creating awareness about its offerings amongst consultants like PWC, Ernst & Young and institutes like IITs, IISC as well as government bodies.

"We would like to freeze upon 110-150 VARs over the next three years primarily focusing on non-metro cities and would like to add another distributor in the next twelve months" -Kumar Mitra Head of Channels Sybase India

Discussing about the plans for increasing number of partners in India Kumar said, "On the SI front we have partnerships with Satyam and Wipro at a global level. We hope to add about twenty SIs across tier I and II in the next 18 months. On the ISV front we have around 40 partners in the enterprise and data mobility space. We see a huge traction in the mobility space and would double the number of partners over the next 18 months."

Revenue wise, about 80 percent of sales in India are through channels and the company hopes to bring it to a 90-95 percent level. "Our direct sales managers work closely with partners and provide necessary support in creating solutions for customers."

At the time of partner selection the company takes into consideration their market reputation, track record; the verticals they focus on etc. "We partner with companies, which are aligned to our vision of an 'unwired enterprise' or can scale up to it."

"Our focus is on converting existing Microsoft and Oracle partners into Sybase partners. We believe that PowerDesigner is the best data management tool available today, but we have not been able to sell it the way we would want because of lack of awareness. We would like to work closely with IBM Rational Rose and ERWin partners and give them options to enable them to in turn create a value proposition for their customers and partners by working on the best available tool in the market," informed Kumar.

(The writer was hosted in Las Vegas by Sybase)

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