With storage becoming an all-important aspect for implementing IT solutions, in keeping with the importance of the Indian market, storage major Maxtor is looking forward to increasing its partner strength in the sub-continent. Rachel Forke, Director, Worldwide Channel Marketing at Maxtor explains about how the company looks at India and how it plans to enhance its partner program in this region.

What is the current focus for Maxtor globally and where does India stand in the overall operations?
Maxtor is always looking for opportunities to grow in geographies that we have a presence in. India continues to be a very important market for Maxtor and we are totally committed to realizing the full potential of this market.

In this market, we work closely with certain OEM partners like HCL, Wipro, Vintron and LG. Additionally, we are working with the solution provider or the systems integrator community in order to better penetrate the Indian market. 

The importance of this market can be gauged by our five-year warranty policy, which is applicable only in this geography. Service being one of the factors that we take most seriously, we now have five service locations within India and our resellers are maintaining three to four weeks of inventory on an average. All this reiterates the fact that we consider India as one of the most valuable markets.

How many partners does Maxtor work with globally and what is the figure in India?
On a global scale, we are working with close to 40,000 partners as of today. And in India, this figure would be more than 1,000. These are part of our VIP program and we are continuously looking at ways to increase our market reach and presence. At the same time, we are not looking at adding mere numbers to our partners list. 

We are looking forward to increasing our Indian partner strength considerably. Ideally, we would be adding 100 to 150 partners per month for our VIP program. We created the Maxtor VIP Partner Program to help individuals in our reseller network gain a competitive advantage. 

As such, we work hard to support our members with the right tools, training and incentive programs to help them recommend and sell Maxtor's full line of storage solutions. Everything we do is designed to drive sales and help our VIP Partner Program members be successful. 

What new segments are you targeting in India and globally?
Our research and development activity is continuously trying to explore new market opportunities globally. Moving forward, consumer electronics is one segment, which would be really big. Areas like the Set Top Boxes and other products are going to drive storage demand.

How much importance do you give to training when it comes to developing an ecosystem for your operations?
As we grow our partner strength, we always look for ways to enhance their level of understanding when it comes to implementing cutting edge technologies. Moreover, more and more partners now look for ways to move up the value chain. Training provides them with an opportunity to do that. 

We are engaged in an online training program for our partners. This program is designed to deliver knowledge about current technology and its deployment in today's dynamic scenarios. 

ZIA ASKARI
NEW DELHI

Page(s)   1