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US-based security solutions vendor ESET held a two-day event in New Delhi
to introduce its newly appointed national distributor, ESS Software, to the
channel community. While its existing partners vouch for the products' technical
superiority they want the vendor to work harder on making its brand more visible
and popular
With the IT security threats looming in in India, it is time for anti-virus
and spamware companies to make hay. US-based ESET, which manufacturers
anti-virus, anti-spam and anti-spyware solutions too has realized the untapped
potential in India, which is one of the growing economies of the world.
This is why the company held a channel briefing session in the capital
recently to give solution providers a glimpse of its offerings and also
introduce its distributor for the region.
Till sometime ago, ESET was directly selling to the channel partners. But
looking at the geographical dimensions of India it has realized that the only
way to reach the furthest corners of the country is through a distributor.
In order to strengthen the market presence and to reach customers through the
two-tier distribution model, ESET has appointed ESS Software as its national
distributor. Its channel outreach event was created with the objective to
introduce its existing partners to the newly appointed distributor. The event
also unveiled the strategies of ESET to expand its presence in the Indian
sub-continent and strengthen its channel base.
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| Riyaz Sayyed, Area Sales
Manager, ESS Software Distribution and Consulting |
The ESET event gave solution providers the opportunity to put forward their
issues and seek clarifications, as this is the first time that ESS has entered
the Indian market through a distributor. “Till now we were doing business with
the vendor directly so we were comfortable in putting forward our issue to them.
Now with a distributor in place I think initially resellers will continue
interacting with the vendor only,” said one of the dealers present in the event.
“Worldwide, we approach the market through distributors and since we did not
have any distributor in India we were not concentrating on the market much. We
were looking for a company who understands the product portfolio of ESET and
would help us in expanding in a better manner. Since we did not want to plunge
into the market with any distributor, we preferred to wait. Now that ESS is in
row, we will have a strong presence here,” explained Marwan Chanawani, Channel
Manager, ESET.
Focus on training
Speaking on ESET's channel strategies Chanawani stated that understanding
the potential of Indian market and its surroundings areas, it was necessary to
appoint someone who could handle the local issues. This entity would also help
ESET in appointing more resellers across the country that are looking for
long-term relationships.
Initially ESS Software's will continue adding to ESET's reseller base and
would impart technical and sales training to them. This is to ensure that
partners can give the first level of support to the customers and escalate the
issues only on a need-basis.“ESS will manage the appointment of resellers and
will help them to expand to the large base of customers. Till now partners were
coordinating with us directly for technical or sales issue. But from now
onwards, they will interact with ESS for any matter. However, we are always
there to provide any kind of support,” commented Chanawani.
Emphasizing on the technical training of the partners, Riyaz Sayyed, Area
Sales Manager, ESS Software Distribution and Consulting said that the company
wants to gain a strong position by excelling in the after-sales support and
service, and hence, partners will be given special attention towards this
direction.
“We want to make the system such that any problem is fixed at the dealer
level itself. In case it is acute, it would be elevated to the distributor level
and then to vendor stage, if needed,” said Sayyed.
Competition ahoy
ESET has been present in India for the last four to five years but has not been
able to create a strong impact due to the lack of focus towards this market.
Partners also said that another reason why the company has not been able to make
a significant dent in the security market is due to its weak marketing efforts
and their insipid focus on the Indian market. But the same partners reassert
that the vendor has a strong product line that is better than that of its
competitors.
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| Maros Mozola, Senior
VP-International Business, ESET |
“We have diverted our attention towards Indian market and has appointed ESS
to evangelize their presence,” shared Dmitry Popovich, Business Development
Manager, ESS Software Distribution and Consulting.
ESET considers Symantec and McAfee as its prime competitor and the company
claims that its swift after-sale support and quality oriented product will
enable it to have a leading position within a year.
What makes ESET go
“Whenever customer of brands like Symantec and McAfee demand for service or
support, the response time is so low that it takes a whole day to fix the
problem. Such long hours make a customer lose his patience and leaves him
discontent, which means we might end up losing his business. To sort out the
problem, we have been installing ESET fix the problem. ESET takes minutes to
sort out the same problem,” shared Vinay P, Business Development Executive of
24x7, a Bangalore-based firm that provides software security solutions.
“I have myself converted several client accounts this way and customers have
never faced any issue thereafter. This is the prime strategy that will provide a
leading edge to ESET,” added Vinay. Few dealers also opined that brands like
Symantec and McAfee are heavy software products that take lot of space. This
slows down the entire system, which is not the case with ESET. “They have got
light products and it does not affect the working speed of computers,” claimed
an attending partner.
ESET also provides a 30-day trial to customers before the purchase of the
license, which will help solution providers to clinch client accounts more
easily.
Speed breakers
But these positive details aside, there is no doubt that ESET has to work on
making its brand more visible and popular. Resellers admitted that till now
there was very little awareness about the brand among customers, and hence ESET
has never been the first choice for them. But they are hoping that with the
appointment of a national distributor the company will create noise in the
market and customers will come to know about their presence.
Now the question arises that though ESET has a basket of good products but
will it be easier for the partners to convince the customers to buy ESET at
first go? Replying to this, a system integrator admitted that customers might be
apprehensive about buying the product for the first time. But if dealers put
forward the positive aspects of ESET over other brands and convince them not to
go only after the brand but with the quality, it will gradually pick up well.
ESS Software is looking to appoint resellers in 15 metros and sub-metros in
the initial six to eight months, and each city will have five premium partners
and 15 partners. Premium partners would be those who have the potential to do
business of Rs 2 lakh per quarter and have dedicated sales and technical team.
Partners will fall into the category where resellers will have to touch sales
of Rs 40,000 every quarter and should have a technical and sales team. Both, the
premium partners and partners will have to reconfirm their status for every six
months.
AMRITA TEJASVI
amritat@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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