Channel Chief
 “We intend to launch new partner program”
With the impending de-merger, D-Link has come up with a new organizational structure along with a new partner program to bring more opportunities for its partners.
Rajesh Sahore, who was earlier taking care of the company’s operations in the west, has been elevated to the post of VP, Channels. He shares the company’s roadmap with Sharmee Roy
Post de-merger, what changes can we expect in the organization? How will partners benefit from the de-merger?
After the de-merger, which will be completed in another 15-30 days, the organization will be able to bring more focus to the D-Link brand. Our intention will be to further strengthen our relationships with our partners with more focus on expanding opportunities, and extending technology and products to our partners to help them get more business. The attempt will be to become more sales-oriented, and we will soon have a new team leader from our global headquarters to drive the business. We will align our Indian business structure with that of our global structure, under which the entire organization will be divided into three strategic business units—consumer, enterprise and service providers, which will primarily be for the telecom segment.
This de-merger will benefit not only us but also our partners. Earlier, when it was a single company, partners were pushing both active and passive ranges. Even though a partner wanted to push only one of our products, he was not able to do so for obvious reasons. But now the partner has the freedom to choose D-Link in the active category and any other brand in the passive category.
You have been a strong player in the SMB market. Will there be a change in your strategy?
We have been the leader in the SMB and SOHO segments, and they will continue to be our key strengths. Now we will focus aggressively on the enterprise market as we believe there is lot of scope there for our partners and us. We want some major wins in this market since we have the right mix and quality of products. But this means a change in our approach from being product-centric to being solution-centric.
Can you give us a break-up of the contribution of various segments to your business? On the product side, what can we expect from D-Link?
We are very strong in the education and government sectors. Together they contribute 40 percent, while telecom contributes 20 percent.
On the whole, the consumer business contribution is around 50 percent, followed by enterprises contributing approximately 30 percent—this includes SMBs and large enterprises.
One of the key focus areas will be security, where we have data security, firewall and UTM as a total solution, while in the physical security space the focus will be on IT surveillance products. Besides, we will continue to concentrate on wireless mobility solutions and green Ethernet technology, which has been one of our USPs.
We will also enter a new product category, wireless backhaul solutions, in July. In this category we’ll have two products which will be introduced with workshops for our partners.
What will your channel roadmap look like? Will you continue with the Empower partner program?
We will focus more on solutions, and our partners will align with us. For this we intend to launch a new partner program on the same lines as the earlier program, Empower, but with enhancements. We are yet to name our new program, and hopefully should be able to launch it in July. This program will be specifically for systems integrators and partners who want to upgrade themselves to the solutions provision business. Under this program, we would like to create specialist players based on an industry vertical or solution expertise.
Unlike the Empower program, the segregation of partners based on their specialization will be a new feature in the new program. The idea is also to bring more partners into our fold. We have 400 partners under the Empower program, and with the new program we would like to increase the base further. While recruiting new partners we will consider not only partners who are in the IT space, but also partners who specialize in providing surveillance and CCTV solutions. We have already started working with such partners who have gone ahead and upgraded themselves to become IT surveillance partners.
Update us on your support infrastructure. What can we expect for the enterprise market?
We already have a very strong support infrastructure in place, with RMA support outsourced to Digilink. They currently have 17 RMA centers. In addition, we have recently appointed 25 ASPs in tier-3 and tier-4 cities. These ASPs will be an extended arm of our support infrastructure. Over the next 12 months we want to take this count to 40.
Further, we will roll out our SLA-based support at additional cost for the enterprise customer. |