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Thin client vendor NComputing has planned an aggressive strategy for its Indian business during the current fiscal. This includes doubling the number of resellers it engages with from 150 to 300 by 2010.
“India is a high priority in the global strategies of NComputing. In a short span of time, the country has become the largest market for NComputing outside the United States. We have close to 2,00,000 client seats installed here, mostly in the government and education sectors,” informed Raj Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, NComputing.
The company fundamentally markets two solutions, the traditional thin client product (L Series) and a PC-sharing solution (X Series). “The X Series is actually a kit consisting of multi-port PCI cards and access devices that lets users share a PC for as little as Rs 3,500 per node excluding monitor and keyboard costs. Most of the school orders we have bagged are based on the X Series,” Shah stated.
Vspace, NComputing’s desktop virtualization software, is at the heart of the package, and is responsible for creating and managing virtual PCs on the host system.
NComputing has bagged orders from education departments in states such as Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand, and is said to be in the final stages of negotiations in almost 10 other states for school computerization projects.
While the bulk of the company’s revenues is expected to come through OEM relationships and alliance programs, Shah stressed that channels are quite important to NComputing’s plans. The company has alliances with partners such as NIIT for the K-12 education market in the country. “Our products are currently finding acceptance in government tenders, whether for education or other projects. And the way the government works makes it commercially viable [for us] to work with large OEMs or service providers,” Shah said.
He added, “There is acceptance of our solutions in the education, manufacturing, SMB and healthcare segments. Current market conditions are also putting budget constraints on clients, hence they are likely to accept our low-cost computing alternatives.”
Korean PC giant LG has recently re-licensed technology from NComputing to introduce network monitors. These monitors use technology from the X Series. “LG has a strong presence in India, and it will be taking our technology to thousands of resellers through its network,” said Shah.
The company distributes its products through Redington, but also has value-added regional distributors such as Digital Waves in Bengaluru, Prime ABGB in Mumbai, Adline Systems in New Delhi and Origin Infosys in Chennai. |