By Dhaval Valia
Avosec India has rolled out plans to promote Avast antivirus products in the Indian market. The company intends to set up multiple branches, invest in pre and post-sales support infrastructure, and appoint 1,000 partners during 2010.
“Avosec is a UK-based company and is recognized as the largest distributor of Avast worldwide. We have the exclusive rights to distribute the antivirus brand in India, and having researched the Indian market thoroughly, we believe that pre and post-sales support is a key to success here,” said James Norris, CEO, Avosec Private Limited.
The company set up its India subsidiary in October 2009.
“The office in Pune will be our headquarters, and we will soon open an office in Delhi. Within the next six months we intend to establish branches in Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad. Each branch will have at least two sales and two support staff. In our first year of operations in India we will be in a position to provide physical support in A and B class cities,” informed Norris.
The distributor will soon launch its partner program in India. With two classifications, gold and platinum, the program is designed to provide higher margins to partners, incentives to their sales teams, rebates and special pricing. The company plans to appoint 500 partners in A class cities in H1 2010, and another 500 in B class cities in H2 2010.
Avosec aims to have partners who are also strong on support. “In India, customers prefer one-point contact. They do not want to purchase a product from one company and contact another company for technical support. Similarly, we have found that most resellers are able to win business on assurances of post-sales technical support. Bearing this in mind, we have designed a partner program where resellers can offer technical support through qualified and certified technical engineers. It is mandatory for every gold and platinum partner to have at least one sales and one technical engineer dedicated to Avast,” explained Riyaz Kabir Sayyed, Sales Manager, Asia, Avosec.
The company will soon roll out its channel training program to provide an understanding of Avast products.
According to Avosec, Avast already has two million registered Indian consumers, those who have downloaded the product free. “From a mind share point of view, Avast is very popular among home and professional users. We now need to educate SMB and corporate customers about our business offerings,” said Norris.
Added Sayyed, “Avast has a wide portfolio of products that work on various platforms including Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac, with plug-ins for different servers. We offer a standard one-year subscription, along with two and three years. We also offer discount programs for government organizations, charitable trusts, educational institutes and hospitals.” |