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“We aim to double our India revenues in the next three years”
 Prashanth G J, Regional Director, Hitachi Data Systems, speaks to Sharmee Roy about the company’s SMB focus and the new channel initiative
HCL was recently roped in as your gold solutions partner. Tell us something about the partnership and how it will benefit Hitachi.
We have just revamped our channel set-up, and this partnership is in line with our new focus on channels. HCL comes on board with our other two gold solutions partners, Wipro and Apara. HCL has a strong reach in large enterprise, government and defence segments. These segments have a focus on compliance, and we have products to address the issue. HCL also has a good presence in media and manufacturing, which will help us to provide greater value to our customers. We believe that we are the only company in the market with the ability to bring to the table an end-to-end solution.
Please explain your distribution set-up.
At the first level we have platinum partners; this partnership is on a worldwide level. At present we have Sun as our platinum partner. Then we have Ingram Micro as the national distributor here. At the next level comes the TrueNorth Channel Partner Program whereby we are engaged with the three gold partners. Further down we have associate partners, while entry-level partners are called bronze partners.
In terms of criteria, gold solution partners are selected on the basis of the engagement, amount of business done, and skill-sets they bring to the table. Our associate partners are capable of providing a certain amount of service support, while our bronze partners are purely into sales.
So what kind of partner programs do you run?
On the whole, we run programs at two levels—strategic and tactical. Both are part of our TrueNorth Channel Partner Program. In the case of strategic programs, we engage with partners on a long-term basis to build a partner ecosystem. We co-fund partner activities, and provide them with inputs like skill-enhancement training programs, soft-skill training, and partner rebates. On the other hand, programs at the tactical level are more time-specific. These initiatives could be more product-specific, region-specific or segment-specific. The engagement programs are for all our partners.
How important is storage for the banking and telecom verticals? And how has your focus on the Indian market changed over the years?
Storage has become extremely important for these verticals because both are growing rapidly and therefore their need to store data is also increasing exponentially. Regulatory norms have made it mandatory for these sectors to keep records for number of years. This has led to a tremendous increase in the demand for storage by these sectors. The need to have centralized data for core banking purposes has also given a push to the demand for storage.
Earlier, our concentration was on the enterprise space, especially the banking and telecom space. However, over the past six months, our focus has shifted towards the SMB segment. Our products and the new channel policy are aligned to this. Because of the current market slowdown, the SMB market will also be a focus area for the next 12 months.
What is the ratio of your enterprise and SMB business?
When our focus was more on the enterprise, our SI partners, who formed our tier-1 level, served the enterprise market. Our new focus will give a lot of emphasis to the tier-2 partners who will serve the SMB market. However, this does not mean that our enterprise business is not important—we will continue to focus on it. Currently, the ratio of business coming from the enterprise and SMB segment is 80:20. In the next 12 months, we aim to change it to 50:50.
Any particular region where you would like to focus more?
For us, the south has been a region of focus and will continue to be so. Our target markets include Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. Besides this, we have also set our eyes on the north, especially Delhi. The capital is the hub for most government businesses. We are already involved with large government projects, and we would like to keep this momentum going. Going forward, our aim is to increase our government business by 50 percent.
Tell us about your training academy and the programs you offer.
We train partners on various technologies as well as on the new product launches that we do. These programs are open to our partners at all levels and also to our customers. Besides this, we have different certification courses to educate our partners about different technologies and special initiatives launched. These courses range from pre-sales to post-sales.
What are your plans going forward?
Over the past 6-8 months, we have revamped our distribution with more focus on the channels. In line with this, we have expanded our partner base at the tier-2 level. We currently have 26 partners in the bronze category; most of them have been added over the past 3-4 months. These partners have been appointed in a way that we have 2-3 partners in each region.
Right now, our aim is to consolidate the changes that we have brought in our channel policy. We also have plans to add new branches. Presently, we have branches in Delhi and Mumbai. In the initial phase, we plan to open branches in Chennai and Hyderabad. These branches have already started functioning on a small scale, and will be fully functional with proper support services within a period of 3-6 months. We are also thinking of opening a branch at Pune, but that would be in the next phase of expansion.
What kind of targets have you set for yourself?
We are currently growing at 30 percent year-on-year, and that’s how we plan to continue growing over the next three years. This will help us achieve our target of doubling our India revenues in the next three years. |