By Priyanka Chowdhury
In a bid to widen its geographical coverage, Norton, the consumer arm of Symantec, plans to appoint a large network of sub-distributors across the country.
“To meet our objective of wider market coverage, we plan to appoint at least one sub-distributor in each of the state capitals of the country. We have recently appointed three new sub-distributors for Rajasthan, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh and one for the entire North-Eastern region. All these sub-distributors will promote the entire Norton product line-up to the home, SOHO and SMB segments through their networks of resellers, retailers, and assemblers,” said Gaurav Kanwal, Country Sales Manager (Norton), Symantec India.
Norton’s plan is to double its market coverage to 360 cities and towns from the existing 180 and thus also double its registered reseller base from 1,800 to 3,600.
Another area, where Symantec plans to increase its footprint is the retail segment. “We are extremely bullish about retail and are looking at expanding our retail presence across India. Currently, we have tie-ups with major retail chains like Croma, Staples and Reliance Digital. We will now concentrate on selling our products through alternate channels too,” Kanwal added.
While, the vendor already has Ingram Micro and Redington as its national distributors, it has appointed Aladdin Multimedia as its exclusive distributor for the retail segment. Aladdin Multimedia mainly deals with LFRs like Croma and Staples.
The vendor is also planning to add more layers to its Norton Champs partner program. It plans to add training and an online test. “We plan to start a newsletter for our partners. This newsletter will not only feature new products but would feature articles sent in by partners. They can write about topics like threat management, self-made businesses and their experiences while dealing with Symantec,” informed Kanwal.
The company said that one of the focus areas going forward is to launch products and services for data and information back-up for consumers.
“Data or information back-up is one of the upcoming segments right now. Although, it hasn’t still caught up in India, consumers are definitely becoming more aware about the benefits of having multiple back-up of their information. When something goes wrong with your desktop or notebook, then having a back-up of the information will save you from a lot of trouble,” said Kanwal.
Currently, Symantec doesn’t have any stand alone back-up product of its own. Through its Norton 360 range of products, the vendor offers online back-up services. It offers 2 GB of secure online storage for free with Norton 360 product and 10 GB of secure online with the premium version. |