CRN Network, May 21 2009, 1830 hrs
After much success in the consumer anti-virus market, Kaspersky is aiming to conquer the enterprise space. Zoom Technologies, the licensing partner for Kaspersky in the country, is gearing up for an entry into the enterprise segment.
Pricing will be a key part of the strategy, but the company says it has put up the infrastructure and is boosting its support operations to address the growing SMB and enterprise market.
Zoom, which started offering Kaspersky products at market operating prices of around Rs 420, has almost rewritten the way anti-virus is retailed in the country.
“At present we sell close to 60,000 units of Kaspersky Total Internet Security in India every month through retail channels. Since each product comes with three licenses, we account for nearly 1,80,000 license sales. In the next six months we will see the number growing to 3,00,000 licenses because we plan to enter the SMB and enterprise space,” revealed M H Noble, Managing Director of Zoom. “We will continue to leverage on our aggressive pricing, but remember that you are getting the same world-class product for special prices in India.”
Noble said that Zoom had negotiated special prices for the Indian market, and the price benefits are being passed on to channel partners and consumers. “Before Kaspersky entered the market, a consumer had to spend Rs 1,500 or so for buying an anti-virus product. We had negotiated very special pricing which is a fraction of the price at which Kaspersky is retailed elsewhere. In fact we believe the licensed anti-virus market has grown three-fold since our entry,” Noble stated.
Partners are also taking note of Kaspersky’s success. “Zoom has managed to bring in Kaspersky at such aggressive prices that they seem to have grown the market for anti-viral solutions at the retail level. Good prices are always good for consumers,” said Peter Theobold, director of Softcell Technologies.
Other anti-viral vendors have also been forced to price their products more aggressively, and they grudgingly admit that Kaspersky has the overall AV market. “While our pricing strategy has nothing to do with Kaspersky’s positioning, I agree that Kaspersky has certainly grown the business for anti-viral software as more and more resellers are comfortable selling anti-virus products,” observed John Devasahayam, executive director with K7 Computing.
However, according to Kaspersky’s competitors, it will not be easy for Zoom to succeed in the enterprise space. “It’s true that Kaspersky has won a huge chunk of retail marketshare in India. But the enterprise
business is a different ball-game as support and services are key issues, and at low margins it
may not be easy to sustain,” opined a senior sales manager with a US anti-virus software vendor. |