DQW EXCLUSIVE: Cyberoam appoints Cyberstar as VAD for SAARC

Cyberoam, a division of Elitecore Technologies, has appointed Cyberstar International (Singapore) as its value-added distributor (VAD) for its entire UTM appliance range across key countries in SAARC-Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan. With this appointment, the company has taken the tally of its total distributors worldwide to 71.

Elated with this partnership, Hemal Patel, CEO, Elitecore Technologies says, "The idea of appointing a Saarc distributor came because we wanted to work with a VAD, who could help us in getting more and more partners on board. We are a channel-centric company and after evaluating a few of the VADs, we found Cyberstar more promising. Its network in the entire region will definitely help us in the long run. We have been trying to add new partners but we couldn't achieve what we had expected. So, we were looking for such a VAD who knows this region the most."

"The reason for appointing a distributor at this point of time is that we have been working in this market on an ad-hoc basis and our approach in this region was quite disorganized. Our goal is to become # 1 UTM player in this region as well. This is a very promising market and we definitely need more and more partners who could help us achieve this target," says Patel.

In order to ensure the faster delivery of products in the entire region, Cyberoam will be using Cyberstar's stocking facility. Besides, with this move, Cyberoam is all set to strengthen its existing relationship with corporate and enterprise customers in the Saarc region, thus poised to capture a bigger market share.

Sunil Sharma, VP, sales, India and SAARC, Cyberoam says, "This partnership will certainly help us in deeper penetration in the Saarc countries. Through Cyberstar, we are further looking at appointing sub-distributors in each country who will be primarily developing those markets with the help of local resellers. Moreover, we are looking at having minimum 25 resellers on board in the first phase of this journey. We are quite gung-ho about developing an ecosystem in this region."

Meanwhile, the biggest challenge right now for Cyberoam is to create enough awareness among corporations in the region to integrate solution like UTM, particularly in Nepal and Bhutan which are untapped markets compared to the relatively more developed Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Looking at this scenario, the company wants to present the value proposition of UTM solution in combining best-of-the-breed solutions over a single platform and thus, enabling organizations to stay ahead of existing and emerging threats.

Talking about this partnership, Rajkumar Rathi, MD, Cyberstar says, "Cyberoam has grown tremendously in the last couple of years, especially in India. So, for immediate neighbourhood, Cyberoam will complete our portfolio and gives us the possibility to extend our customers with a complete network security solution that fits every size and budget. Cyberstar has already started distributing Cyberoam products successfully. We are confident that this partnership has a great future."