HDS to focus on India, plans a subsidiary

Japan based Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has big plans for India. India figures
in the list of six nations chosen by the company, to focus its marketing
activities on for the next few years, the others being China, Korea, Australia,
Brazil and Mexico.

According to Martin Darling, Senior Director (Channels - APAC and
International America), HDS, though Indian revenues might not be too big now,
the region promised one of the strongest growth rates even among the six
countries that it will be concentrating on and that, the company would be
setting up a subsidiary in the country by the next quarter.

"Being one of the focus countries means that India will have more
addition in headcount than most other places now. Apart from this, India and
China together will see close to 20 percent of the total investment that will be
going into these countries," he said.

He further added that though only 20 percent of Indian revenues had been
contributed by SMEs at present, HDS hopes to take their contribution to 60
percent of revenues in the next three years time. This will be achieved through
its recently launched selection among modular storage products and an aggressive
channel program.

"We have around thirty partners at the moment, with one
distributor. We have chosen our partners with a focus on their SI capabilities.
We will look to increase this to 60 partners in the near future," said
Darling. He added that HDS would first concentrate on the metros and then move
to B class cities.

Speaking on its initiative to include partners in branding
exercises, Darling said, "We encourage our channel partners to build
solutions using our products with complementary products from other vendors.
They can brand these and market them as their own solutions. We have seen that
this builds loyalty among them and also increases their involvement in our
product."

Sathya Mithra Ashok

Bangalore (CyberMedia News)