Intel launches business exchange portal

Intel India announced the launch of its business exchange portal (www.bxintel.
india.com). The portal will provide channel partners, solution providers (SPs)
and independent software companies (ISVs) an online destination where they can
focus on providing SMBs with various solutions that will help them take informed
IT decisions. The Intel Business Exchange portal offers solutions such as
bundled software and hardware, stand-alone business applications and services.
Those accessing the site can research products and services, request quotes and
connect with SPs to identify, select and implement the technology that will help
them accelerate their business processes.

The community-enabled website includes resources such as product
descrip­tions, interactive demon­strations, whitepapers, case studies, blog
entries and user-submitted product ratings and reviews, in order to help SMB
professionals find answers to their toughest business challenges. Product
categories currently featured on Intel Business Exchange include storage,
security, office productivity and collaboration, ERP, CAD/CAM, HRM, and other
on-premise business applications.

Elaborating on the reasons behind launching the portal, Peter D Elmgren, MD,
Intel Business Exchange opined, “Intel sees a tremendous amount of growth in the
SMB community and this growth is accompanied by a lot of complexity. We found
that by launching the business exchange we can help solve this complexity to a
large extent wherein SMBs can buy a lot of innovative solutions as well as make
informed IT decisions.”

Given that SMBs are growing at a fast pace, with this portal in place Intel
is looking forward to connect SMBs to the concerned SPs who can offer them the
most appropriate and cost effective solutions.

Narendra Bhandari, Director-APAC, SSG-Developer Relations Division, Intel
mentioned, “SMBs are not sure of what lies next and hence the awareness level of
IT among them is there to the extent that IT can help them. They read a lot
about IT, productivity and ease that technology can extend but they are not sure
about the place where they can find the solutions. Most SMBs typically start
with financial accounting and beyond that they are not really sure of how can
they go about business process, designing infrastructure, supply planning and
that's the stage where they will start searching for solutions that they can
trust. Thus the portal will help accelerate their business from there to the
next step.”

Talking about the portal Bhandari elaborated that the other portals offer
solutions in bits and pieces but on Business Exchange customers will get a wider
choice and the right set of solutions and partners.

According to a report on IT adoption in Indian Small and Medium Enterprises,
published by Microsoft and AMI-Partners in February 2008, the share of Indian
SME's total IT spend has been growing rapidly over the past few years. There is
evidence that growth in SMB IT spend is set to continue at a robust 24 percent.
This growth rate is the fastest amongst all BRIC countries, with Russia, China
and Brazil following at 22.9, 20.4 and 19.4 percent respectively.

Intel expects the portal to grow and receive good response from the Indian
SMB community. “We have already launched this portal in North America, China and
other countries and although the portal is very similar in looks, the portal
dedicated for the American SMBs is different in the sense that it offers the
option of online purchasing as well. They pay and download the solutions online
but we are very clear that the model won't work here because in India the
bandwidth speed and maturity of the customers is still not there. Customers in
India do not believe in download without physically seeing a box of solution,”
stated Elmgren.

SPs will be able to reach out to the right set of customers and expand their
network in the most cost-effective manner. “A solution provider who is doing
very nice in the west and wants to expand their business in the east, can log on
to the portal and we will help them build network with the right set of
customers,” stated Elmgren.

On the other hand the channel that is basically focused at selling hardware,
software, annual mainte­nance contract can build relationship with their
customers. With the portal they can become channel partners for not just the
hardware but also the software and related services. Intel aims at offering the
channel partners with more avenues to earn revenues and margins and cater to a
wider set of customers in a cost efficient manner as well.

ISVs currently participa­ting in Intel Business Exchange include Tally,
TidalData, Planvisage, Reach Technologies, Think3, Yukti, Infospec­trum,
Instacol, iWeb Technology and Kaspersky.