Launching newer varieties of products is the key to our success, and our channel is taking this very well

HP ProCurve has emerged as one of the fastest growing networking vendors
and is confident of its well-laid strategies, and aims to hold high position in
the coming year. It has recently launched a delivery kit, a channel intense
program through which they can offer complete solution and can come closer to
their partners:

What are the innovative solutions and services you provide to your
clients?

Innovative solutions in terms of wire and wireless are the unique offerings
from the HP Procurve. We provide lifetime warranty and a free software update on
our solutions, which are very well received by all our customers. A lot of money
is saved in the EMC cost which is as big as owning a new network by themselves.
That's what Procurve brings to its partners and to the customers today.

How important is the channel in your business?

Channel plays an important role in our business and about 98 percent of our
business is due to channels. Our dependence on the channel is very high.

What plans are on the anvil as far as the channel is concerned?

We have recently launched a channel structure in terms of elite partners,
specialist partners, professional partners and the select partners. We have a
fantastic kit to educate them, which we would provide and recruit them to all
the partners who are there from the time we started and who are helping us to
grow this business. We have dedicated channel managers to address them; we have
training programs that are lined across regions for their sales as well as their
technical people. The delivery kit helps them to understand us and it is a
complete solution kit. Through this kit we are trying to give complete solution
to our clients. These are some channel intense programs, which we are tying to
do, so that we can come closer to the partners.

What is your marketshare and how do you plan to increase it further
keeping in mind the entrance of new players. How has the channel reacted so far
to your products?

If you look at our growth in the last five years we have moved from ninth
position in the market to the fourth position, as per the ITC. It has rated us
as one of the fastest growing networking vendors this year. In a span of four
years we have had a huge lead. As far as the channel reaction is concerned it
has been good so far. There are combinations of channels. HP channel takes the
majority of the share, there are networking channels that have seen the value
addition in the product slowly. The adoption of the new networking vendor was
slow but it has picked up very well now.

What according to you are the challenges in the Indian market?

Price is the biggest challenge. The product renewal should be faster; price
and getting new products to market are the key challenges faced in the Indian
market.

What are your further plans for next year?

You will see a range of new products coming up next year. We will take 10GB
to a new level. It is something that we will start positioning across India.

Lipsha Das

lipshad@cybermedia.co.in