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‘We always believe in providing better profits to our partners'

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Prasanth
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Alok Gupta, Managing Director of Unistal Systems elaborates upon his vision for Unistal and the future roadmap

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How was the company set up? What were the reasons or objectives for setting it up?

I and my old friend Pankaj Mathur were looking for an opportunity to transform our business ideas into reality. I got very much inspired from my boss or rather my role model, Narender Kumar of M/s Nashsoft Systems at that time and decided to form my own company. The main objective was to implement our innovative ideas and run a company more effectively.

To what extent have you managed to achieve those objectives?

We have successfully been able to transform our thoughts into reality. Today, Unistal is well known name in the IT industry. We have almost 300 employees working for the company. We have added innovation by adding value to our products, services and solutions. We are not caught in trends, we give what customers needs. We believe in honesty and hard work as there is no substitution to the hard work.

Kindly brief us about the solution offerings.

We have categorized our business to three different verticals Products, Solutions and Services. Product portfolio has further divided into three categories - Data Security and Antivirus products, Data Recovery and File repair products and Data Care Products. We have developed more than 50 products till date.

Our Protegent range caters to data Security and antivirus, which comes with antivirus protection and other security modules like activity monitoring, data leakage prevention, laptop tracking and data loss prevention. Apart from this we have Protegent Enterprise security solution which is specially designed for SMB and Enterprise clients. In data Recovery and file repair category we have Quick Recovery Range of products, which includes data recovery software, file repair software, email conversion software and password recovery software.

In Data Care products, we have products like Activity Reporter, Port Locker, Data Wipe, Crash Proof and more. In solutions, we have developed a SAAS based solution on cloud for oil and Gas sector named as Pipeline Information Management Solution (PIMS). This solution is on cloud since 2005 and we have completed more than 50 projects till date globally for the clients like Gail India, Indian Oil, ADCO-UAE, British Petroleum, PETRONAS-Malaysia etc. Apart from this we also provide 360 solutions for Geographical Information Systems.

In services we provide data recovery services both online and offline directly and through our partner network across the world. We also provide managed services to the customers of United States and Canada.

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Explain about the distribution model in place for your solutions to grow your business.

Channel is the most important link in our data recovery/data security business. Unistal has well established distribution network. The company deeply rely on this channel model to promote and sell its complete range of data security, data recovery and data care products. Unistal has almost 5000 partners attached directly or indirectly through its distribution network.The purpose of this distribution model is to create awareness among the end users and deliver robust and user friendly solutions. We always believe in providing better profits to our partners.

What is the role of a channel partner in the business ecosystem?

Channel model plays an important role to concur the growth of the business. It is a medium in which most of the companies rely to transform their business strategies. The company greatly depends on its partners to maximise his reach and to provide products and professional services across the country.

What were the business strategies employed to drive this growth?

In the initial phase we had limited options because we were not having multiple products. We were more focused towards data recovery services. Now, we have almost 50 products, and hence more options to implement marketing strategies. We can focus and associate more firmly. Also we have manpower to execute my business ideas. Presently the company is investing heavily on digital marketing to establish the brand Protegent where we are doing a lot of promotional activities on social media sites like Facebook, twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Also, we keep on sponsoring the channel meets and exhibitions. Apart from this, we keep on launching scheme for channel partners across the country month on month.

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What are the changes you have brought in?

We have diversified ourselves from data recovery services to a product and solution company. Today, we are exporting products to almost 150 countries. This change has given tremendous growth to the company. We have now almost 300 employees and the company has its own development centres in Noida and Pune. The regional sales and support office in Mumbai, Kolkatta and Bangalore.

What are the key focus verticals? Any intention to expand your presence into other verticals.

Unistal's products are essential products and are required by every computer user from home to corporate to the government.

Which companies do you consider as your competition in the Indian market? What is your go-to-market strategy including the strategy used to compete with the competitors?

With growing demand of software products, we can foresee many small players in data recovery and data security segments. Such companies don't have expertise but can give you stiff competition in positioning yourself in the market. We compete them by providing solutions with latest technology and enhanced features. Other antivirus software providers are also our competitors but we have an edge by providing feature rich products to the customer. The kind of product range we have in Antivirus, data recovery and data security, no single company has the same.

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What are the current activities? Which are the brands and products offered by the company?

We are now engaged in increasing our market reach. We have tied up with many B2C sites, which are directly or indirectly selling software solutions. This apart, the company is investing heavily in digital marketing to establish the brand Protegent. Soon you will find a lot of promotional activities in social media sites like Facebook, twitter, YouTube and Linkedin. The company is primarily promoting its Protegent and Quick Recovery range .

What are the future plans or roadmap of the company for this year?

Unistal is planning to launch its low edition Antivirus and Internet security products under the Protegent range. The company is all set to release these products in the month of August. The introduction of these products will definitely help in expanding the market. It will boost our product sales.

Any tie-ups in the pipeline to be announced in near future?

Unistal and HCL's Digilife Distribution and Marketing Services have recently announced their strategic partnership for the distribution of Unistal's entire product range. According to contract DDMS will be the national distributor for Unistal to promote and sell its complete range of antivirus, data security, data recovery and data care products. Under this program, Unistal will target metros, tier II and tier III cities to strengthen its presence across India.

Do you have any plans to increase the no. of employees or any expansion plans into other cities?

Since we are coming up with low edition Protegent, Antivirus and Internet security products, we would require more staff to deal with growing demand. Yes, we have plans to recruit sales and technical staff across pan India.

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