'We will offer a perfect synergy of quality, support and service.'

Sydney-based Greg Palmer, has been leading Dataram International's business development team as the GM, Asia, since 1997. In his 20 years of IT career, Greg has worked with a number of multinational companies in different capacities for project management, systems integration, customer service and sales. Greg was in Bangalore to study the market and also to ensure that Dataram was well- represented in the Indian memory arena. In an exclusive interview with DQCI he outlines the company's initiatives for the Indian market.

What kind of opportunities do you see for Dataram in India?

Traditionally, Dataram has been very strong in the high-end server market, Sun workstations, SGI and high-end Intel servers. Following the union of Hypertech, Memory Card Technology (MCT) and Dataram, we now have the industry's widest memory range. 

We see enormous opportunities for Dataram in the Indian marketplace, as we can address every segment in the memory space. Today we have an offering in the top-end range and this is the most exciting part for Dataram and our Indian business partners, Signet Computers. 

Dataram made its presence felt for the first time when Hypertech joined forces with Signet in the year 1997. Since then we have worked very closely with Signet and the relationship has continued to flourish throughout the evolution of Hypertech into

Dataram. 

When did Dataram acquire MCT?

Dataram acquired MCT, a Denmark-based leading European designer and manufacturer of memory upgrades, earlier in March this year. The acquisition significantly expanded Denmark's product line and market presence worldwide. 

With the acquisition of MCT, Dataram has advanced its penetration of the European, Latin American and the Pacific-rim markets with state-of-the-art manufacturing and extensive sales presence, while broadening its product line. 

The synergy between the two companies, Dataram and MCT has resulted in the expansion of worldwide sales and increased manufacturing capabilities. Cross-selling and broadening global purchases of the two companies have also presented newer opportunities for Dataram worldwide.

What kind of distribution model do you have now?

Dataram has appointed Bangalore-based Signet Computers as the authorized sole distributor for its products in India. Signet will distribute the entire range of Dataram PCs and server memory products. 

We will also work closely with the company to identify and secure large volume strategic business for high-end workstations, mission-critical network servers and advanced desktop and notebook computers.

We are delighted to be able to address the Indian market through Signet as this enables us to combine quality products with outstanding local service and support. Signet Computers has specialized in memory products over the last four years and Dataram is a world leader in memory manufacture. The synergy could not be healthier. 

Signet Computers has emerged as a reliable and dependable associate to the IT sector, providing high-level support to customers who are industry leaders such as Infosys, Cisco, IBM, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Coca Cola, Ericsson and

Siemens.

Currently Signet has offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Delhi and a marketing office in Mumbai. Each of these offices have a built-in network of 50 resellers in the country. 

Do you intend to have a direct presence in the country?

We are very happy with the relationship and support that we currently enjoy with Signet and we don't see any reason to change it. We will continue to work with our distributor and assist them in their growth and expansion in the country. 

However, if there is a business opportunity and if it makes sense to do so, then we would plan to have a direct presence. However, currently we don't have any such plans. 

How important is the Indian market in terms of revenue growth and market share for

Dataram? 

Indian market is very important to us. We believe that India is one of the fast growing IT countries in the world. The proliferation of software technology parks and the increasing presence of MNCs provides numerous business opportunities for companies like Dataram and Signet. India amounts to almost 25 percent of our Asian revenue, which is good and we plan to enhance it further. 

What is your overall strategy and plans for the Indian market?

We are conscious of building Dataram product awareness in India. Our primary focus is to provide quality add-on services to the entire range of products that we offer in the Indian market. Currently the Indian market is flooded with several products. But most of these brands lack the most crucial factor that determines growth. And that is value-added services and support.

We will offer a perfect synergy of quality, support and service for the Indian market.

How have RAMs evolved over the years and what are the trends that are likely to emerge in the near future?

Way back when Dataram started manufacturing memory modules, 16 MB or 32 MB was a lot of memory. Then came the DRAM, SDRAM and the current trend in the industry is Rambus DDR, all of which are manufactured at Dataram. Today the bulk of our business is in the upgrade market. 

So it's very important that we specialize not just in the current trends, but also offer all the top-set memories as well. This will help users upgrade their machines to gain more memory capacity so that they can take advantage of the new applications, which are memory hungry.

Today we offer a full range of memory products, right from the leading-edge to legacy modules. Currently the user trend is moving towards

DDR.

Sunila Paul in Bangalore