BakBone to set up tier-two channel network

After one and a half years of its presence in the country, storage management software company, BakBone, is now readying itself for
putting tier-two channel network in place. So far the company was working through
its SI partners: Apara, HCL and CMS. Now it is looking at appointing between 25 and 30 channel partners across seven major cities. These include the
metros and cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.

BakBone is also expected to soon announce the name of its national distributor. Talking about its channel strategy, Howard
Weiss, MD (APac), BakBone Software says, "We will be very selective while appointing our
partners and would largely target vertical-centric players. Keeping the channel base small will help us as well as our partners to grow
better." He believes that by focusing on key partners, the company would be able to
discourage internal competition.

He also informs about the company opening its offices in Bangalore and Delhi, apart from its existing Mumbai office. "In the
current fiscal, we plan to grow by at least 100%. Also, we are confident of increasing our
market share from about 5% last year to around 9% this year," states Howard.

BakBone sells NetVault range of storage management software and is strong on offering Linux-supporting solutions. "By offering solutions for open
standards based environments, we bring to the desk cost-effectiveness as well as capabilities for solutions to work in heterogeneous
environments. That's our biggest USP," remarks Howard.

GOLDIE

BANGALORE