"Channels are the ultimate drivers of our business"

Yugal Sharma is very clear about the strategy to follow to target Polycom's

products at the right customers. He has appointed convergence partners to take

video, voice, data and web conferencing as well as collaborative solutions to

large enterprises and corporates. Now he wants to set up an IT channel to market

the brand to SMEs and SOHO customers as well as professional customers like

doctors and travelers.

How is Polycom undertaking business development in India?



When we entered India in 2003, we charted out our primary market segments

and approached them with relevant products. Thus, we have decided on a set of

convergence partners, including Huwaei, Siemens, Godrej, Total Solutions and

Spyco Telesystems.

We will reach our large enterprise and corporate segment customers with them,

while also exploring SME and SOHO customers. Besides this, we have another

potential target base that includes the professional customers segment, which

constitutes doctors, travelers, and education and government undertakings. To

reach them, we are on the verge of appointing an all India distributor.

What is Polycom's objective behind having convergence partners and as

well as an IT channel base?



Convergence partners help us reach a selected segment of customers,

including large enterprises. Also their products they stocked were limited, as

they had to offer whatever their customers required. Polycom had a wide range of

video, voice, data and web conferencing and collaborative solutions and we knew

that the customer base is extensively broad.

This is precisely why we decided to establish an IT channel network, as it

not only allows us to reach the other half of our customer segment, but also

deepens our focus by reaching the smaller geographic locations, where

convergence partners have no presence. Since we intend to penetrate in to

B-class cities, having a channel network is imperative.

What strategy would you adopt to develop your channel network?



We intend to focus not just on the eight major cities, but would be equally

focusing on B- class cities. While in cities we would like to have five top

resellers along with two to three systems integrators, in B- class cities we

intend to have at least two to three resellers to start with.

As the business expands, we would like to scale up further there by adding

requisite number of resellers and systems integrators. We will keep updating on

the product range. The IT channel is the ultimate driver for our business, as

partners will be able to take our product to the requisite customer.

On what basis will Polycom choose its distributor?



Since we have a network of convergence partners who are individually present

in more than 25 locations, we would look forward having a distributor with

pan-India presence. Globally, we have Ingram Micro as our distributor for the

markets including the US, UK, Singapore and others. We are on the verge of

finalizing to appoint an all-India distributor. Though we have finalized on the

distributor, we are expecting to formally sign the agreement in the next few

weeks.

Is Polycom initiating any exclusive product awareness programs for the

channel?



We need to constantly keep them updated with our products. Traditionally, we

would like to initiate training programs to outline the overall product

portfolio, equipping the pre-sales and technical support staff that our

technology offers. While these programs would be conducted on a periodical

basis, we also have a global channel conference.

To further the relationship with the channel network and to keep the

interactions going, we would be taking a selected lot of the channel base to the

annual conference in the US. Alternately, schemes, and other incentive-based

benefits will also be provided.

SUNITHA NATTI



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